S2E1: Together we can change Pawnee forever. Let's dance!

Leslie Knope becomes a gay icon while starring in an open loop sitcom

What’s up, team!!! We’re back and this post is dedicated to: hitting. your. stride.

You’ve heard me say a few times now that season 1, while lovably messy and important in laying the ground work for what Parks and Rec ultimately evolves into, is really not an accurate representation of the rest of the show. People (myself included) go so far as to tell their friends to skip season 1 entirely. But sayonara season 1 — Park It is now onto bigger and better things. Hellloooooo season 2!

This is one of the things I love most about TV shows versus movies: we get the time to watch things evolve and see characters grow. There’s seriously nothing that excites me more than rewatching a show and you can see the tiniest little kernels along the way of a relationship that’ll be pivotal, or a plot line that’ll come back around in a few seasons and change everything. It’s SO satisfying, and part of the reason I love a good rewatch or reread.

When I was a kid, I obsessively reread the same series over and over again until I practically memorized them: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Warriors (yes, the cat books, the real ones know), The Mortal Instruments, Narnia. (I was a big fantasy girl — sue me.)

If you’re mean about my taste in books, this is who you’re being mean to

And as I got older, this evolved into rewatching TV shows: Grey’s Anatomy, Gilmore Girls, now Parks and Rec. I know the concept of a “comfort show” is not niche by any means, but the rewatching & rereading tendencies always stemmed less from a place of needing comfort and familiarity, and more from a place of desperately wanting to watch the plot slowly fall into place. More of a critical read, if you will. And you just don’t get the same satisfying slow burn in movies or single novels.

When I was in college, I took an English class about sitcoms (thanks Berkeley). Our homework for every class was to go home, watch two episodes of iconic sitcoms, and discuss in the next class. We literally spent one whole week dissecting the archetypes formed by each character in Friends and their lasting impact on the genre.

My professor at the time slowly introduced a differentiation between “close loop” shows and “open loop” shows. I’m spouting this from memory and might butcher it, but in short: each episode in a close loop show doesn’t affect the plot of the next one. The characters don’t grow or change or make each other better. The humor is in the absurdity and in watching the characters be SO themselves, but there’s no sense of true narrative development outside of a tight 22-minute episode. A great example of this is 30 Rock — there are episodes of 30 Rock where TGS’s stage quite literally burns to the ground by the end of the episode, but it’s never once addressed when you hit play on the next episode. Life just goes on. Liz Lemon is still Liz Lemon.

Open loop shows, on the other hand, almost function as a series of chapters in one longer book series. While each episode doesn’t necessarily pick up where the one before left off, the actions and relationships between characters inform broader narrative arcs. Characters change in relation to one another and oftentimes get better just by virtue of spending their days in an office together.

Parks and Rec is a great example of an open loop show — we’ve seen Ann & Leslie’s friendship slowly build over the seven episodes we’ve watched so far, we’ve witnessed Leslie take (mini)strides and face (mini)setbacks in her journey to build a park. We’ve even seen Mark Brendenawicz seemingly change from the world’s worst wet blanket: Ann mentions in this episode that “Mark’s a pretty nice guy now” since his head bonk in the pit in the season 1 finale. It’s earnest and satisfying and places the utmost importance on the relationships between people.

Mike Schur, one of the creators of Parks and Rec, is singularly interested in open loop shows. The Office, Parks and Rec, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (another total banger) all have this inherent worldview baked into their little soft and gooey centers: that people are overall good and have the power to change each other for the better. He explores this ideology quite literally in The Good Place, a show about a group of people who wind up in in a version of Hell in the afterlife and quite literally save their souls by being good to each other.

This is one of the reasons why I love Mike Schur so much as a writer and showrunner, and why I have such a hard time with close loop shows in general. It’s just not really that interesting to me to watch characters who inherently aren’t going to shape each other for the better, no matter how funny they may be (so sorry Tina, no shade to 30 Rock). My fantasy-series-binge-rereading tendencies installed in me a deep need to track all of the open loop Easter eggs in any given show and to stick around for the long haul, in the hopes it’ll all be better by the end.

We even see it in this episode in tiny ways. Leslie has a moment with Donna (who’s been promoted to actual character, not just a background filler. And who’s sporting a fabulous little fuckass bob!!!).

For context, Leslie finds herself embroiled in a scandal in s2ep1 because she accidentally marries two male penguins at the Pawnee zoo (how dare she). The local conservatives lose their mind at the atrocity while Leslie becomes a gay icon at Pawnee’s local gay bar, The Bulge. Right after Leslie’s invited to be The Bulge’s guest of honor by April’s two queer boyfriends, Donna gives Leslie her first ever Donna compliment. She tells Leslie “you look good girl! You’re gonna turn somebody tonight!” and Leslie looks at the camera and goes “that was hands down the best interaction I’ve ever had with Donna.”

Leslie's night as a gay icon

Like! Even something as simple as that LITTLE, TINY moment shows us what’s to come in this show. We barely knew Donna’s name in season 1, and now Leslie’s giving us little glimpses into the evolution of their relationship. If we cut to the series finale, Donna will be calling Leslie from her new home hundreds of miles away. TV shows give us the luxury of seeing these little moments emerge organically without needing to force our hands the way movies do so that they can wrap up their plots in a neat 90-minutes. TV shows make us wait for it. They loooove a good slow burn.

Sure — it can be a really, really frustrating test of patience when you just. want. the. characters. to. finally. get. together. But I really, really love the open loop slow burn. And the best part? Parks and Rec is just finding its stride.

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Funny moments for days in this episode:

• In the cold open, Ron walks into Leslie’s office and says “okay…here’s the situation,” but she cuts him off with the entirety of the “Parents Just Don’t Understand” rap (complete will a full lap around the office and cheers from Donna and Jerry). When she’s finally done, Ron says, “someone’s on fire in Ramsett Park, they need you to get down there right away.”

• April and her two gay boyfriends are the OG Challengers. Watch out Tashi Art and Patrick

  

• We learn randomly that Ann and Andy have broken up!! And he told her he was “going to Kansas to climb some mountains”

• The whole scene at The Bulge is iconic from start to finish, but I love love love how Leslie tries to protest being their role model and then they start chanting her name, and she gets this starry little look in her eye and goes “You’re chanting my name…”

• Cut to: “Together we can change Pawnee forever. LET’S DANCE!” and then BOOM BOOM POW by the literal Black Eyed Peas comes on and Leslie starts doing the literal robot. You can’t make this shit up. Bring back 2009.

• I LOVE the introduction of Joan Calamezzo the news anchor!!!!

• Andy shows back up his suit and starts saying words like “matured” (mah-toured) and “behoove” and when Ann kicks him back out, he leaves the house in his suit, literally dives down into the pit, and CLIMBS INTO A TENT

• The ending with Leslie driving the two penguins to Iowa in their car seats so they can stay married is genius. She’s such an ally lmao

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Lastly, who knows if anyone cares, but I thought it might be fun to tell you what else I’m reading, watching, and listening to. More sound of my own voice? Yes, please. (Don’t sue me Amy Poehler).

Reading: Born Standing Up, Steve Martin’s memoir. Just finished this one and really enjoyed it and now I need to watch some early Steve Martin

Watching: Hacks!!! I just discovered this show and I’m already binging it. I did make the mistake of accidentally already reading spoilers but I closed my eyes really fast and now am trying NOT to spoil

Listening to: Honestly loooooving Las Culturistas (with Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers) recently!! I just listened to the Taylor Tomlinson episode - love her

See ya next week!