[ SECRET POST #2931 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2931 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 064 secrets from Secret Submission Post #419.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[cushlamochree]

I'm not going to convince you that you should find any of those characters likeable.

I do find it interesting that you're including Parks and Rec on that list, though, because it's an obvious outlier - while all the other shows are prestige dramas full of anti-heroes and jerks, Parks and Rec is almost founded on the concept of having a cast full of likeable people. That's kind of the basic concept of the show at least after season 1. Of course sometimes there's no accounting for what we find annoying I guess.

[(Anonymous)]

Parks & Rec is full of fluffy quirky likeable people. That's kind of its thing, among a sea of modern comedy based on cringe factors and awkwardness.

I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea though.

[cushlamochree]

Exactly. It's hard to think of another sitcom recently that's more committed to positivity as a basic tenet.

[(Anonymous)]

Brooklyn 99...which happens to come from the same people who produced Parks and Rec.

I mean, for Brooklyn 99 you need to get beyond the first four episodes or so. The characters started clicking with episode five in season one, which was about the squad coming together to defeat "The Vulture." After that, the episodes started cleaning up the initial messiness of the first four episodes.

I guess it shouldn't be surprising. It took Parks and Rec all six episodes of season one for it to become what it is.

[cushlamochree]

Yeah I was thinking of mentioning Brooklyn 99, but I think it's somewhat less committed to positivity than P&R. Maybe because it often feels like, where P&R was just trying to do its thing, B99 almost feels like they're trying to do a retro thing - going back to a lot of old-school sitcom styles.

Which I love, don't get me wrong! It's just a different emphasis. I love Mike Schur / Ken Tremendous, I love B99.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, no! I 100% agree. Where Parks and Rec had likeability and decency being the point of it from maybe the first third of season two onwards, I almost think that B99 kind of attacks it from a different angle.

It's like...the characters themselves are likeable, but they have their moments where they can be real jerks, too.

I also want to add: Bob's Burgers is another one where the main characters are all likeable and decent people. You just have to hang in there until episode six's "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?" to really bring that point home.

[(Anonymous)]

+1 for Brooklyn 99. Love that show to pieces.

[hwc]

I love Brooklyn 99, but couldn't get into Parks & Rec at all. Like OP I didn't find anyone likeable, which is why I quit after three or four episodes. In contrast, I love everyone on Brooklyn 99 and it's my favourite comedy show at the moment. It's my TV highlight of the week.

As for positive sitcoms, isn't Community supposed to be that? Like P&R I couldn't get into Community at all, but what I've seen from gifs and around fandom I thought Community avoided cringe humour as well.

[(Anonymous)]

Community avoids cringe humor but its characters are IMO much, much less likable and much more critically flawed than P&R's characters

[(Anonymous)]

I think the Community gang are quite likable. They're all different, but they get along well, and it works.

Pierce and Winger are jerks to varying degrees.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

My dislike of nearly every Community character is the main reason I started losing interest around the third season. I enjoy Abed most of the time, and Troy some of the time, but the rest of them are incredibly irritating and grating to me. There's no accounting for taste, we really can't control what we find likable and what we don't. For example, Annie would probably be a legitimately likable person in real life, but on-screen, she annoys the hell out of me.

[(Anonymous)]

Abed and Shirley are the only characters in Community I find at all likeable.

[(Anonymous)]

I gave up on Parks & Rec after two episodes because, like you, I found the characters unlikeable and cringe-worthy, I just couldn't watch it. I fast-forwarded most of those two episodes.

I gave it another try on the insistence of a friend. She advised me to skip season one completely. It's like it was a different show. The characters from Season two and onwards are completely different people. They are funny and quirky and loveable. Now, it's one of my favourite shows.

[(Anonymous)]

na

Yeah, I think Parks and Rec is one of the only shows where I frequently tell people to just straight up skip season one and read summaries about the first season instead. It's almost astoundingly bad. Season two was kind of rocky for a while too, but it was definitely and improvement and then it just kept getting better imo

[(Anonymous)]

I found Community's characters all unlikeable, some horribly so. I was so disappointed.

[(Anonymous)]

The big problem with P&R is that it didn't hit its stride until season 2. I initially quit after a few episodes, too, but then I happened to see an episode from the middle of s2 and it was like watching a different show.

[(Anonymous)]

+1 I definitely understand not being able to watch the other shows if you need likable characters, but I would think Parks would have at least one character the OP likes because the majority of them are written to be good people.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I don't even watch the show so I can't offer an educated opinion, but is it possible that's why OP isn't gelling with them? In my experience with other shows, character deliberately written as "good" or "quirky" or "cute" can instead come off as "obnoxious" and "irritating as fuck". I find being told I need to like characters much harder to engage with than characters that are presented as neutral or flawed, and we're left to make up our own minds.

No idea if that's the case here, but possibly might be an issue for OP.

[(Anonymous)]

I have trouble seeing that as the case for all the Parks characters, while that could be an issue for some, they all have kind of unique personalities and while they are basically "good" they are not supposed to all be cute and quirky or perfect. The Parks characters can be very flawed, but I'd consider them good in comparison to the other shows listed.

I think people are reacting to this secret with "Why Parks and Rec?" because it is VERY different from the other shows OP has issues with. It's not the morally grey/dark show that the others are. Like even if OP were to list another comedy, if their problem is "unlikable characters" I would understand something like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia being listed more. Because even though I personally love that show, the characters are horrible human beings and you can only like them on a "liking a villain" kind of level. Parks is not like It's Always Sunny though, not in the slightest bit.

[othellia]

Yeah, I'm wondering if OP maybe only watched part of season one and called it quits. Other than the way everyone treats Jerry (and I think we had a thread once here on it), it's literally a show of fluff and likeability.

[cushlamochree]

I would completely get how they'd reach that conclusion if they only watched season 1. Maybe even parts of season 2. That would make perfect sense.

[(Anonymous)]

Yup. the OP obviously shouldn't feel obligated to watch it, but the retooling they made after S1 made a huge difference (it takes a bit into S2 for the chemistry to gel, too.

To me the biggest difference was really around them recentering Leslie--they stopped treating her as pathetic and a female Michael Scott to being someone who had genuine passion and ability and drive, and had people around her appreciate that, even if she sometimes got carried away in her own enthusiasms and had weird hobbies/tastes.

[(Anonymous)]

I was not even interested in the first season of Parks and Rec. I think the characters evolved into likable, but if you start at the beginning, they might not be.