Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: Leslie Knope

You know, I just realized I probably should have started with Leslie Knope, since she is the main character and all, but I kind of like bucking the expected, which I think Leslie would appreciate. Probably? Who knows, she's a fictional character.

Via After Ellen

Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: Chris Traeger

Via Buzzfeed

Despite the fact that I don't really like Rob Lowe* as a person, I absolutely adore Chris Traeger and his character arc throughout the series. The writers could have just left him as this obnoxiously optimistic, health-obsessed dudebro without an ounce of self-awareness, which for a comedy probably would have worked, but Parks and Rec is not your normal comedy. It constantly challenged gender roles, and Chris is a perfect example of this.

Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: Donna Meagle

Via Giphy

In Season Six's "Fluoride," April makes the observation that there is no dog in the world that could embody Donna's spirit because Donna is a cat. And you know what? It's true, and it's probably why I like her so much. I mean, don't get me wrong: I love dogs. Zola is one of the best things in my life, and in a few years, I'd even like to get another one. But cats? I love me some cats. I want all the cats. I would adopt three more if it wouldn't overwhelm my apartment and the three cats already living there.

Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: Andy Dwyer

Via Odyssey

I don't think I've met a single person who does not like Andy Dwyer. Seriously. Go poll your friends, Leslie-style. I'll wait. Well, I won't, because I already wrote this, but this post will be here when you get back.

Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: Ron Swanson

Via Gifrific

In Ben's post, I mentioned toxic masculinity because of course I did, and now I get to go into it a little bit deeper because it's Ron Fucking Swanson Day. It's quite appropriate that a certain excerpt from a Men's Health interview kept popping up on my Facebook feed, too, because it's so perfectly Nick Offerman but also a great opener to what I love about Ron Swanson:

I went to theatre school. I took two semesters of ballet. I'm the 'sissy' in my family. I cry with pretty great regularity. It's not entirely accurate to equate me with manliness. I stand for my principals and I work hard and I have good manners, but machismo is a double-sided coin. A lot of people think it requires behavior that can quickly veer into misogyny and things I consider indecent. We've been sold this weird John Wayne mentality that fistfights and violence are vital to being a man. I'd rather hug than punch. Crying at something that moves you to joy or sadness is just as 'manly' as chopping down a tree or punching out a bad guy ... If you live your life openly with your emotions, that's a more manly stance than burying them.

I highly recommend reading the entire interview, as it has classic Offerman wit and charm, but this quote in particular is so fucking important.

Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: Ben Wyatt

Via Parks and Recreation Tumblr

I kind of want to go back and redo my Favorite Ben Moment now and change it to when he went back to Partridge, MN, and got kidney stones, but thems the breaks, I guess.

Anyway, magic happened when Adam Scott's Ben Wyatt and Rob Lowe's Chris Traeger came onto Parks and Rec. The rest of season two was such an amazing departure from the bubble-headed, kind of dull show that it was during its first season, starting with the gay penguin wedding, but those last two episodes - "The Master Plan" and "Freddy Spaghetti" - were the two strongest of the season, mainly due to the interplay between the actors. Leslie's steamroller personality was no match for Ben's no-nonsense approach to budgeting, and even though I knew* that Ben would eventually become her love interest, I couldn't wait to see why they got together.

Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: April Ludgate

I know, I know, these are taking longer to complete than I thought, but at least I am doing them. My life is crazy right now, and it's not even November yet. Did you know that working two jobs, trying to find a full-time one, looking for a roommate, prepping to write 50,000 words in 30 days, keeping up (somewhat) with a blog, sleeping, having a sort-of social life, eating, exercising, etc. is really hard to do*?

Anyway, today is April's Day!

Via Hollywood.com

I honestly think that people want to be the April of their friend/work groups because she's so distinctively different from the rest of the cast: she's morbid, zany, antisocial, random, and secure in who she is as a person, which is not necessarily common in younger people. I know when I was her age at the beginning of the series, I was figuring out who I was and what I wanted out of life. While she may not have known the latter part, she was confident in her personality from the get-go, and that's definitely something that people would be drawn to.

Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: Tom Haverford

Via Uproxx

Like I said back on Day 29 of my Parks and Rec challenge, I was incredibly annoyed by Tom at first. It was mainly the first season, though, which I think can be somewhat excused because the writers were just figuring out who Tom was, and as the character was fleshed out from merely a bored government employee who thought he was the next Jay-Z or whatever into a motivated (albeit usually outside of work) and creative entrepreneur, it became so much easier to root for him. He wasn't perfect, obviously; his attempts to attract a woman* were cringeworthy, he is obsessed with Having Things, and he was ruthlessly cruel to Garry, all of which are huge issues for me. He also has this incessant need to perform for others and to receive praise for it (I mean, who doesn't need a pat on the back once in a while, but I'd much rather see appreciation in the form of more cash per hour), but I guess that's why he's perfectly suited for (spoiler alert) a future career as a self-help guru.

Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: Ann Perkins

Via Gifrific

I'm going to start with Ann Perkins here because, well ... in my life and circle of friends, I am Ann. At first, I resented this because I'm not really the straight man kind of character that Ms. Perkins is - seriously, just ask my friends - but as I reexamined the character, I had that mindblowing realization that a big part of the reason I initially had issues with her was because I identified strongly with her series arc.