I LOVE IT. I'm half-way through season two right now. I honestly can't pick a favorite character — Ron, Leslie, Tom, April, or Andy. I love Jerry and Donna, too. You're so, so spot-on with all five of your points. Right now, I think #4 is my favorite aspect of P&R. There's this brilliant continuity to the show, maybe like... Arrested Development, I guess? It's not serialized, but it's definitely not a Community or Scrubs, for example, both of which frequently backpedal(ed) on character and plot development.
This is a stretch and maybe I'm just caught up in my current love for the show, but P&R is by the same two guys that Americanized The Office, right? It seems as if everything on TO went horribly awry (well, I think it went horribly awry, LOL), so they decided to start fresh with P&R and make it as close to perfect as possible. Even when the episodes aren't non-stop hysterical, they're still charming and worth-watching (kind of like Modern Family). The characters are well-developed and lovable and, like you said, NOT humiliated for the sake of comedy. They even have Jerry, the go-to blame guy. The characters have MO's ("I'm Ron f&$*ing Swanson"), but they're not stuck doing the same shtick over and over again. And - AND! - there's no will-they-won't-they thing. Andy was jealous of Ann/Mark at the beginning of S2, but he still had other things to do as a character (SHOE-SHINING, OMG). Now there's April/Andy, but it's not in your face like Jim/Pam and innumerable TV couples.
I'm sorry that was so long! Yikes! I just had to share my joy with you.
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Date: 2011-02-08 07:49 pm (UTC)This is a stretch and maybe I'm just caught up in my current love for the show, but P&R is by the same two guys that Americanized The Office, right? It seems as if everything on TO went horribly awry (well, I think it went horribly awry, LOL), so they decided to start fresh with P&R and make it as close to perfect as possible. Even when the episodes aren't non-stop hysterical, they're still charming and worth-watching (kind of like Modern Family). The characters are well-developed and lovable and, like you said, NOT humiliated for the sake of comedy. They even have Jerry, the go-to blame guy. The characters have MO's ("I'm Ron f&$*ing Swanson"), but they're not stuck doing the same shtick over and over again. And - AND! - there's no will-they-won't-they thing. Andy was jealous of Ann/Mark at the beginning of S2, but he still had other things to do as a character (SHOE-SHINING, OMG). Now there's April/Andy, but it's not in your face like Jim/Pam and innumerable TV couples.
I'm sorry that was so long! Yikes! I just had to share my joy with you.