S2E2: I'll step out of your mama's van
The MSCU
Honesty hour — we’re going to follow my brain down a few rabbit holes for this post and not talk about episode 2 all that much. Mostly because I think episode 2 of season 2 is moderately good. It’s one I’d never be mad to find on TV, but it’s not one that I remembered at all from previous rewatches. I sat down to write this, didn’t have much to say about episode 2, but had a lot to say about Mike Schur and Bridesmaids.
Here’s a sneak preview of our roadmap:
Parks and Rec —> Mike Schur —> Hacks —> also Mike Schur —> Daily Beast Interview —> The Poehler Rule —> perfect casts —> Bridesmaids —> “I ate Saturday.”
Let’s do this.
But because you’re here for at least some Parks and Rec chatter, here’s the recap: Leslie has planted a community garden in the Pit, and finds what she thinks is weed growing in there (planted by a civilian). She brings Tom along on a stakeout in a certifiable-stalker white van, but when they run into Andy and Leslie + Andy decide to go on a separate mission for cheeseburgers, a cop (played by Louis CK) arrests Tom for seemingly breaking into the van after he locks himself out. Ann and Mark go on a decently good date (surprising to Ann, Mark, and every single person watching). Ron gets a hernia and can’t move an inch all day, only to be rescued late at night by April, who provides a getaway car in the form of her dad’s borrowed station wagon and a rolling chair. Good comedy, good writing, good people in this episode.
BUT in addition to rewatching Parks and Rec, I’ve also been binging Hacks for the past two weeks — I’m so multifaceted. It is literally so good and I can’t believe I haven’t seen it before. I just last night introduced my friends Aaron and Mikaela to the show while watching TV at their house, and what do I see as the show credits roll?
Produced by Michael SchurMy guy Mike Schur! Seriously! No wonder I love Hacks!
(There are a million other reasons I love Hacks, and several thousand of them relate directly to both main characters. I was just reading an amazing article by Amy Odell about Deborah Vance’s wardrobe, which reminded me that my friends and I have been chuckling for days at Deborah calling Docs “chimney shoes.” Considering all I wear are Docs, I’m sensing some chimney shoes jokes coming my way. I digress).
If you’ll remember from last week, Mike Schur is the creator of Parks and Rec and a total champion for the open loop sitcom, where the characters’ storylines form one, seasons-long story and paints the heartwarming tale of characters making each other better people. Mike (we’re on a first name basis) produced the The Office, created both Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place, wrote a book called How to Be Perfect, and is currently spinning up a sitcom with Ted Danson called A Classic Spy. His pantheon of work is what I like to think of as the MSCU: Mike Schur Cinematic Universe.
Schur’s background in comedy is pretty textbook: President of the Harvard Lampoon, a six-year stint writing on SNL — which is where he met Amy Poehler — before pivoting to TV writing work, where he’s been ever since. He’s one of the most beloved sitcom writers in the industry and basically keeps churning out hits. Although it’s my belief that Parks and Rec is still the peak.
I was reading an interview Schur did with The Daily Beast a few weeks back, in honor of Parks and Rec’s 15-year anniversary. He talks a lot about how the show actually is a period piece, in that it’s rooted in such a specific, Obama-inspired moment in time and wouldn’t have been received the same way in 2016 or in a post-Trump era. This was interesting to read but not surprising. The same can do civic optimism feels several lightyears away from where we are now.
BUT one thing I love and I had never heard him speak about before is his showrunning philosophy, known as “The Poehler Rule”:
“The directive, said co-creator Mike Schur, was always just to hire the funniest possible person for any given role — whether it was a bit-part or a season-long arc.”
This rule may sound entirely obvious — of course you always want to hire the funniest person — but it got me thinking about comedies I’ve seen where truly every single person is bar for bar perfect. Which then led me to one of the best comedies of all time.
That’s right. Time for Bridesmaids.
