|
bobkatt013 posted:I still find it hilarious that when Ann had her boxes of exes, Mark Brendana-quits was not even included. Like didn't she have a box for the cowboy you saw once or something instead, lol
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2016 21:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 16:27 |
|
|
Eh. Mark was better than Leslie and Chris were in the last two seasons. By a lot, actually. Every Leslie-involved plot for two seasons was bad. Well, actually Leslie wasn't so bad in the future, but in the two seasons before that, oh boy was she the worst.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2016 22:12
|
|
|
Mark was boooring which in a sitcom is a hundred times worse than being "bad". As tarlibone pointed out, he was basically a character from another show. He was a less charismatic Jim Halpert character who made deadpan sarcastic remarks and gave incredulous looks to the camera. But that stopped working when the show itself got a lot less cynical and embraced the silliness of the other characters. But for my own curiosity, what made Leslie so bad in seasons 5 and 6?
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2016 22:36
|
|
|
It would have been nice for Mark to at least have a cameo in the last season.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 04:29
|
|
|
Henchman of Santa posted:It would have been nice for Mark to at least have a cameo in the last season. The logo from the architecture firm that he left for (or something similarly obscure) pops up on one of the blueprints for the project Ron is trying to build in the first half of the last season. It's super easy to miss but it's there. A fitting tribute to Mark, IMO.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 06:20
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:Mark was boooring which in a sitcom is a hundred times worse than being "bad". As tarlibone pointed out, he was basically a character from another show. He was a less charismatic Jim Halpert character who made deadpan sarcastic remarks and gave incredulous looks to the camera. But that stopped working when the show itself got a lot less cynical and embraced the silliness of the other characters. She was a comedy blackhole. Mark was dry, but funny. Everything Leslie did was selfish, bitchy, or useless feel good nonsense. She always had a happy ending which is not only unfunny, it's annoying. They had every opportunity to make the city council plot entertaining and substantial, but they made it a slapstick idiot-fest that all happily worked out because Leslie was (not) nice.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 08:24
|
|
|
L'il Sebastian had more personality and a better on-screen presence than Mark but congrats on the mental gymnastics. He was worthless and in the end his only lasting impression was to move Ann's plot forward, which was a cool move, because Ann existed mostly to move other characters' plots forward.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 08:34
|
|
|
Leslie, or at least the plots surrounding her, were a big part of the weakness of seasons 5 and 6. Season 6 especially sets Leslie up as the antagonist in a lot of episodes, but never really pays off on that. She's still a great and classic character, but S5 and 6 ranges from okay to good (except Ann's goodbye episode, which is incredible), instead of good to great (seasons 2, 4, and 7) or just a perfect run of episodes (season 3). Both are better than S1.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 14:35
|
|
|
Basically the problem is that it walks back some very important character growth in Season 4 (Leslie learning not to be a giant out-of-control steamroller), which is an issue in a lot of sitcoms but more noticeable in one with characters developed as carefully and consistently as P&R's.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 14:40
|
|
|
FactsAreUseless posted:Basically the problem is that it walks back some very important character growth in Season 4 (Leslie learning not to be a giant out-of-control steamroller), which is an issue in a lot of sitcoms but more noticeable in one with characters developed as carefully and consistently as P&R's. To be fair, though, that's pretty true to life. Recognizing your faults doesn't always result in a change of who you are as a person.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 15:24
|
|
|
Super Deuce posted:She was a comedy blackhole. Mark was dry, but funny. Okay so now I understand what you're saying about Leslie (although I don't personally agree) but I think the comparison is pretty ridiculous. You're comparing a character who has been the focal point of the show for 5 seasons at that point to a side character whose one note barely allowed him to limp across the finish line of the second season.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 23:27
|
|
|
Definitely good episodes of Seasons 5 and 6:
Objectively bad episodes of Seasons 5 and 6:
Leslie as a councilwoman never lives up to its potential but we still get some good episodes, the recall storyline isn't that great (Are You Better Off? is easily the worst season finale), and the Unity Concert buildup is pretty ehhhh before a good episode closing out Season 6. I would probably nominate Correspondents' Lunch for consideration as the worst episode of the show. Late-game Parks and Rec gave us Mona Lisa and Jeremy Jamm and for that I will forgive a lot of things.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 20:30
