Parks and Recreation: Saying Farewell to One of Television's Finest

I started watching Parks and Recreation during a Christmas break away from college back in early 2011. With nothing better to do, and all of my favorite TV shows on winter hiatus, I decided to check out a few shows that had always looked interesting to me, but that I had never picked up the habit of watching for various reasons. Back when Parks had premiered, I watched the first two episodes and thought they had potential, but nobody else in my family seemed very impressed, so I didn't watch beyond that point. When I started watching again, the show was just about to start its third season. In many ways, this was a re-branding point for the show, and the perfect time for a new viewer to come in and start watching. The end of season two was the introduction point for beloved characters Ben Wyatt and Chris Traeger. It only took me a few episodes to become a full fledged fan of the show. I started watching on a weekly basis, and bought the previous seasons on DVD to catch up on what I had missed. It was unlike any other show I had seen before. This show managed to be funny, smart, and sincere in the best way. 

A few nights ago, I decided to watch my all time favorite Parks and Recreation episode in preparation for tonight's series finale. It's a season 3 episode titled "Flu Season." After I watched this episode for the first times, I knew I was a fan of the show. Picking it as my favorite episode was a no-brainer. In the episode, many of Pawnee's citizens are coming down with the flu, but Leslie has a big presentation she must pull off in able to fund a large project. Amy Poehler, Rob Lowe, and Chris Pratt all deliver some of the show's best jokes ever, and the rest of the cast does top notch work here as well. I'm particularly fond of Leslie Knope's flu medication induced alter-ego "Leslie Monster," who apparently hosts Nightline. From a more serious standpoint, what really makes this episode great is that it shows just was Leslie Know is capable of doing. Despite having a severe flu, and having taken so much medication that she believes, "the floors and walls just switched places," Leslie gets up and delivers the perfect speech at the perfect moment. 

Leslie Know is superhuman in both good and bad ways. It's a quality that has made the show amazing for seven season, and has turned Leslie Knope into arguably the greatest modern TV character. A lot of shows these days create a very nihilistic atmosphere, and Parks and Recreation stands out as a beacon of hope because, like its main character, it refuses to stop fighting for what is right. That's what makes Leslie great; she would rather fight for a virtuous cause than preserve her own ambitions. We need more shows like Parks and Recreation, that make us laugh, but also show us the virtue of standing for something. I don't know how Parks and Recreation will end tonight (I'm sure it will be as on point as anything else the show has done), but I do know that we are losing one of the greats.