Title: Parks and Recreation (IMDb), “Pilot”
Season/Episode: Season 1, Episode 1
Directed by: Greg Daniels
Written by: Greg Daniels (creator), Michael Schur (creator)
Year: 2009
Length: ~21 min.
Rating: 6
My IMDb rating: 4/10

Parks and Rec is one of those series that you see everywhere on social media. Which is why I got curious and decided to finally give it a go.

The first episode, unfortunately, did not convince me of this show’s quality.

The story revolves around Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) who works for the government in the Parks and Recreation department and her struggles in her job. She is a very optimistic, friendly and enthusiastic character, and played very well by Amy Poehler whose book Yes, Please! I am currently reading. Leslie’s collegues are not nearly as enthusiastic about their work as she is. In her naiveté, Leslie tries to convince them to do better (with rather less than more success).

The first episode focuses on Leslie’s efforts to turn a government owned construction pit into a park. The story is very simple, as is the dialogue, sadly. Even though the episode barely lasted 20 minutes, it felt like an eternity and thus, a waste of my time. Altough I have seen many gif-sets with very funny scenes from Parks and Rec, I wonder just how many of the boring episodes I’d have to get through to get to the good stuff…

In the end, I think I will stick to series’ that capture my interest from the very first episode on. As well as actually make me laugh. Sorry, Parks and Rec, this is a pass for me.