I like your verbose dissections of each episode. If you have to have an obsession, you chose a good one. ;)
It really is such an awesome show. I never would have guessed that a sitcom would become my favorite TV show. I used to be all about the hour-long drama, mostly genre stuff. Star Trek, Angel, ER, Battlestar Galactica, Gilmore Girls, LOST. Those were my shows. And then suddenly Parks and Rec happened, and the hour-long stuff just doesn't seem that great anymore. I think the Parks and Rec writers are spoiling the rest of TV for me. ;)
I also agree that this was probably the best episode of the season so far. It makes me that much more eager to see what's coming next. Can it be Thursday yet?
I'd respond to more particulars, but baby is crying. Sigh. A mother's work is never done.
Good, I'm glad there are people who get something out of reading them, because otherwise I would feel so silly writing them. I have never gotten obsessive over any kind of television show before ... although maybe I would have at some point if I had discovered the allure of fanfiction sooner. But Parks is special too.
I’m struggling to process what that means. It seems so accepted, by people in the fandom, by Leslie’s friends on the show, by Leslie herself, that she wouldn’t sacrifice her career for a guy. And I’m not entirely sure of that. Leslie’s ambitious, but she’s also impulsive, and she seems to put her friendships above anything else in her life.Thank you so much for saying this, because this is something I'm kind of struggling with too wrt to Leslie's priorities. And I think *she's* struggling with it. Her ambition is an important part of who she is, and her career is hugely important to her. But I think over and over again she's been shown to put her friendships above her work (or at least above her personal ambitions). And Ben is both a very good friend and a romantic interest. And that's just so special and rare and Leslie's just starting to really get that now. She's getting that losing Ben-the-boyfriend could also mean losing Ben-the-friend and both of these could be permanent losses. Is it worth it? If they could somehow find
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The situation that the show presented basically forced her to make a choice that under any other circumstance she wouldn't have made: she would have tried to have it all. But that wasn't an option at the time so she made the only rational choice she could have. But now I really think that this storyline is headed in the direction of her reevaluating that choice - again, not in the sense that she's going to pick Ben over the campaign, but that maybe she's going to realize that she's going to have to figure out how to have them both. Leslie's at her best, personally and professionally, when her career and her relationships are in sync and I want to see that realization play out on screen. I want Parks to undercut this whole false "career vs. relationship" dichotomy that popular culture has promulgated by letting Leslie fight to have *both.* I think there's something really powerful in recognizing that a person's life is made up of so many interwoven elements that placing these two crucial aspects (work/ambition and family/
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"I want Parks to undercut this whole false "career vs. relationship" dichotomy that popular culture has promulgated by letting Leslie fight to have *both.*"
Thank you for writing this! I agree, I think it would be more a matter of her trying to have it all than of her choosing Ben over the campaign. "Rather it's about figuring out how she can configure her life so that all of these elements, which are all interconnected." I really like this sentiment. Maybe it's because I'm old and married and therefore used to the compromises that couples make to accommodate each other and how that tends to even out over the time so that both people can be happy ... If they're serious about being together, they can figure out how to be together. If Leslie just detaches the "if" from "this is something real" ... I think Ben would be totally willing to work with her to figure that out, and that would just as likely lead to him altering his career path slightly to accommodate her ambitions. The reason I think neither had the guts to have that conversation was that they hadn't been together for very long, so that might have been a little crazy. But if Leslie gets to the point where she can be more decisive
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Oh, yeah, Galentine's Day. Such a great episode. I love that April moment.
You're right, no Ben/Shauna in this universe. I wouldn't want to see Leslie hurting. I'm just weirdly intrigued by the idea.
I think there is far less "poor Leslie" mostly because she got something good out the breakup--she gets to go after her dream--and, she has so many other strong friendships in Pawnee. She seemed to be dealing okay with it until recently. But it's still a breakup, and breakups suck, and I definitely felt the "poor Leslie" feelings in this episode. Was it you that made the point that Leslie could have been hurt that he gave her up so willingly? I thought that was really interesting and possible.
Thank you for coming over and being thinky with me! I love reading what other people have to say.
I have been thinking a lot about Andy and April with kids since you brought it up. (Why? Why am I thinking about the undermined future of two fictional character? This is what this show does to me!) I can totally see them with kids, maybe ten years down the road. For all of April's apathy and outward disdain for her family, I think she is the type who will turn out to have internalized a lot of her parents' values and want to raise kids. I hope, of course, that she will still be as weird as ever as a mom (and I think her parents must be a little weird themselves to have raised TWO daughters like April) but I don't think she'd be a terrible mother. I think she and Andy would actually make very good, loving parents. April will probably never be president of the PTA or go power walking with other moms but Andy would totally coach Little League
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I justify thinking so much about fictional characters because of the fic writing--you have to flesh them out in your head so that you can write convincingly about them, right? Not that I've written April/Andy fic. So probably that's just my excuse. But I'm fascinated the things that soften April or contradict her outward apathetic self, so the idea that the thought has even crossed her mind that maybe someday they would have kids ... that's just fascinating to me. I like the idea, though.
I've also wondered if they're being deliberate about the friendship stories, laying the groundwork for later in the season when she's rethinking her priorities, either regarding Ben, or the parks department in general ... it should be interesting to see how that plays out.
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It really is such an awesome show. I never would have guessed that a sitcom would become my favorite TV show. I used to be all about the hour-long drama, mostly genre stuff. Star Trek, Angel, ER, Battlestar Galactica, Gilmore Girls, LOST. Those were my shows. And then suddenly Parks and Rec happened, and the hour-long stuff just doesn't seem that great anymore. I think the Parks and Rec writers are spoiling the rest of TV for me. ;)
I also agree that this was probably the best episode of the season so far. It makes me that much more eager to see what's coming next. Can it be Thursday yet?
I'd respond to more particulars, but baby is crying. Sigh. A mother's work is never done.
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god. yes.
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You're right, no Ben/Shauna in this universe. I wouldn't want to see Leslie hurting. I'm just weirdly intrigued by the idea.
I think there is far less "poor Leslie" mostly because she got something good out the breakup--she gets to go after her dream--and, she has so many other strong friendships in Pawnee. She seemed to be dealing okay with it until recently. But it's still a breakup, and breakups suck, and I definitely felt the "poor Leslie" feelings in this episode. Was it you that made the point that Leslie could have been hurt that he gave her up so willingly? I thought that was really interesting and possible.
Thank you for coming over and being thinky with me! I love reading what other people have to say.
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I've also wondered if they're being deliberate about the friendship stories, laying the groundwork for later in the season when she's rethinking her priorities, either regarding Ben, or the parks department in general ... it should be interesting to see how that plays out.
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