New Show: Parks and Recreation

On NBC, Thursdays at 7:30pm. Watch here.

NBC debuted a new show this spring called Parks and Recreation, starring (and produced by) SNL alum Amy Poehler and the great Aziz Ansari. The show owes its basic structure and style to the office, but has developed its own characters and tone over the first four episodes and it is now in my (tiny) rotation of show I watch every week. Click below for more PARKS:

Poehler is Leslie Knoepp, a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation department in a small city in Indiana. She takes her job too seriously but isn't necessarily good at it. Her co-stars are Rashida Jones, great as a city volunteer; Ansari as a fellow city employee with a terrible work ethic and a smart mouth; Paul Schneider (Lars and the Real Girl, Assassination of Jesse James) as a city planner (and the object of Leslie's affection); and Nick Offerman as the boss. Each of these characters is funny and interesting, especially Ansari and Offerman, both of whom have several laugh outloud lines in each episode (Doc, you will love Offerman's boss - especially his liberal use of the word b!tch in the reporter episode).

As with 30 Rock, I had high hopes for this one, and at first, they weren't met. I wrote at the beginning of 30 Rock that it felt too stiff and workshopped, and the same was true for Parks and Recreation - the first episode is forced, but each succeeding episode gets better. Worth your time.