|
|
|
FadingChord posted:
The Wall has my favorite joke in the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ_1RRxY5tg Plus Jam repeatedly being awesome.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 20:37
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:The Wall has my favorite joke in the series: The Wall is probably the strongest episode in my "Objectively Bad" list but the only good things I could remember were the two things you mentioned and Ben's plan to get rich as a drycleaning middleman. The real sin of Season 6 is that a lot of it is just treading water; you could say the same for Season 5 but at least they had some good ideas before they really started spinning the wheels.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 20:46
|
|
|
FadingChord posted:The Wall is probably the strongest episode in my "Objectively Bad" list but the only good things I could remember were the two things you mentioned and Ben's plan to get rich as a drycleaning middleman. The best part of that is it's revealed Dr. Saperstein made a killing doing it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 20:49
|
|
|
We're on our umpteenth rewatch of seasons 1-4, and it's pretty amazing how noticeably the quality begins petering out in the second half of 4. There are a handful of really good episodes to end that season (the final three episodes are The Debate, Bus Tour, Win/Lose/Draw), but once you hit the Tom/Ann ("Tan") storyline in that season, the show really becomes hit or miss with how cohesively it weaves themes and storylines together, and you can see the seeds of the problems seasons 5 & 6 would come to suffer from -- the shift from character relationships breeding good jokes/stories to seemingly the jokes/plot ideas becoming the jumping off point. I can't really pinpoint the why seasons 5 and 6 suck from the focal point of the producers & writers involved, because some very talented writers are still in the room or jumping in: Wittels, Nate DiMeo, Alan Yang, Dan Goor, etc.; the showrunner seat was always Michael Schur's. The only definitive thing I've noticed is Chelsea Peretti leaves the show at the end of season 4. I don't particularly like her on camera or on podcast, but I guess she's a great story editor? We'll be powering through seasons 5 & 6 to get to our first season 7 rewatch, and at this point I'm interested in them out of pure academic curiosity. What the gently caress happened.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 20:55
|
|
|
FadingChord posted:I would probably nominate Correspondents' Lunch for consideration as the worst episode of the show.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 21:35
|
|
|
The only plot I couldn't stand was finding Donna's spirit animal. Like why does literally anyone in the story care about this. It definitely seems like something April would make fun of at least.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 21:39
|
|
|
S5 and S6 don't suck, though, for all the problems that they have. There's some great jokes in there, and they play around with some good character pairings they hadn't tried before (Ben and Jerry was great, using Donna more in general was good). But it is aimless - I think the constantly changing episode order hurts it a lot. Also they clearly didn't know what to do with Leslie, and that's not a good place for your main character to be.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 21:41
|
|
|
FactsAreUseless posted:It's almost certainly something in Season 1, but Sister City is pretty bad. I actually laughed at some of the Armisen bits last time I watched it, but it really doesn't fit the show at all. Counterpoint: 
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 21:59
|
|
|
FactsAreUseless posted:S5 and S6 don't suck, though, for all the problems that they have. There's some great jokes in there, and they play around with some good character pairings they hadn't tried before (Ben and Jerry was great, using Donna more in general was good). But it is aimless - I think the constantly changing episode order hurts it a lot. Also they clearly didn't know what to do with Leslie, and that's not a good place for your main character to be. Yeah, it depends on your reference point for if they suck. As a cohesive season, definitely. Taken as just a collection of sitcom episodes, far from terrible. They just spent a few years setting a ridiculously high bar for themselves across the board.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 22:01
|
|
|
FactsAreUseless posted:It's almost certainly something in Season 1, but Sister City is pretty bad. I actually laughed at some of the Armisen bits last time I watched it, but it really doesn't fit the show at all. Not enjoying Sister City episode, believe it or not: jail.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 22:18
|
|
|
Sister City is a good episode for exploring that Pawnee is, in fact, a massive crap hole, and not a quaint little town.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 22:30
|
|
|
Spoeank posted:Sister City is a good episode for exploring that Pawnee is, in fact, a massive crap hole, and not a quaint little town. Who let the Eagleton in here?
