The Office+Hillary Clinton=Parks and Recreation
New NBC comedy elicits déjà vu
Insanul Ahmed
Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: Arts
In season three of NBC's The Office, there's an episode called "The Negotiation," where everyone realizes Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is wearing a pantsuit. This is a classic Michael Scott moment-he mistakenly bought the suit because it was on sale and didn't realize the inherent differences between suits made for men and suits made for women. Presumably, he threw the suit out afterwards.
But it's possible that maybe Michael Schur, who wrote that episode, and Greg Daniels, who developed The Office for American audiences, were just checking see how incompetence looked in a pantsuit-trying to see how popular a female version of Michael Scott would be. The sisterhood of the traveling pantsuit has gone from Steve Carell to Amy Poehler.
Poehler stars in NBC's new comedy Parks and Recreation, which airs at 8:30 PM on Thursday nights. The show was co-created by the creative team behind The Office, Michael Schur and Greg Daniels, and follows the mockumentary style The Office is known for.
Poehler plays Leslie Knope, a woman who works in the Parks and Recreation Department of fictional Pawnee, Indiana as a mid-level bureaucrat. Knope is a foolish but ambitious woman who has inflated dreams of becoming the first female president-a cross between Hillary Clinton and Michael Scott. Knope's comic pay dirt comes from her adaptation of national politics into her small town schemes.
Knope also formulates a scheme to hook up with her coworker, Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider), whom she once slept with when Brendanawicz had a temporary lapse in judgment. If this all sounds familiar to you, that's because it is-the relationship between Knope and Brendanawicz is pretty much the same as the relationship between Jan and Michael in The Office.
The show's biggest fault is that its main character is a carbon copy of an already incredibly popular character. Carell claims that he never watched Ricky Gervais' character David Brent (The Michael Scott of the UK version of The Office) for fear that it would influence him too much. But it almost seems as if Poehler studied Carell for this role, right down to the awkward on-camera moments.
Most of the show's assets come from the outstanding casting. First there's the beautiful Rashida Jones-who played Karen Filippelli in The Office-who plays Ann Perkins, the citizen who initially complains about the pit. She plays a nurse, which doesn't make much sense because, unlike every overworked nurse in America, she never seems to have to go to work and is always free to hang out with crew from the Parks and Recreation department.
Then there's the hilarious Aziz Ansari. Ansari is a rising star who first gained recognition from his MTV sketch show Human Giant. He's also recently appeared in Observe and Report, I Love You, Man, and he has a role in the upcoming Funny People. Ansari plays Tom Haverford. If you think it's strange that an Indian man plays a character named Tom Haverford, it's because Tom changed his name from Aziz Abdul Al'Rahman to be more appealing in politics. Ansari's character is a classic slacker who spends his days playing Scrabble and asking ridiculous questions like "Do you think I'm in the top five best looking Indian guys in Pawnee?"
But Haverford need not worry. He'll never get fired because his boss Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) thinks the world of him: "I like Tom. He doesn't do a lot of work around here. He shows no initiative. He's not a team player. He's never one to go that extra mile. Tom is exactly what I'm looking for in a government employee."
Swanson is by far the funniest character on the show. His comedic niche-as noted above-is that he's a government worker who hates government and thinks the Parks and Recreation department ought to be privatized. He's also brazenly honest about everything he says. Swanson even keeps a trophy saw-off shotgun on his desk, so when people come to ask him questions they have to stare down the barrel.
Parks and Recreation isn't staring down the barrel just yet. The Office struggled early on to find its own style, limited by the brilliance of its British processor, but after a while they learned to use their exceptional cast-something devoid in the British version-to their advantage. It's likely that Parks and Recreation can do the same.
But it's possible that maybe Michael Schur, who wrote that episode, and Greg Daniels, who developed The Office for American audiences, were just checking see how incompetence looked in a pantsuit-trying to see how popular a female version of Michael Scott would be. The sisterhood of the traveling pantsuit has gone from Steve Carell to Amy Poehler.
Poehler stars in NBC's new comedy Parks and Recreation, which airs at 8:30 PM on Thursday nights. The show was co-created by the creative team behind The Office, Michael Schur and Greg Daniels, and follows the mockumentary style The Office is known for.
Poehler plays Leslie Knope, a woman who works in the Parks and Recreation Department of fictional Pawnee, Indiana as a mid-level bureaucrat. Knope is a foolish but ambitious woman who has inflated dreams of becoming the first female president-a cross between Hillary Clinton and Michael Scott. Knope's comic pay dirt comes from her adaptation of national politics into her small town schemes.
Knope also formulates a scheme to hook up with her coworker, Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider), whom she once slept with when Brendanawicz had a temporary lapse in judgment. If this all sounds familiar to you, that's because it is-the relationship between Knope and Brendanawicz is pretty much the same as the relationship between Jan and Michael in The Office.
The show's biggest fault is that its main character is a carbon copy of an already incredibly popular character. Carell claims that he never watched Ricky Gervais' character David Brent (The Michael Scott of the UK version of The Office) for fear that it would influence him too much. But it almost seems as if Poehler studied Carell for this role, right down to the awkward on-camera moments.
Most of the show's assets come from the outstanding casting. First there's the beautiful Rashida Jones-who played Karen Filippelli in The Office-who plays Ann Perkins, the citizen who initially complains about the pit. She plays a nurse, which doesn't make much sense because, unlike every overworked nurse in America, she never seems to have to go to work and is always free to hang out with crew from the Parks and Recreation department.
Then there's the hilarious Aziz Ansari. Ansari is a rising star who first gained recognition from his MTV sketch show Human Giant. He's also recently appeared in Observe and Report, I Love You, Man, and he has a role in the upcoming Funny People. Ansari plays Tom Haverford. If you think it's strange that an Indian man plays a character named Tom Haverford, it's because Tom changed his name from Aziz Abdul Al'Rahman to be more appealing in politics. Ansari's character is a classic slacker who spends his days playing Scrabble and asking ridiculous questions like "Do you think I'm in the top five best looking Indian guys in Pawnee?"
But Haverford need not worry. He'll never get fired because his boss Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) thinks the world of him: "I like Tom. He doesn't do a lot of work around here. He shows no initiative. He's not a team player. He's never one to go that extra mile. Tom is exactly what I'm looking for in a government employee."
Swanson is by far the funniest character on the show. His comedic niche-as noted above-is that he's a government worker who hates government and thinks the Parks and Recreation department ought to be privatized. He's also brazenly honest about everything he says. Swanson even keeps a trophy saw-off shotgun on his desk, so when people come to ask him questions they have to stare down the barrel.
Parks and Recreation isn't staring down the barrel just yet. The Office struggled early on to find its own style, limited by the brilliance of its British processor, but after a while they learned to use their exceptional cast-something devoid in the British version-to their advantage. It's likely that Parks and Recreation can do the same.
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