What I Watch: Parks & Recreation

Another sitcom in the NBC Thursday night block. I've watched this from the first episode, probably because it just came on after something I already watched. But I actually love Amy Pohler from Saturday Night Live -- she created and stars in the show -- so it's possible it was an intentional decision to start watching.

In any case it's intentional that I KEEP watching.

Pohler's lead character Leslie Knope is a government employee (working in the parks department) in an Indiana town. She's idealistic and efficient and loves her job and town. She's also a goofball and is surrounded by quirky, nutty characters who fit together in really weird ways.

Here's a funny clip with two of my favorite characters, Tom and Donna:



I also really like that characters get together romantically and then seemingly stay together. Romance isn't a big part of the show (although the Leslie and Ben storyline is great), but there isn't a big effort to have some sort of ongoing sexual tension between characters (like Sam & Diane, Ross & Rachel, etc.). Maybe that will change as the series progresses, but I hope not.

The show, like most sitcoms for me, isn't long enough and I wish there were more. I guess if I watched everything on DVD plus extras it might seem right. In any case, I like this show a lot.