when i eat, it is the food that is scared
It is probably time for an entry that doesn't suck. So can we talk about Parks and Recreation?
THIS FUCKING SHOW
We started watching it just kind of as "the thing we put on when we eat dinner and have other things to do later (and thus don't want to get into something really *involved*) because Sev is brainless from a long day of work and needs a pretty thing on the teevee to help her brainstems all untangle." And Season 1 was basically that -- it was good, it was funny, but it wasn't OH MY GOD FOREVER level. It was kind of just a silly show. We kept watching through Season 2 - for me, probably because of Ron Swanson and Tom Haverford - and then somewhere, I don't even remember where, towards the end of S2 or the beginning of S3, the show hooked me. Crept up on me. Suddenly: Invested in every one of the characters, enjoying every episode.
We got to the end of Season 3 on Netflix and I immediately, um, "acquired" what I could of Season 4. (Last night we finished up until 4.15 -- the one with all the cops in it XD) AND I THOUGHT THE PREVIOUS SEASONS WERE GOOD: Season 4 is absolutely fucking hilarious. Absolutely. Fucking. Hilarious.
Tonight I need to attempt to get my hands on the rest of Season 4, and for fucking real, I want to figure out how to hook up my VCR so that I can record this show. (SHUT UP.)
Because otherwise this entry will be a million words long and completely incoherent, I shall make a list of the things that I like about it.
The only thing I have trouble with on this show is -- okay, the levels of awkward. I have a mild-to-medium embarrassment squick, and there have been points in the show where half of me is laughing and half of me is legitimately cringing at the awkwardness. But -- it's that kind of show; it's awkward and silly and focuses on embarrassing, forthright, intimate personal stuff. And that kind of thing is funny to a lot of people. So just because it can be very hard for *me* to watch doesn't mean that it's a complaint. It just treads close to a line that's hard for me. Like, the scene with them walking out onto the ice rink towards that stage? I realize that was probably supposed to be a hilarious scene, but it was so well done that it made me actually tense up. WHILE LAUGHING, of course, but. It still did. I am dumb, okay, I just have issues processing embarrassment humor. It doesn't change the fact that a) the show is great and b) 14 out of 15 episodes are harmless in this regard.
Anyway. It's also cool to have found a show that I really legitimately like that is just happy and silly, and is about nice people I would actually like to hang out with probably, while still being intelligent enough to enjoy and funny enough to laugh out loud. Previous shows I've made points to watch include Criminal Minds (pretty twisted content/material/drama, also tries to be serious when it is a procedural crime drama), Always Sunny (which is hilarious, but every character is an absolute asshole... which again is part of the humor), um does Sherlock count (darker, much more ~srs~)? IDEK.
I DON'T KNOW. TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS PEOPLE
This entry was originally posted at http://seventhe.dreamwidth.org/310227.html, which has
comments. Comment there (with OpenID) or here, it's all good.
THIS FUCKING SHOW
We started watching it just kind of as "the thing we put on when we eat dinner and have other things to do later (and thus don't want to get into something really *involved*) because Sev is brainless from a long day of work and needs a pretty thing on the teevee to help her brainstems all untangle." And Season 1 was basically that -- it was good, it was funny, but it wasn't OH MY GOD FOREVER level. It was kind of just a silly show. We kept watching through Season 2 - for me, probably because of Ron Swanson and Tom Haverford - and then somewhere, I don't even remember where, towards the end of S2 or the beginning of S3, the show hooked me. Crept up on me. Suddenly: Invested in every one of the characters, enjoying every episode.
We got to the end of Season 3 on Netflix and I immediately, um, "acquired" what I could of Season 4. (Last night we finished up until 4.15 -- the one with all the cops in it XD) AND I THOUGHT THE PREVIOUS SEASONS WERE GOOD: Season 4 is absolutely fucking hilarious. Absolutely. Fucking. Hilarious.
Tonight I need to attempt to get my hands on the rest of Season 4, and for fucking real, I want to figure out how to hook up my VCR so that I can record this show. (SHUT UP.)
Because otherwise this entry will be a million words long and completely incoherent, I shall make a list of the things that I like about it.
- FACE ACTING. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS. Every single actor on this show is a fucking master of the face acting. Seriously, everyone's face. Ron's face any time anyone makes a suggestion he thinks is stupid. Leslie's amazing faces when she is trying to pretend she doesn't care about something. Tom's smiling Haverface. April's eyes rolling. BEN'S FUCKING FACE, ALL OF THE FUCKING TIME. This show must have face acting coaches, or if they do not, they all need to hire themselves out as amazing face actors.
