Parks and Recreation returns after whiffing on its rosy view of politics and government

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As Parks and Rec returns for a coronavirus special on Thursday, it's become even more apparent that the show's political optimism wouldn't survive in today's world, says Sady Doyle. "It seems ludicrous, looking back, that we ever believed life could work like Parks and Recreation," says Doyle. "The NBC sitcom, which aired from 2009 to 2015, was much beloved in its day — hailed for its 'brilliant, confident liberalism' and relentless idealism, a show in which optimism was cool and hard work led to 'happiness and success and achieving great things.' Those 'great things' came mostly to the titular Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana, where a team of good-hearted public servants, led by the passionate and over-prepared feminist Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler), looked past their ideological differences and worked tirelessly in the name of the public good. It is exactly the sort of scenario one absolutely cannot imagine in the America of 2020. It says something that showrunner Michael Schur’s next sitcom, The Good Place, took place in the afterlife yet seemed more realistic than Parks and Rec. Now Knope and co. are returning once again for a 30-minute reunion special, to air on NBC this Thursday." As Doyle points out, the political world has changed dramatically since Parks and Rec signed off in February 2015. "Since 2015, politics has been demarcated as a vicious sport for vicious people," says Doyle, also noting that Leslie's feminist crush, Joe Biden, is now being accused of sexual misconduct. "There is a hole in Parks and Recreation’s moral universe, and it grows more evident every year," says Doyle. "The show revels in the radiant liberal optimism of Leslie Knope — but, like Leslie herself, it refuses to account for human evil. In Parks and Recreation, the people of Pawnee can be stupid, or weird, or misguided, but — with the exception of librarians, who are pure malice in human form — they are almost never bad...Over and over, when trying to explain human malice, Parks and Recreation whiffs and presents a story about nice people making mistakes."

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• Michael Schur isn't interested in doing a full-on Parks and Rec revival: "I would never say never because why bother saying never, but this felt like a moment in time and a cause that we could all rally behind and that made sense," he says. "Parks and Rec had a very specific subject to discuss and very specific point to make…We held on by the skin of our teeth at times, but we were lucky enough to be around for seven years and 120-something episodes, I think. And when it ended, Amy and I used to talk a lot about this: We felt like we made our point. We had an argument; we made the argument and we got out."
• Schur and six of the show's original writers had to figure out how to fit the coronavirus special within the context of the series finale that was set between 2017 and 2065: “Any fan who cares about canon should consider this canon,” Schur said. “It did present a weird situation because ordinarily you could just make everything up and start from scratch. But we had already said what had happened to everyone in years past this, so we had to go back and retrofit everything and make sure it makes sense.”
• Jim O'Heir was initially nervous about reprising his Jerry Gergich role
• Watch Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson reunite in a teaser for A Parks and Recreation Special