As it turned out, Leslie Knope wasn't trying too hard because she wanted people to like her, much like Michael Scott had done in The Office.
Shush se the walking dead series#
Tom and April poke fun of her behind her back, while Mark constantly thinks the Pit will never get filled because of all the bureaucratic red tape, regardless of Leslie's passion.Īs the series progressed, so did my love for it. Although, she takes a lot of flack for her enthusiasm in the beginning, too. And because she tries so hard consistently, Leslie actually managed to earn the respect of her boss, Ron, who has no respect for a single government employee, let alone the institution of government in its entirety. In fact, because she was trying so hard when it came to filling in the pit, Leslie actually manages to get Ann to participate in local government. But as I kept watching, that trait stopped seeming like the worst thing in the world. It had funny moments, and I liked how real life, small government issue "The Pit" story line was however Leslie Knope, Poehler's character, just seemed like she was trying too hard.
I was merely whelmed with the show at first. There was also a staunchly Libertarian, borderline anarchist boss, Ron Swanson the apathetic intern, April Andy, Ann's simple, yet loveable rock star boyfriend Tom Haverford, a guy with Diddy-sized entrepreneurial dreams and Mark Brandanawicz, the architect who doesn't get paid enough to care. And the whole first season focused on a constituent (Rashida Jones' Ann Perkins) trying to get the giant pit in the lot next to her house filled, which is how she meets Leslie (Poehler), who works in Pawnee, Indiana's Parks and Recreation department. Turns out the show was about a public servant-one that was desperate to please (much like Michael Scott), but a public servant nonetheless. Eventually curiosity got the better of me (let's be honest, procrastination got the better of me), and I'm pretty sure I watched all six episodes of season one on Hulu about a month before season two would begin. But I loved Amy Poehler, and I liked Rashida Jones. The Office was already having issues of its own, and to split part of its creative team seemed like sending Old Yeller into the backyard with his executioner, just minus that pesky shotgun. At that point, I think there was a rumor that it was going to star Rainn Wilson's Dwight Schrute.
Word got around that The Office was going to get a spin-off. The whole thing was, to borrow a Liz Lemon saying, totally blergh! To be fair, I have no idea who did that last one, but I'm referring more to the divisive, partisan nature that had infected not just the political climate as a whole, but the meek, Baptist Institution I was attending, too. After all, weren't these the fine young men and women that would be accompanying me into Washington someday to enact positive change for real people? Yet, it seemed all they wanted to do was debate and argue, and if I recall vividly from right after the 2008 presidential election, chalk the Communist hammer and sickle on the sidewalk in front of our dorms where the "O" in Obama should have been. So there I was, on the precipice of a new chapter of my life: pissed off at the world and frustrated that I didn't fit in more with the other students in my government classes. (If you're thinking, " Gee, General, you were kind of an egotistical douchebag," you-unfortunately-would not be wrong.) I could do this whole world saving thing on my own.
Only, I was worse because my motivation for making "positive changes" was that I had all the answers to the world's problems.
My issue was that I had become that person. I love(d) those shows, but the problem with satire is that (if you let it) it can start giving you a certain smug sense of superiority for figuring out what's wrong with the institution you're targeting before the other guy. Additionally, I was watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on the regular. It was appropriate, then, that at this time I was still pretty involved with The Office, a show that recognized the futility of life and suggested, rather British-ly (as it was originally intended), to deal with the matter by not dealing at all. Professionally, I had dreams of running for office someday, and I wanted to enact positive change in the political realm. Rochester of my own life, minus the club foot, or whatever, and the crazy spouse locked up in the attic. I was super broody about not getting into the universities of my choice I was like the Mr. If you frequent this blog with any kind of regularity, you know this song and dance quite well. When I sailed (i.e., drove for six hours) off to Virginia back in ye olde 2008 for my first year of college at that venerable Baptist Institution, I was in a right (i.e., nightmare-ish) state of mind.
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