- LESLIE KNOPE. An amazing, competent, funny female lead? with actual agency? who is still allowed to have flaws, and be imperfect, and be funny, and be amazing and have dreams? Do I need to talk about how awesome this is or should I just endorse ten beers into my mouth right now.
- RON FUCKING SWANSON. He might be the funniest character ever. JFC every single thing. I can't even. I adore him. You may have all of my bacon.
- RON AND LESLIE. I fucking love their model of totally platonic grownup BFFs. Even with all of the ways they fundamentally disagree -- maybe in spite of that! There are so many subtle clues about how well they get each other -- I'm thinking of Ron on the riddles/scavenger hunt, Leslie setting up Ron's birthday with the steak and movies alone, Ron trying to make that goddamn gingerbread model of the office -- these are two people who are amazing friends with each other on an amazing level, and there's never even a hint of sexual tension there. I absolutely adore it.
- LESLIE AND ANN. What an awesome representation of a healthy, realistic, mature female friendship. As a certified Fan Of The Ladies (TM), this is an awesome thing to find. One of the things I also love about Criminal Minds is the way the ladies on that show are portrayed as having strong bonds, strong friendships; it's portrayed in a different way here, since P&R is in a totally different vibe than CM, but I'm overjoyed to see it.
- LESLIE AND BEN. CAN WE TALK ABOUT LESLIE AND BEN. I have a very unfortunate crush on Ben Wyatt's face, but this is one of the most awesome het relationship portrayals. I want to say "ever" but I haven't watched a ton of sitcommy shows so I'm not even sure if I can say that; but in most of the ones I've braindeadedly watched, many of the het pairings just leave me going "oh god" or "ugh". Leslie and Ben are amazing; they both care for each other so much and support each other so much, and they are actually legitimately good for each other. Yay!
- APRIL AND ANDY. JFC. I adore April. I adore Andy. They are both gut-bustingly hilarious. I love how fucking happy they are with each other and with their stupid not-adult lifestyle and how actually devoted to each other's shit they are. I actually can't decide which one is funnier.
- TOM FUCKING HAVERFORD. Fucking swag. Long ass rice. Pre-birds. Tom's goddamn face. Jean-Ralphio, oh my god. Everything Tom does is so over-the-top ridiculous and even though sometimes it's frustrating as a viewer - like when he took over Leslie's event with E720 advertising, I kept hoping she was just going to rip into him because wow, I was so angry *for* her, but it just ended up showing what an awesome caring person Leslie is, and I don't know I still fucking love Tom anyway because he is hilarious as shit.
- BEN AND CHRIS. *LITerally* amazing. I actually kind of like the little background thread going on in S4 about how much Chris seems to miss Ben; they are great foils to each other, and they really know one another and seem to care about each other. And again, it's done being so over-the-top that it isn't over-the-top. Ben totally snuck up on me, going from "Ha he's alright kind of funny" to "Jesus Christ I die every time he is on the screen", and Chris is similar: at first he was just kind of an interesting thing going on and now I really want him to be as happy as he seems.
- OH MY GOD THIS LIST IS ALREADY TOO LONG AND I'M JUST TALKING ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
- TREAT YO'SELF. The Batman suit. Give me all of the bacon and eggs that you have. Every song that Andy writes ever. okay jesus i'm going to stop
The only thing I have trouble with on this show is -- okay, the levels of awkward. I have a mild-to-medium embarrassment squick, and there have been points in the show where half of me is laughing and half of me is legitimately cringing at the awkwardness. But -- it's that kind of show; it's awkward and silly and focuses on embarrassing, forthright, intimate personal stuff. And that kind of thing is funny to a lot of people. So just because it can be very hard for *me* to watch doesn't mean that it's a complaint. It just treads close to a line that's hard for me. Like, the scene with them walking out onto the ice rink towards that stage? I realize that was probably supposed to be a hilarious scene, but it was so well done that it made me actually tense up. WHILE LAUGHING, of course, but. It still did. I am dumb, okay, I just have issues processing embarrassment humor. It doesn't change the fact that a) the show is great and b) 14 out of 15 episodes are harmless in this regard.
Anyway. It's also cool to have found a show that I really legitimately like that is just happy and silly, and is about nice people I would actually like to hang out with probably, while still being intelligent enough to enjoy and funny enough to laugh out loud. Previous shows I've made points to watch include Criminal Minds (pretty twisted content/material/drama, also tries to be serious when it is a procedural crime drama), Always Sunny (which is hilarious, but every character is an absolute asshole... which again is part of the humor), um does Sherlock count (darker, much more ~srs~)? IDEK.
I DON'T KNOW. TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS PEOPLE
This entry was originally posted at http://seventhe.dreamwidth.org/310227.html, which has
comments. Comment there (with OpenID) or here, it's all good.