The Messy Messy Parks and Recreation Timeline

[jncar]

I'm sure I'm not the only fan writer in Parks and Rec fandom to be utterly baffled/frustrated/annoyed when trying to figure out the timeline of the show since Ben and Chris arrived. The whole mess derives from the fact that the makers of the show thought they'd be airing in the Autumn of 2010, but were bumped back to mid-season instead

Comments

[rikyl]

Oh my god my head hurts, but I love you for doing this, because it's such a mess, and I've always wanted to see if we could force the puzzle pieces to fit.

I'm with you that there's NO WAY Harvest Festival happened in late winter/early spring in the Midwest. But I've made my peace with the fact that it did indeed happen that way, only because of the forced hiatus, and we just have to suspend disbelief. If I remember right the promotional Harvest Festival info on the NBC web site (not that that's an infallible source) refers to it as the 2011 Harvest Festival. So I assumed the biggest time gaps happened early in season 3 (hence the five months Chris and Ann dated) and that the smaller time gaps happened later (one month between RT2 and Fancy Party, three weeks from Fancy Party to Jerry's Painting). And I guess you're right, Ben must have switched motels at some point.

I wish they were being more careful with their timeline mentions in season 4 now though. May 12 to early December is not "off and on for a year"! Unless they were counting the flirting as part of their year, and maybe thought it made them sound more like a serious couple than "six weeks last spring and three days just now."

[jncar]

I'm with you that there's NO WAY Harvest Festival happened in late winter/early spring in the Midwest. But I've made my peace with the fact that it did indeed happen that way, only because of the forced hiatus, and we just have to suspend disbelief. If I remember right the promotional Harvest Festival info on the NBC web site (not that that's an infallible source) refers to it as the 2011 Harvest Festival.

I totally get where you're coming from here, and I can see why some fic writers would just go with this timeline, because, yes, it is the one that makes all the contradictory statements from season 3 vs. season 4 makes sense. But I feel like this was a corner that NBC backed Schur and company into, and it was not their original intent. So I chose to base my timeline off of what was clearly their original intent, because my brain simply refuses to accept the possibility of warm days and green corn mazes in February. I just can't do it.

I can willing suspend disbelief over contradictory statements and a mysterious 3-month gap way easier than I can over changing the weather patterns and growing seasons for an entire state.

[rikyl]

That makes sense. But I remember Schur saying that they wanted Leslie to act on her feelings right away once Ben decided to stay, because she's not a shrinking violet. It just seems to make more sense to me for their actions and characters that things happened slowly in the beginning when they didn't know each other well, and progressed a more believably human rate once they started to flirt.

[jncar]

Yeah. In my mind, it made the most sense for there to be a time-gap between "Jerry's Painting" and "Eagleton," during which they both knew they liked each other and wanted to date, but weren't sure they were willing to risk their jobs for it. Then they finally hit their breaking point in "Road Trip."

But then they had to go and give Chris that line about Leslie kissing Tom in March, and it screwed up that whole theory. If they just left that darn line out, both plot and character development would fit so much better!

[sullen_aquarian]

I say we just ignore the line and blame it on Chris eating too much/not enough St. John's Wort.

This is totally like Scully's 12-month pregnancy on the X-Files, which included Mulder getting buried in North Carolina in early fall, with snow on the ground.

[jncar]

:D

Sounds good to me.

[rikyl]

If only they would consult us on this stuff. Don't they know they have this whole working think tank devoted to this sort of thing?

[rikyl]

And about the corner they backed the writers into, I like to believe that if they could film the first few episodes of season 3 over again they would have named the festival something different, and not had a corn maze. But I think of those as more cosmetic things that I can more easily ignore, like the fact that Amy was pregnant. Inconvenient but out of their control.

[jncar]

Yes to all this. If only we had a time machine...

[knope2012]

In my head-canon, I've decided Leslie told Chris that they had been dating on and off for a year consciously knowing it's been less time because making it sound longer than it really was 1) makes the relationship sound more serious/shows that ending the relationship isn't an option for them and 2) strengthens their argument that they were sneaking around for a long time but were so subtle that no one noticed/it didn't affect their work.

At least that's how I've decided to justify it. Plus, linguistically it's less jarring to the ear to say a year than the specify exact amounts of months.

[sullen_aquarian]

I agree. Plus, they were flirty friends long before they started dating--it wasn't a romantic relationship, but it was definitely something.

[annakovsky]

maybe thought it made them sound more like a serious couple than "six weeks last spring and three days just now."

Ahahahahahaha, oh my God, for realsies. I am also totally wanking it to myself as them trying to sound more serious, but it is ridic.

[sassynach]

I love your icon. :)

[jncar]

I edited my original post to include your perspective here, because it's every bit as valid a choice for fic writers as the one I came up with.

[rikyl]

Oh, thanks. Although now I also like the version where we ignore Chris's comment that puts Soulmates in March and have the time gap as you suggested before Eagleton, because that's a wonderful opening for sexual tension fic and makes sense. It seems like we have to ignore something no matter what, and ignoring Chris seems like a good way to go in general.

Also now I want a Brigadoon AU that pokes fun at the magical weird properties of time in Pawnee. Do you know the old movie that has a couple guys stumbling upon this weird little town that only appears for one day out of every 100 years, one of them falls for a local woman and has to decide whether to stay?