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The show is probably done after this season, so it doesn't really matter to NBC when what episode airs. It's just schedule filler to them.

The Cancellation Bear has mixed feelings on the issue at the moment

The show has still been very strong (unlike The Office, which started to really come apart at the seams around Season 4/5), but I can't say I'd be upset if it ended after this season. It's better to burn out than fade away, as so many sitcoms over the history of TV have proven.

If I was assured a Tina Fey/Amy Poehler HBO sitcom next year, I'd be happy for NBC to cancel it right now.

Some further info: Once the show comes back, it'll air 2 episodes on November 14th, 2 episodes on November 21st, and then go away again until January 9th. Sigh.

I do love that this and the Ikiru thread keep getting bumped today.

Matt wrote:If I was assured a Tina Fey/Amy Poehler HBO sitcom next year, I'd be happy for NBC to cancel it right now.

Excuse you, Parks and Recreation has the best comedy ensemble on TV right now, of which Poehler is but one cog

Though two of those ensemble are definitely leaving at the end of the year and the rest certainly aren't hurting for work.

Man, I straight LOVED the first and second seasons of this show and it has had its moments since, but I can't say I've enjoyed it nearly as much since Adam Scott joined the cast forever ago. Which makes little sense because I really like Adam Scott, I guess I just don't buy his character's relationship with Poehler's one iota and so now a major chunk of the series to me is just dead weight.

I have actually never heard anyone say that they love the first season of this show.

The Leslie-Ben relationship makes sense when you consider that Ben is portrayed as being a gigantic geek who defines himself based upon his career within public service and politics, which is basically a mirror of Leslie. Of course, as much as I enjoy Adam Scott when he's not playing an asshole (and sometimes that's still mildly appealing), I kind of always have held onto some small amount of hope that Mark Brendanawicz would return for a few episodes just to let us see what he's been up to since he left his government job - and also cause I enjoy Paul Schneider.

I quite like the first season and thought Schneider was fine. Scott drags down every scene he's in and just can't keep up with the rest of the sharp cast; Scott the actor is the problem, not the way the character is written.

The show was better in the first two seasons, when the focus was on parks, recreation, and small town governance, rather than on the love lives of the characters.

Did this just turn into The Office's thread or are there actually people who liked the first season?

The first season is nearly unbearable. Leslie was initially played as kind of Michael Scott-level dumb by Poehler, and the other characters hadn't really been fleshed out the way they should have been (Andy was actually a jerk, which didn't fit Chris Pratt one bit). Adam Scott felt a little awkward during the time that I was mourning the fact that he was on this instead of more Party Down, but he's been doing pretty great as a straight man lately, especially when paired with Pratt. Much like The Office, things really started coming together in the second season when the creators had time to back up, take a look at what they had, and work everyone into roles that suited them best instead of the roles they wrote for the pilot.

P.S. Glad to see that Donald Brown is still an irascible contrarian who goes after inexplicable targets - Adam Scott, really? Some things never change around here.

Since it's the current topic, I have only seen the first season. I watched it while it was airing and was totally turned off by it, especially as a big Office booster at the time. Everyone I'm friends with loves the show and swears I need to give it another chance.

I actually think Donald Brown's critique fits a lot better for 30 Rock. Once it became the Tina Fey show, I tuned out. I really enjoyed that ensemble cast and think when the writers stopped getting screen-time and the show got too wacky for its own good, it jumped shark (I'm thinking the fight-club episode where Lemon is suspended.)

Yes, 30 Rock was absolutely at its best when the writing room was prominently featured, etc. Became way too much about Jack later on (his relationships, his mother, pregnancies, etc) and what seemed like several characters were disappeared from the show to make time. But what Donald describes (the ensemble element) hasn't gone away from Parks and Recreation, in fact, it's only gotten stronger. It seems like they often find interesting things for all the characters to do in each episode, which is welcome when the A story is a bit dull (as I often found it to be throughout the election season a couple years ago).

I know I'm in the minority on the first season. Maybe it's Schneider, who I thought was good and a much more believable interest for Poehler's character than Scott's, or maybe it's because I just mentally merge the first season with season two since the first is so short.

Season Two's definitely the best, though, am I right.

Here is what Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe are up to now.

Some of the great character names from the end credits:

So no comments on the finale? Especially now that Michael Schur has officially declared that its not a flash-forward, but where S7 will pick up. You gotta admit that its a pretty gutsy move, and hopefully the shot in the arm the show needs after a completely complacent season. Also, it seems to hint at something the show abandoned early on:

Spoiler

Sweet Leslie turning into much more of a shark like her mom

I thought it was pretty strong...as a series finale. Hopefully the new time-frame/setting will help keep the show fresh, but I'd be alright* if that was the end of the series altogether.

*Provided that NBC could come up with a show that would, at least, equal the quality of the lesser P&R episodes.

The series has already been picked up for a seventh and presumably final season. I thought the season on the whole was just okay (the weakest since season one, but the series has also kept up a pretty tight pedigree since then) but it picked up in the last couple episodes and this is still a great "hang out" show with the best comedic cast on TV (though I'm sad to see Lowe and Jones go of course). I'll be curious to see how this time-jump plays out, but now that Community has cannibalized itself to the point that I'm kind of embarrassed to have ever fawned so fervently over it, at least there's still one network comedy worth rooting for.

I don't know. I think Community finished strong. Not as strong as it's ever been, but solid S1 levels. Then again, I'm still cutting the show slack for having to make up for the actor perhaps most responsible for the show's comic rhythm, and recovering from a season which not only wasn't very good, but obviously blew Harmon's ace in the hole storyline (Jeff and his dad) that he was clearly saving. The show is still lacking an overriding direction.

Rashida Jones' TBS Sitcom was picked up

Retta sez the time jump occurred because Poehler didn't want to work with babies so soon after raising a couple kids of her own

Cones of Dunshire now a real game, developed by the same people who made Settlers of Catan

Aubrey Plaza is the voice of Grumpy Cat in Lifetime's forthcoming Christmas movie