Parks and Recreation

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domino harvey
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#226 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jul 16, 2015 12:49 pm

Final season scored a surprise nom for Best Series, and Poehler as expected, but Offerman again, along with the rest of the supporting cast, failed to be nominated

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domino harvey
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Re: Parks and Recreation

#227 Post by domino harvey » Thu Nov 05, 2015 3:13 pm

TBS is employing "creative" marketing for Rashida Jones' Angie Tribeca, renewing it before it airs for ten more seasons of one episode each


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domino harvey
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Re: Parks and Recreation

#229 Post by domino harvey » Sun May 10, 2020 2:50 am

This is up on YT and was a cute hybrid of fan service references and a PSA, with one legit great line courtesy of Gerry, who tells us
SpoilerShow
Pawnee had to “cancel its annual Lick and Pass Popsicle Festival”
and some good laffs along the way from Jamm, Perd, and Joan. Weirdly, Poehler fares worst in the Grizz-Skype format as her lines often sound like cold readings. Also, Rob Lowe is turning into a cat. Completely unnecessary, but it was nice to see everyone again.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#230 Post by knives » Wed Nov 11, 2020 6:57 pm

Decided to binge this to get through progress reports and man, it’s so easy to forget how bad that first season is, but I also don’t think it it as bad as people make it out to be. Knope is the biggest problem here as they clearly don’t know what to do with her yet as she’s inconsistently dumb and generally ill defined. I’m so glad they eventually got rid of Mark though who is just a lead balloon. Tom is weirdly, probably the best defined with a lot of what you’d expect from him already here.

The season starts to kind of pick up with Boy’s Club which is the first juicy role for Ron whose relationship is clarified with Leslie in a way that the series would really run away with. It’s also the first episode to have a strong B-story allowing Andy to be more then just the obnoxious ruiner of success. So while the short season probably did help I think we see the beginning of that success by the half way point here.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#231 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Nov 11, 2020 8:44 pm

I won't deny that Mark is a "lead balloon" but I still really like his character and he served a great deadpan purpose that mirrors as a walking gag of an externally-categorized 'really good looking guy' who isn't particularly interesting or 'active' asserting his personality into earning the affection that comes his way. I generally find it funny when energies don't match up in social engagements as a brew for situational comedy, but his often silent body can double as an ironic outcast who doesn't have the wit to be a deserving participant in the fun even if he's superficially got the stamp of the popular traits- and by existing awkwardly in a swamp of loud personas, somehow making off with consistent romantic 'wins' without skill, his presence adds another great shade to the detailed quirky community portrayed. Also, though it requires context, Mark is reminiscent of Schneider's excellent perf in All the Real Girls where this character was given depth, but here is turned inside out to shrug at as a cameo in a more intellectually and emotionally attractive world.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#232 Post by knives » Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:02 pm

You’re not wrong, and maybe if given more time he would have developed into an interesting character, but as is he comes off as a rough draft that would be improved upon with Ben and Chris, with Tom already doing the ladies man thing much more effectively, so his passive cynic routine isn’t as engaging as the show around him.

I also admit that I don’t know Schneider from anything else.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#233 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:38 pm

knives wrote:
Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:02 pm
You’re not wrong, and maybe if given more time he would have developed into an interesting character, but as is he comes off as a rough draft that would be improved upon with Ben and Chris, with Tom already doing the ladies man thing much more effectively, so his passive cynic routine isn’t as engaging as the show around him.
Yeah absolutely, my point is that he still has a place as that other comedic ingredient that works for me not because he's a passive cynic, but because, as you say, his "passive cynic routine isn’t as engaging as the show around him" which makes the person-in-environment objectivity funny in a different way than his vapid persona without it. I totally acknowledge that on his own terms in a vacuum he's a waste of space (while plenty of the other characters, in their time alone with the camera, shine independently as well as collectively), but that's not how the show operates for his function.
knives wrote:
Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:02 pm
I also admit that I don’t know Schneider from anything else.
I highly recommend you check out David Gordon Green's first two feature films then!

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#234 Post by knives » Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:59 pm

I totally forgot he was in George Washington, though I’m indifferent to it.

