I wasn’t sure how this year’s Parks & Rec would play out with most of season centered on Leslie Knope’s election bid for city council of Pawnee. It turns out that the outcome was especially important to Leslie, as Pawnee city law states that if there is a tie, a male candidate is elected and a woman candidate would be thrown in jail. This is consistent with Pawnee history, as faithful viewers know and love.
So stakes were high.
But more importantly, there was a brief moment in the season finale that cemented Leslie Knope as one of the great lead characters in sitcoms past or present. She steps into the voting booth, pauses, and then punches in her own name, with tears in her eyes as she realizes a dream, one that viewers have come to not just recognize but to feel along with her. We don’t get to see a character with this much bare sincerity on a comedy too often. There was no joke – except for Bobby Newport in the booth next door not comprehending how to vote – it was a character achieving a noble lifelong dream. I crossed my fingers that they would play this one straight, not having her accidentally mark in the porn star next to her name on the ballot… and then they followed through with purity to the character. Leslie Knope really deserved this moment, and so did we, for watching it build over the seasons.
Knope campaign team absorbed in broadcast of election results.
The short scene sums up everything that the series has done right since its season two turnaround to establish Leslie Knope from an idiotic, ambitious, but clueless bureaucrat to an over-eager, over-earnest, sometimes wildly misguided, manically hardworking, and almost always well-intentioned political dreamer ready to risk and sacrifice to become a real politician: to serve the people, even the people of Pawnee, who have the most revolting manner of drinking from water fountains imaginable.
Amy Poehler and the writers make it work for real, and I was so happy to see such a genuine, private, moving moment from a character who we’ve previously seen steal and overdose on flu medicine to make a public candidacy appearance, get drunk on a practice first date and then show up at her date’s house drunk that same night, and get into a public brawl over Parker Posey’s snooty character feeding waffles to a dog to get it to poop.
Toward the end of the finale, I wasn’t sure that I cared whether she won or lost because she’d already proven herself to me one way or the other. She’d made the final turn around the corner from season one. Thank you Michael Shur (and maybe Greg Daniels) for writing the close of the campaign.
I don’t know where the show will take her now. I will miss the campaign, especially 
Paul Rudd’s Bobby Newport, the dim-witted, silver-spoon opponent, and Kathryn Hahn’s Jennifer Barkley, Newport’s ruthless, jaded careerist political advisor. It speaks to the writing of the show that both these characters sound despicable on paper but come off as borderline likable (though not sympathetic), and most certainly succeed as two wildly different but precise comedic foils for Leslie and her political passion.
In the end, I didn’t really care whether it was win, lose, or draw. I loved the finale, the pinnacle being a decidedly non-comic moment. Win.
How do I find a Leslie Knope to vote for in real life?
Doris W.
mrlousy
Raúl Zingle
Raul I concur. A season finale can ruin or reward faithful viewing and tv dorks like ourselves certainly have been burned in the past. A good season finale should in essence thank the viewer for hanging around and leave a gift to bring the viewer back for the next one.
Parks and Rec definitely managed to tweak the tone of the characters for the second season and for the most part has managed to further refine them to balance astute characterizations, ridiculous hilarity and heart. I don’t know how to do it, but I know when it’s wrong.
I’ve watched a few episodes of Veep, the new Julia Louis-Dreyfus vehicle on HBO. She plays the Vice-President. She is not well-informed, fears the President like a12-year-old fears her dad and is self-serving. This isn’t a new character but I just don’t like the show. It falls flat for me one two counts – there’s no one to root for and I think I’m still not ready to laugh at a high American political official. Maybe because it’s an election year and Mitt scares me.
But I love Leslie. First of all can we talk about how clever her name is for someone in public office?
Knope = nope = someone smart in the writers room.
I find it particularly interesting to compare the two as female politicians. While Leslie may misstep, it is always in a most human way. What I’ve seen of Veep, JLD’s character is just kind of stupid and selfish. I don’t care if she gets burned because she deserves to be. And she’s a heartbeat away from running the fucking country. Also, I think if it was played broader it would work better or at least be funnier. I take particular offense to a woman fearing her male boss the JLD does hers. And I don’t think she’s particularly good female character. And she doesn’t have to a hippie. Katherine Hahn’s cunning politico in Parks and Rec is whipsmart, ruthless and very funny. When she collapses at the thought of a recount that would keep her even a minute longer in podunk Pawnee, I replayed it twice.