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 22:32
|
|
|
grilldos posted:Yeah, it depends on your reference point for if they suck. As a cohesive season, definitely. Taken as just a collection of sitcom episodes, far from terrible. They just spent a few years setting a ridiculously high bar for themselves across the board. It's ridiculous to thank that 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, and Community all aired during the same period on the same channel.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 23:15
|
|
|
FactsAreUseless posted:It's ridiculous to thank that 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, and Community all aired during the same period on the same channel. Also, Outsourced.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2016 23:59
|
|
|
And The Office. Was Outsourced as terrible as I remember it being?
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 00:13
|
|
Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
|
PittTheElder posted:Was Outsourced as terrible as I remember it being? Oh yes, most definitely. I mentioned it as a joke. Random story: I had a theatre professor that taught the lead on Outsourced so I could never properly talk in class about how bad a show it was.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 00:18
|
|
|
El Tortuga posted:Oh yes, most definitely. I mentioned it as a joke. Man that must have come up all the time.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 00:20
|
|
|
Spoeank posted:Sister City is a good episode for exploring that Pawnee is, in fact, a massive crap hole, and not a quaint little town. Yeah. But this little clip does it better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mK01Fec7zA
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 00:34
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:Was Outsourced as terrible as I remember it being? The movie it was based on is really good. I thought I was the only person who had seen it until the show started up. Then I wished I really had been.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 00:40
|
|
|
Inkspot posted:The movie it was based on is really good. I thought I was the only person who had seen it until the show started up. Then I wished I really had been. I can think of one good moment from it: Diedrich Bader's string of innuendos after he slept with the mum of the Australian character the lead character was dating or something. I don't even remember their names. (The movie was much better.) She is one hot Aussie mama. There are no great barriers to her reef. She outbacked my steakhouse. She diggeried my do. She hughed my Jackman. She's singing in my opera house! She boomered my rang! Russelled my Crowe! She dingoed my baby!
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 00:44
|
|
|
Andy working very hard to become a cop and then not quite making it is a great arc and a smart choice for the show.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 01:53
|
|
|
FadingChord posted:Objectively bad episodes of Seasons 5 and 6:
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 03:08
|
|
|
codenameFANGIO posted:Man that must have come up all the time. Real talk though, it did. This professor loved to talk about her students that had gotten actual work, and Outsourced had just premiered, so...
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 03:16
|
|
|
I didn't realize it until these posts, but I think I've only seen "Sister City", like, three or four times. Compare that to the dozens of times I've seen every other one (first season excluded). I can't even explain what it is but nothing about that episode makes me wanna come back again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 03:59
|
|
|
I don't really get the dislike for Sister City; it's not the best episode by any means, but Fred Armisen's jokes mostly hit their mark, it's a good early "Leslie takes the high road and stands up for her beliefs instead of making things easy for herself" story, and it's the first time I can remember Donna really getting something interesting to do. Like it's not a great episode but it's probably at least above anything in Season 1 and it fits pretty well in the context of the show's steady increase in quality through Season Two. I also can't think of a single good Eagleton episode, which is too bad because I like the idea of Pawnee's Spingfield having a Shelbyville. e: Since I'm posting so much about this show, I'm also going to take this opportunity to nominate the Snakejuice launch episode as the best episode, though I am willing to entertain arguments for 5,000 Candles. Cockblocktopus fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Jan 7, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 04:24
|
|
|
FadingChord posted:Snakejuice launch episode as the best episode This is a fact.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 05:13
|
|
|
FadingChord posted:The Snakejuice launch episode as the best episode
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 12:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 16:27 |
|
|
I just finished re-watching season 5 and I fuckin' forgot about this, holy poo poo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBrLClQSdm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4PzbxAgMIs
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 13:49
|
|