I have seen Bridesmaids probably 15 times. Once in college I dressed up for a party as Stove, the flight attendant in the airport scene. My friends and I frequently quote Kristen Wiig’s “shit, that’s fresh” line after she takes a sip of the lemonade in her car. The scene where Annie goes toe to toe with the 14-year-old in the jewelry store was literally imprinted onto my middle school brain.
The first time I ever watched Bridesmaids, it was a middle school sleepover, and I left 1) absolutely scandalized, 2) 100% confident I could not tell my mother what I had seen, and 3) with plans to watch it again immediately. The most recent time I watched Bridesmaids, I was on a long flight back from Virginia to SF a few weeks ago. I had every intention to “be productive” and “do work”, but you know what they say about best laid plans and free American Airlines in-flight entertainment. (I actually fell asleep during the “she’s churning butter” scene and had to rewind. Can’t be missing that.)
Bridesmaids is one of those moves that absolutely follows “The Poehler Rule.” Every single person is bar for bar perfect, and what I love is that in 2011, when the movie came out, not all of them were A-list casting decisions. Sure, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph are total superstars, but Rose Byrne was by no means a household name, unless you’d seen Insidious earlier that year (absolutely not). Melissa McCarthy was well-known from Gilmore Girls as Sookie St. James, but not necessarily thought of as one of the funniest people alive. Rebel Wilson is absolute gold as Annie’s roommate and blew up soon after in Pitch Perfect, but just revealed that she had to buy her own dress for the Bridesmaids premiere.
It’s not like the team behind Bridesmaids threw all of their money at a bunch of big name celebrities and knew the magic would shake out. No — they just hired the funniest person for every single role, no matter how small. And out of this process, they created absolute magic. If you watch the movie for the script, like really watch it closely, every single line is tight and perfect. There’s not a single minute to throw away. (Although — one of the funniest scenes of all time was cut from the movie’s big screen release. “I ate Saturday” always be popping into my head.) But the dialogue’s reliant on a REALLY fucking good cast to nail it.
The Poehler Rule! thanK you aIMee!
Episode 2’s got some great moments!!
When Ron’s stuck his chair with a hernia and asks April to pass him his lunch (located six inches away, too far for a man with a debilitating hernia) and then grabs his cheeseburger and flings it at his mouth and it hits his mustache and bounces to the ground
I love the scene at the beginning when Tom’s “helping Leslie in the garden” and reveals that, rather than giving her the Latin names of various plants, he tells her the names of wrappers: “Those are of course tomatoes. Or Souljaboytellems.”
The exchange between Leslie and Ron when she walks into his office to report the weed:
“Ron, did you get my text?”
“No.”
“Did you see my emails?”
“Mmm-mm” (shakes head ever so slightly because he’s frozen with a hernia)
“Did you see that I paged you?”
“Nope.”
“Did you get my voicemails?”
“I did not.”
WHY does Ann say Ratatouille (the movie, a classic) like that!!! “Rat-tat-touille.” Reminds me soooo much of the Hunter Harris post about the line in where Issa Rae says “are you guys watching The Godfaaahhhhther?”
I love the moment when Andy sneaks into the pit during Leslie and Tom’s stakeout and starts munching on the veggies and he reveals that’s all he’s been eating for weeks so he’s getting “way too many vitamins”
The moment when Leslie is threatening Dave the cop in the police station and says “I could have Ron. Swanson. down here, kicking down your doors” and we cut to Ron still frozen with his hernia in his desk chair
There’s a moment where Andy doesn’t want to be seen by Ann and Mark and literally dives HEADFIRST into the pit!!! Taylor Swift who!
What I’m…
Watching: Hacks!! And I NEED to finish the Survivor finale! I’m getting some serious shit from my friends and honestly, it’s warranted.
Reading: I’ve been off my reading game these past few weeks, which is seriously criminal of me, but I’m about to start Gilda Radner’s memoir
Listening: Sarah Paulson on Smartless!! Great ep.
Thanks for reading team!!! Same time next week?
Such a classic movie. This makes me want to do a rewatch. And yes to Hacks!! I am so sad I flew through season 3 but so happy they got renewed for a fourth season.