Striking sparks with Parks

SOMETIMES I WATCH TV: Are you watching the best comedy on television?

LINKS: I repeat — are you watching the best comedy on television?

I never watch TV on our television. We don't have cable and we can't get a decent digital signal — it's a mystery; our house is apparently in the Twilight Zone, or at least in the No Digital Reception Zone — but, more to the point, it's 2011. Watching TV on your television is practically barbaric in this day and age. I mean, we're not apes here. Sheesh. We watch TV online. Fewer commercials + DVR technology (pause, fast-forward, rewind) without buying a DVR = T(ir)V(ana). You don't have as many options, but I see that as a perk. TV programming is mostly white noise anyway. My point, in all of this, is that I have discovered what is literally — literally — the best show on television. (Once we're done pretending that Friday Night Lights is still on television, at any rate.) I give you ... Parks and Recreation.

I found out about the show from my wife when we were looking for something to watch on Netflix a couple of months back. We don't pay for Netflix every month, but we'd forgotten to renew the "hold" on our account and, rather than fight the charge, we decided to just enjoy a month of Netflix. So we watched the first season of Parks and Recreation together. (And then the second. And then we had to switch to Hulu for the third.) There's great stuff in the first season, but the show isn't quite fully formed. The basic blueprint is The Office meets middle-American city government, and first-season Parks and Recreation tries a bit too hard to make its lead character, Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler), "Michael Scott-esque." Even in the beginning, however, you can tell that the show is different.

For one thing, half-hour TV sitcoms tend to, not to put too fine a point on it, (exert a Hoover-like pull on the universe). That's right, they (exert a Hoover-like pull on the universe). Most of them, anyway. So just by not (exerting a Hoover-like pull on the universe), Parks and Recreation is something of a minor miracle. More than just not (you get it), however, Parks and Recreation is actually articulate, clever and character-driven. (Almost all of the time: The usual showbiz biology that teaches that humor cannot exist independent of sex is in force here, but to a refreshingly lesser degree than is elsewhere the norm.) The show began as a replacement, so the first season only has six episodes. The second season got a "Now that's more like it" full order of 24 episodes. The recently-conluded third season: 16.

The show did get renewed, but the chopped-down third season is a red flag. We know, we know, TV writers think this show is awesome and there's a loyal core audience. Fine. Here's some more episodes. The ratings aren't great, though, so get us some Emmys, or else. If  Parks and Recreation gets canceled, then I may lose faith in television altogether. Leslie Knope is a great three-dimensional character, but the show is pretty incredibly even-handed in fleshing out the supporting cast. Most half-hour ensemble comedies have a few strong characters — three or four at most — and everyone else is a one-joke stereotype who pops in every other episode or so to do their "bit," whatever it is. Ask yourself how many characters on The Office you can even name, other than Michael, Dwight, Jim/Pam and Andy.

You know what? Rashida Jones, who had a regular role in the second season of The Office, is a lead player on Park and Recreation and her new show is the better of the two. That's right, The Office. You are no longer the best comedy on NBC and, really, it's not even that close. Some of the characters on the two shows are suspiciously similar, but Parks and Recreation wins every comparison. Dwight Schrute, for example, wouldn't last five minutes in a staring contest with Ron Swanson. Nick Offerman is just as interesting an actor as Rainn Wilson, and Ron is a more colorful, more versatile, better-rounded alpha male riff than Dwight. So, yes, there's going to be a fourth season of Parks and Recreation. I'm telling you now so that everyone watches it. Especially since I can't, given our location in the No Digital Reception Zone. Do the right thing. Be a true American. Honor the Swanson Pyramid of Greatness. Save Parks and Recreation!