“Parks and Recreation” (7 p.m. Central Tuesdays on NBC) isn’t the first show to do a time-jump. Off the top of my head, “Dawson’s Creek” jumped ahead three years for its final episode, “24” sprang forward a few times in order to have new presidents and new technology, and “Fargo” did a beefed-up “one year later” coda in its first season.
But none of those shows did much to comment on near-future society the way sci-fi series set decades in the future (for example, “Almost Human”) tend to do. Also, none of those shows are comedies, and a quick perusal of the web reveals that almost all time-jumping series are dramas.
Rather than a last-ditch attempt to create buzz for its seventh and final season, “Parks and Recreation” is using the jump to 2017 as a source of offbeat humor and a way to reinvigorate its social and political commentary through the art of prediction. No previous TV series has tried anything quite like this.
On the humor front, in the first two episodes we learn that the Jason Bourne movie series has morphed into a comedy franchise starring Kevin James; a “Hitch 2” has been released, and it’s a popular download on Gryzzlbook (which has presumably displaced Facebook); Shia LaBeouf is a wedding-dress designer; and the Cubs won the World Series.
(I think “Morningstar,” the thing from “two years ago” that caused Leslie to despise Ron, has no intended meaning, like the Cheese Man in the “Buffy” episode “Restless.”)
Additionally, we see that Pawnee has become a Midwestern mini-D.C. with the relocation of the National Parks Service headquarters to Leslie’s hometown. (It’d be an interesting real-world experiment to scatter government departments around the country, rather than having them all in D.C., but it’ll never happen, of course.) Unlike their community, the main characters are still recognizable three years after we last saw them, but they’ve changed in notable ways. Here’s a cheat sheet of who’s the same and who’s different in the 2017 version of Pawnee:
Leslie: Same personality, but – as the director of the National Parks Service — she has more power. From a libertarian perspective, this is a mixed bag: Leslie’s not corrupt, but she does believe government is the best way to do everything. She wants to open a national park in Pawnee, but now she has access to the whole country’s tax base, not just Pawnee’s. I hope this storyline ends with Ron’s company – which presumably has lots of cash due to its association with Gryzzlbook — purchasing the land and running a beautiful for-profit park, but I’m not holding my breath.
Ben: Oh-so-boringly the same. Although he doesn’t work for the parks department anymore, he’s still the straight man (the one who looks into the camera with bemusement) to everyone, and the most unnecessary character on the show (since everyone serves as everyone else’s straight man anyway). It’s said that “P&R” will kill off a character this season; Ben is the most disposable – but also the least likely, since the audience wouldn’t care if he died.
Ron: Same personality and values, different job. Having played out the joke of the character who works in a government job he believes should not exist in the first place, “P&R” has moved Ron into a more suitable environment as the head of Very Good Building and Development Co. In his personal life, Ron has definitively won his battle of wits with ex-wife Tammy, as he trains Councilman Jeremy Jamm on how to resist her wiles.
Andy and April: Different, but they wish they were the same. Andy (who has a hit TV show, the most unbelievable element of the time jump other than the Cubs winning the World Series) has started taking heartburn medication before eating entire jars of olives, April (who still works for Leslie) finds herself planning slow-cooker meals and the couple is preparing to buy renter’s insurance. April hates that they’ve accidentally become responsible adults. It looks like more changes are in store for her as she thinks about landing her dream job of working at a mortuary.
Tom: Continuing his progression from last season, Tom’s boundless confidence is now backed up by a genuine business success: Tom’s Bistro is one of those hit ventures in burgeoning Pawnee.
Donna: Like Tom and Ron and Andy, she’s thriving along with the new Pawnee; in her case, as a real-estate agent. While it’s a big career leap, “P&R” had always hinted that Donna – who is now engaged to an off-screen character — had hidden talents.
Jerry: Exactly the same. He works somewhere else, but presumably does the same thing he did at the parks department (whatever that was), and his colleagues call him Terry, not caring that his real name is Gary. I continue to cross my fingers that he’ll get the last laugh when the series ends (although arguably his inexplicably beautiful wife is already the last laugh).
Other characters: Joan Callamezzo has basically gone insane, which is why April loves the local TV personality and her nine memoirs. Since it wants the main cast to still be recognizable, the side characters might be “P&R’s” best opportunity for humor based on a drastic character reinvention.
What did you think of “Parks and Recreation’s” take on 2017? Does “Morningstar” mean anything? And which main character will bite the dust in Season 7?