Parks and Recreation: Season One

In this 2009 first season, Amy Poehler stars as Leslie Knope, the Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department in Pawnee, IN. Leslie is an idealistic if also inept dreamer working in an environment that reveres power over public service. This comedy of incompetence, office politics, and petty turf wars in a small town bureaucracy hails from the creators of the American version of The Office and is shot in the same mockumentary style. The abbreviated try-out season of six episodes charts Knope's efforts to turn a vacant lot with a dangerous open pit into a public park—a project that faces stiff opposition not only from her boss (“I don't want the parks department to build any parks, because I don't believe in government”) but also from the public itself, none of which deters her quest. Rashida Jones costars as a citizen who joins her campaign, and Paul Schneider plays the city planner who hits on every woman passing through the office except for the lovesick Leslie. The series has the same low-key humor built around discomfort and awkwardness as The Office, with Leslie only slightly smarter and more self-aware than Steve Carell's Michael Scott, but Parks and Recreation never really carves out its own identity. DVD extras include cast and crew episode commentaries, an extended season finale, and deleted scenes. Optional. (S. Axmaker)