Parks and Recreation live alone without any special review: 30 minutes of good faith

Parks and Special Recreation, the premier night on NBC and aired from Friday on Hulu and other services, launching Paul Rudd's unstable character Bobby Newport, heir to the Sweetums candy empire. He is wearing a “Knope 2012” sweater and is making a phone call to a nondescript lake that they say is a hunting farm for his family in Switzerland. Bobby introduced the special, explaining that NBC and the cast of Parks and Rec they raise money for a charity Feeding America, and then, confused, looked to the non-offcreen producer to ask what was going on. It seems Bobby doesn't mind that there is a global epidemic going on.

This potential build is reflected in the final special, where Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones talk directly to the camera and make two requests. The first is for people to take care of themselves and their mental health during an outbreak of coronavirus. The second is that they donate to Feeding America, or any other charity that helps people most affected by the disease. (NBC, the Parks and Rec Creators, and sponsors of State Farm and Subaru jointly will reach $ 500,000 in donations to Feeding America.) It's a fun, solid time talking about how fun and strong it is Parks and Recreation it was everything. That tightness is part of what made the show so powerful with people, and why this special sounds more like a welcome start for COVID-19, than a rape chase.

Half an hour between those reservations is dedicated to the Zoom video conferencing service (made by Parks and Rec

A fictional tech company, Gryzzl) as Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) tries to communicate with her friends during the COVID-19 crisis. All the actors have sorted themselves at home, so special writers had to be creative in explaining why married characters are not in the same spaces. Leslie is calling from her office in the Department of the Interior, and her husband Ben (Adam Scott) is at home with their children. Andy (Chris Pratt) accidentally locks himself in the veld, and refuses to let his wife April (Aubrey Plaza) help him out. Ann (Rashida Jones) volunteers as a nurse, so she keeps herself separated from her husband Chris (Rob Lowe).

Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), on the other hand, finds his ex-wife Tammy (played by Offerman's real wife, Megan Mullally) hidden outside a wardrobe when away from people. Favorite side characters like Jean-Ralphio Sapperstein (Ben Schwartz), Perd Hapley (Jay Jackson), Joan Callamezzo (Mo Collins), Jeremy Jamm (Jon Glaser) and Dennis Feinstein (Jason Mantzoukas) are also featured in their fictional commercials and / or TV segments .

Parks and Recreation is a staple of the "luxury food" game – which you can use when you have a bad day or just need to meet up with something. Creator Michael Schur has a particularly interesting sense of humor, which attracts when the world around him is under pressure. It is comforting to watch this group of misconduct form a community. As the residents of Pawnee got to know and love one another, the followers of Parks and Rec I know and love them. A special look, five years after the show ends, is like seeing old friends for the first time in a while. Things have changed naturally in those five years. Ac tors are no longer in the process of naming those characters. Their tone of voice is different. Everyone looks old, except Paul Rudd, who is not old. The settings and lighting are completely different. But these changes don't make special encounters difficult or unnecessary – they just make the characters feel more mainstream. It's as if they continue to live their lives, and we hold back years apart.

Unlike other recent updates, Parks and Special Recreation are not trying to add a new context to the show world, such as Netflix & # 39; s American Hot Summer reunion. It is not updating the show for 2020 viewers, such as Freeform has started The fifth party, or to draw a conclusion, such as NBC & # 39; s Will and Grace revival. It's just a good time in a weird time. It looks like Parks and Rec The reunion did not exist for any reason other than that Mike Schur wanted to help during this devastation, by raising funds for the organization, and by making people laugh for an hour.

That attitude of not being able to help is at the core of Parks and Recreation ethos. There is the difficulty of free-will-but-fundamentalism in the excavation of Schur's understanding. Leslie Knope served idols to all female politicians, no matter what the party was. (In the first episode of the show, he compares himself to Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Sarah Palin.) While Leslie is making good progress (and eventually running for Governor of Indiana as a Democrat), he has the utmost respect and love for his stalwart servant. friend, Ron Swanson. But when Parks and Recreation Prime Minister in 2009, the world looked very different than it does now – not because we are far from a global pandemic.

Sitcoms are, by nature, ultimately numbered. The sense of humor changes over time, and the best jokes become worse, more annoying. However Parks and Recreation it looks like they have grown up really fast. The first episode of the series premiered in April 2009, three months after Barack Obama's election as the first black president. His campaign message of hope, change, and solidarity was a clear political influence of Leslie Knope. Parks and Rec

he even created an image titled “Knope” in Season 2, where Leslie disrespectfully became the face of gay rights after taking on a two-man penguin wedding ceremony. (The fact that Leslie Knope, an anti-equality activist, felt uncomfortable accepting the announcement of Pawnee's gay community shows how much the world has changed in 10 years.)

Repeating Parks and Rec by 2020 it feels like a return to a more hopeful and optimistic world. As Deputy Meredith Balkus wrote in 2019, “the America we were promised, ”When a woman is elected for president, and progress can be made with bipartisan support. It is a world that never existed in reality. Parks and Recreation ended in April 2015, two months before Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign, and a year and a half before the #MeToo movement took hold, it shed light on decades of sexual harassment and misconduct (including allegations of misconduct against Parks and Rec guest star Louis CK and, controversy, a key member of Aziz Ansari). But in the midst of the global crisis, it's comforting to think that there are Leslie Knopes out there who can do what they can to help.

Was it necessary to update a sitcom that has already heard the day? Of course not. Is it weird to see familiar characters in this new context? Maybe a little. Did I still cry when the cast started singing in "Bye Bye Little Sebastian (5,000 Candle in the Wind)"? You bet your ass I did. And then I donated to Feeding America and started thinking about ways I could become a Leslie Knope in my community. That call to action is what you do Parks and Special Recreation they are different in other celebrity events, such as SNL Home or by Gal Gadot celebrity cover of "Think." Instead of pure escape or proper seriousness, the Parks and Rec Writers create something that feels rushed without feeling worth it, and is fun without being saccharine.

Parks and Special Recreation will air at 8:30 pm ET / PT on NBC on April 30, and will be available May 1, broadcast on Hulu, Peacock, YouTube, again NBC.com.