Parks and Recreation reign as the supreme tv sitcom that makes The Office as equal to a pile of trash.
This sitcom uses comedic elements in unique ways that stand above The Office, Parks and Recreations hold this title for a variety of reasons, most specifically, however, the way it develops the characters in its story. An emotional connection between both the characters and audience is what The Office cannot meet.
The characters in Parks and Recreation complete the full cycle of the storytelling element, “The Hero’s Journey.”
That is each character individually; starts from humble beginnings discover a hidden talent that has been overlooked, begin to find favor, lose that favor to then overcoming a great struggle, change how they felt before, and in the end find happiness through the completion of the story.
When broken down these characters all had meaningful development in a shorter amount of time. Michael Scott in The Office did not evolve in his time throughout the show. This selfish, awkward and sometimes a sympathetic dummy started from the pilot and wasn’t seen much until he left engaged. Pam and Jim had much more screen time that took away from the rest of the characters to develop a relationship in which it’s audience was attracted to more than its supporting characters.
Parks delivered it’s audience a chance to view a public service that many overlook from a day to day basis to witnessing these passionate individuals drive, such as the city Pawnee to success. Parks emphasizing a unity within the department where collaboration and deep friendship are crucial.
Parks offer more layers, better jokes and crazier development of characters than The Office. One of the characters that embody this example is Ron Swanson. It is near to impossible to have one character single-handedly run an entire series with compassion and comedy, however, Ron Swanson is a character that does just that.
He is stern yet loveable and leaves the audience wanting more from him. Every characteristic from his hatred of Canada and Europe, to his double-life as a sexy saxophonist. This sitcom leaves a strong desire to sit and watch Parks and Rec rather than leave The Office as background noise while doing homework.
The screenwriters and producers behind the magic of both these sitcom (NBC), dominated when producing Parks and Rec and viewers could connect the dots that Mark Schur made between them both. However, there is consistency that Parks gives throughout its seasons.
Screenwriters stumbled in Season 5 and 6 but left with a bang in Season 7. The Office, on the other hand, lost its momentum as a whole after Season 4 making it a difficult sitcom to continue watching
The reason being is Parks had their characters improvise throughout the sitcom that challenged the screenwriters to input jokes that best resonated with its audience. When looking at comedians as a whole this skill is something very few succeed with and what deciphers true comedians to scripted ones.
Therefore those who compare Parks and Recreation different from The Office is incomparable sense, it provides easy comedy when utilizing a public service as a mode of reflection to provide people to go about their day to day.
Parks and Rec stand alone as the only show in which all characters even supporting ones are given the opportunity to complete the hero’s journey and find happiness by the end of the series.