I did think Jason Sudeikis’ Joe BIden in his room with Will Ferrell’s George W in the closet as his imaginary friend was very funny. But that was broad and silly and that tempered the truth of it. Maybe I’m still stinging from the economy tanking and the government dicking around and Republicans in general.
Also, Parks and Rec has a strong bench. Ron Swanson of the righteous moustache and fervent libertarianism, Tom Haverford’s materilistic wannabe mack daddy, April Ludgate’s apathetic millennial – on paper they are off-putting but like Leslie resonate because they are balanced by being good people. They are funny because we like them. On Veep, I don’t think anyone is sympathetic. There isn’t anyone to root for. They all seem to have their own self-serving agendas and I don’t think they even like JLD’s character. If they don’t like her why should I?
So again, Veep is missing the mark. I think it got renewed along with Girls. More on that later. I don’t know the numbers but maybe it’s JLD’s draw. Politics isn’t pretty and politicians aren’t likable. I know that. I don’t have to like a character to find it funny. Cartman is hateful but he’s hilarious. Maybe that’s the real problem with Veep. It’s not mean enough to skewer or sincere enough for me to care. If I can’t laugh with her or at her so what I am left with?
Oh, and I would much rather take campaign advisor Jennifer Barkley, who appears to have absolutely no political convictions whatsoever, than a wishy-washy, timid veep. I loved her character! That moment when they were at Leslie’s waffle mecca and JB ordered an espresso, eliciting a laugh from Leslie because Pawnee didn’t have espresso machines, and then Jennifer Barkley casually pointed over her shoulder to one that seemed to be quintuple-sized and made of solid gold, tossing off the line, “I bought them one” was really a highlight for me.
I think it’s worth noting that a network comedy somehow has the edge over a cable one, which I assume has more leeway in creativity.
I’ve actually never been a giant fan of JLD. I never liked Seinfeld, which will have to go into the pile of Humor I Am Supposed to Get but Don’t, something I’m going to have to think out myself with your help. JLD seems to always play it broad when a more subtle approach would work better, though it sounds like nothing could punch its way out of Veep. I’ve only heard about it when she did an interview to promote it on NPR.
Maybe I also need a show with someone to root for. In an odd way, I even root for Cartman, maybe because anyone whose mother has a Scheiße-video history needs some sympathy. Speaking of Cartman in German, his anti-Semitic explosions take on a new weight when dubbed in German:
It’s sort of like when I was in Germany watching Hogan’s Heroes. It wasn’t funny, but it was culturally warped to the point that I couldn’t turn it off, despite the protestations of my German friends, who didn’t find it offensive, but rather extremely stupid.
So can I root for Cartman when he’s going off against Jews? I still take him for what he is: a stunningly accurate representation of how alert kids pluck out socially unacceptable but socially real and blunt concepts and language and then spit them back out to remind us how deep the ideas still run and how easily they are transmitted.
I think there needs to be a Cartman, but I can’t root for him all the time, and when he’s ranting about Jews in German, I get considerably more uncomfortable. But then, that’s Cartman’s job. Trey Parker and Matt Stone get some unexpected bonus points for making me bristle a bit just through dubbing for a European market.
But back to Veep. I don’t think JLD has Cartman’s appeal or strange likability, so with your review, I will take a pass.
But I’ll stick by Parks & Rec:
Leslie Knope is the political figure that I think I want to have around for real. There is something borderline radical in her determination to serve the people rather than a party or a base that I wish more people would take note of and check against real candidates.
I think next year we will see Leslie Knope’s idealism put a harder test than it has been in the past (the penguin marriage), and we’ll see some compromise that might make her really wrestle with practicality and ideology. Tom and Donna will be of no help, as I envision them getting facials during a crisis.. Ron will not agree with anyone because they are all part of the system. Ben may be in DC. April won’t care and Andy won’t understand. Ann will see it both ways but not come down on either. Jerry will just be cursed at. I think maybe Chris might be able to break through his bubble of self-centered New Age optimism to help her navigate through her first year as an elected official. She may have to take up jogging to get his input, though.