I’ve been dreading tonight for months. I have had a sad feeling in my stomach thinking about the finale of Parks and Recreation. I wrote about the series finale for the March issue of Channel Guide Magazine, and posted something on the website last week, but even now, having just finished watching the one-hour finale, I have an uneasy feeling in my stomach that lies somewhere between heartburn and malaise.
Time will tell what history thinks of the final episode of Parks and Recreation. But I guess I don’t care what others think. I had a deep personal love for the show because I wished I could be as eternally sunny and annoyingly loving as Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope. I loves the gruff and dim and messy and incredible people with whom Leslie worked; we should all be so lucky to work with people who are so unbelievably flawed yet so fantastically endearing. And it would also be helpful if those people aren’t freaked out by random gifts and frequent hugs.
I don’t care if the end of Parks and Rec will be held up with great finales like M.A.S.H or Breaking Bad, or stepped on like finales that weren’t as widely praised; someone is going to love it and someone will hate it. I think the series did a good job, giving satisfying codas to its major characters and many of the series’ auxiliary characters. The tweets that I read as the episode aired were positive and included near-constant references to tears. I don’t want to play super-spoiler by giving a blow-by-blow recount of every moment’s happening, but I will say that the show answered the question: “What will the characters be doing in 5 years?” by giving us a glimpse into their futures. My personal favorite flash forward was that of Ron Swanson — my favorite character — who found happiness as a government employee and looked like Smokey the Bear to boot.
Parks and Recreation never enjoyed a massive audience. But its ending doesn’t feel any less important to the show’s fans. I think that no matter how small or large a show’s audience, there will always be viewers who mourn the ending of any series. I feel like a good friend is moving away, like it’s the ending of college and I know that the gang will never be together again. I know that the cast and crew of Parks consider themselves lucky that they knew that this was their last season, and the knowledge that they could end their series by telling the stories they wanted to tell must have been satisfying creatively. It’s a luxury that few series get.
How do you feel after the Parks and Recreation series finale?
What would you have done differently?
Which flash-forward was your favorite?
