Parks and Recreation

In the face of adversity, an obstinate populace, a blissfully incompetent local media, even her own overactive professional drive, Deputy Parks Director Leslie Knope gets things done. Of course, she has help from her department’s motley assemblage of governmental misfits: Tom Haverford, who plays at being an entertainment mogul to offset the realities of middle management, April Ludgate, intern-cum-personal assistant whose hipper-than-thou exterior betrays a depth of altruism, and Parks Director Ron Swanson, a staunch anti-bureaucrat and modern-day frontiersman who grounds but seldom derails Leslie’s flights of fancy. Parks and Recreation, set in Pawnee, Indiana, uses its strong slate of characters played by the whip-smart cast of comedic veterans (Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, and Nick Offerman) to make an important and rarely-noted point: With the right people and the right vision, government can work. More importantly, people of diverse opinion can come together to mutual benefit and the greater good. The series also gives us a strong sense of place. Over the course of four seasons, Parks and Recreation has crafted Pawnee into a diverse and lived-in community at once cartoonish and startlingly real, a great playground for its central cast and ever-expanding roster of peripheral characters. For developing a hilarious venue to explore the good side of American democracy in an age when that side is so rarely on display, Parks and Recreation earns a Peabody Award.