I do think Andy is a good example of them needing to work on a character before having him be something great. Especially in season 2 his story is depressing and creepy. It took them a long while to fix Andy and I’m curious if Mark could have been the same way.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#235 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Nov 11, 2020 10:27 pm

Yeah it’s possible, though I actually think in his case it’s different, due to what I find successful about his role in shining entirely by proxy he actually became more annoying as they tried to develop him. On revisits I liked Mark more in the earlier eps when he’s in the background just existing, seemingly ignorant and excluded from the fun around him.

Also I think you have probably seen Schneider in other bit parts in Cafe Society and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, but his best supporting role is far and away in Elizabethtown, where he runs away with the most laughs especially as he tries to explain his prioritization for education as a parent.

All the Real Girls is my favorite Green film by a long shot though, and he’s a big reason why, so I highly recommend it. Such a bold depiction of relationships’ murky waters without trying to moralize or even understand anything beyond the feelings. His reactions specifically in a later scene when he’s trying to comprehend an action of Zooey’s is painfully accurate in how little it makes ‘sense’ as a response in cinematic terms.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#236 Post by knives » Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:24 am

I think you're mostly right, but I would argue rather then characterization making Mark worse it more revealed he had the wrong comic energy for a lead. He's better at being a quiet disrupter like in the digging up dirt episode and so the attempts to make him a male lead 'Jim' type character just left a bland taste in the mouth.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#237 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:55 am

Yeah definitely, my argument was never that he was a good “lead” just that his purpose was notably successful in creating a situational layer of comedy that’s less visible than his surface-level flaws as an independent character, and frankly because of them. Fitting into the ensemble, through not fitting in. Going back to your original post, I agree that he should probably have moved on from the show with his function briefly emerging as that questionable ‘lead’ role, but the writers removed him from the spotlight enough where his character didn’t feel particularly egregious to me. I don’t think his outcast brand of social placement could have lasted the test of time e.g. Jerry though, even if Mark’s service was an anti-version of that trope, and so he felt fresher and intelligently-used contextually for most of his brief run.

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knives
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Re: Parks and Recreation

#238 Post by knives » Sat Nov 14, 2020 7:41 pm

The opening to season 3 is amazing for how much of a look to the past of television it is.

Also, as an update on the Mark conversation it really did feel like on rewatch they finally figured out how to handle him with the last few appearances really working. Oh well.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#239 Post by knives » Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:50 am

Got to say my favorite thing about this rewatch is seeing the growth of Pawnee as a character. Not only did it start off as a generic small town and develop into this strange and fantastical one, but so many of the jokes and characters seem born from the question of who would live in a Bloomington suburb. Characters from the background coming to life and being so thoroughly developed like the pawn shop owner or regional specific characters like Chief Ken become so familiar that the humor need not be joke specific so much as playing and confirming with our expectations. I mean, just look at The Douche which is a sentence I never thought I’d write.

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TraverseTown
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 4:38 am

Re: Parks and Recreation

#240 Post by TraverseTown » Thu Nov 19, 2020 1:40 pm

I’d argue the void left from Mark’s “straight man” character was filled more completely by Rashida Jones than by Adam Scott who is often credited with that.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#241 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Nov 19, 2020 1:50 pm

TraverseTown wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 1:40 pm
I’d argue the void left from Mark’s “straight man” character was filled more completely by Rashida Jones than by Adam Scott who is often credited with that.
I agree with you as far as having that character that we care about and invest in as a charismatic semi-comic straight lead, and Scott more fills that 'Mark' void of a fish-out-of-water straight man in a kooky town. Mark was more successful at the latter, and Scott's character becomes his own brand of weird which doesn't quite fill those shoes so much as redefines them on his own terms. Jones is absolutely filling the role that's needed and sparking storylines that allow her to flex those comic muscles and self-actualize into her own kind of strange without disrupting the character's essence.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Parks and Recreation

#242 Post by knives » Thu Nov 19, 2020 1:57 pm

Yeah, I think she’s more successful as a straight man replacement, but Mark was asked to wear a lot of hats at first.

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