"You can kill me off if you want to. Say I'm visiting family, or invented time travel. Whatever it takes."
Well, maybe it's a case of the side characters being more entertaining than the leads? Nope again. They're a mishmash of character traits, and not a single one stands out amongst the others. Hell, Jerry "I dislocated my shoulder reaching for a dropped burrito" Gergich isn't even Jerry "Fart Attack" Gergich yet, and a Jerry Gergich that's not Jerry "I know you're laughing at me, but aw, shucks, you're just too nice" Gergich is not a Jerry Gergich that I want to see.
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God. Shut up, Jerry.
Where You Should Start: Season 2, Episode 23
Luckily, things pick up at the beginning of Season 2, when Ron Swanson goes from being a lame uncle to a cool uncle, Andy goes from being a deadbeat boyfriend to being a comedic battering ram, and the rest of the cast manages to find their place. And with the introduction of Adam Scott's nerdy, bewildered Ben and Rob Lowe's ultra-positive, health machine Chris, Parks And Rec transitions from having a collection of funny characters in it to having an actual cast. Somehow, the addition of Ben and Chris manages to not only provide two new additions, but round out the personalities of everyone else.
At Season 2, Episode 23, Parks And Rec goes from being a good sitcom to a damn good sitcom, because it makes that leap that all sitcoms have to make before they become something worth getting excited over. You can have as many funny people in a room as you want, but if they're not a cohesive unit yet, it's just jokes being thrown around. And jokes are usually great, but they're so much better when they come from people you care about.
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