There's no way around this one: the first season of Parks and Recreation was awful. Whenever you try to convince people that they need to watch Parks and Rec, you find yourself immediately saying, "OK, the first season sucks, but once you get past that it's hilarious, I promise!" They had a fantastic cast, they just didn't know how to use it yet. Originally, the entire show was a lot more Leslie-focused. And while Amy Poehler is a wonderful fabulous amazing human being, one of the greatest things about Parks and Rec is the ensemble of lovable and hilarious supporting characters. Once they started to develop the goldmine of Ron Swanson, Tom Haverford, Andy Dwyer, and yes, even Jerry Gergich, the show improved exponentially. Things started to get better in the second season, and everything really started to fall into place once they got rid of Mark (nothing against Paul Schneider, they just couldn't figure out a way to develop his character and he never really gelled with the rest of the Parks department) and brought in Chris Traeger and Ben Wyatt.
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.
