Why Parks and Recreation is Different, and Better
Charlie and I were sitting around watching Parks and Rec this weekend, and I happened upon just what makes this show so different from other sitcoms, and why it is so much better.
Every sitcom since The Honeymooners has been driven by character tension and conflict. I Love Lucy would not have been funny if Lucy never pissed Ricky off. If Jerry was an understanding, patient, well-adjusted guy, who would have ever watched Seinfeld. Tension breading humor has been the prevailing equation since the 1950’s. Parks and Recreation has gone, very successfully, against the grain.
Everyone, for the most part, gets along great with each other on PnR. The show has been credited for creating the “comedy of positivism”. Of course, there is narrative struggle, without which there would be no story. For example, in Season 1, Leslie struggles with her feelings for Mark. They had a past romantic relationship (a drunken one-night stand), and struggle with a one-sided sexual tension. On any other show, this would result in constant mean-spirited humiliations to derive humor. Not so in the PnR world. Mark and Leslie go on to be great friends. In fact, Leslie sets him up with her best friend Ann, who was also a former source of conflict for Leslie with whom she befriended. This is a theme on the show. Thus, I arrive at the root of what makes this show so different.
Parks and Recreation is at its funniest when everyone is getting along, and can work together to solve their problems. This is played out time and time again. The gang coming to Ron’s aid (3 times) when the Tammys come to call. The gang filling in for Leslie when she’s sick, etc…
To my point, in the current fourth season of the show, the tension has been ratcheted up between Leslie and Ben, who have been forced to split due to Leslie’s campaign for city council. The show has been decidedly less funny, but more emotionally compelling.
All this serves to make the laughs on this show more genuine, in that you are rooting for the characters in everything they do, because they are rooting for each other. I’d love to see Elain ever root for George in trying to do anything.
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charlieolvera reblogged this from cavecityoutlaw and added:
This is my friend John’s Tumblr. He is new to Tumblr, but he is old hat at thinking good thoughts about awesome things....
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