My Top 10 Tuesday today is Top 10 Parks and Recreation Characters! After today, I will be doing some Emmy Preview posts on Tuesdays for the rest of the "season."
Close Calls: Chris Traeger, Mona Lisa Saperstein, Perd Hapley
Before Kathryn Hahn got a ton of attention as Agatha on WandaVision, she was loved in more niche circles. For me, her best role ever (perhaps including Agatha) was as Jennifer Barkley, the high powered campaign manager for Bobby Newport who drifted in and out of Pawnee in the later years of Parks and Rec. Her line deliveries and complete disregard for the small town was always so funny, she was a tour de force every time she appeared.
9. JEAN-RALPHIO SAPERSTEIN
I know some people find Jean-Ralphio irritating but I most certainly do not. The show used him sparingly, which was smart. But Ben Schwartz's character made the most of every appearance. He was a giant ball of weird energy who turned the lines into performances. He always left me wanting more but I think if he was in every episode, I wouldn't have felt that way. And when they added his sister, Mona Lisa (Jenny Slate) and then his father (played by the great Henry Winkler), the scenes just got better.
I loved what the show did with Jerry, Larry, Garry Gergich. They took a sad sack character who everyone made fun of and then took it a step further by making him the one who had the ideal home life and family. It baffled the rest of the characters but it made him a much more endearing character. That and Jim O'Heir's gentle and funny performance where you were equally able to laugh at him and root for him and usually got to do both in the same episode.
7. TOM HAVERFORD
Tom was an interesting character. He wasn't one of my favorites of the main cast but he really could have been meant for smaller things if not for Aziz Ansari's layered performance. At the beginning, Tom was pretty much a caricature but over time, he got much more depth to his character and it was clear just how much heart Tom had and how much his insane business ideas came from both a desire to belong and perhaps his own insecurities. Plus he gave us so many great phrases for things that really should stick more.
Donna was a character who wasn't going to be much of anything at the beginning but Retta turned a few one-liners into a fully realized character who was an integral part of the ensemble by the end of the series. She was always way too cool for the rest of the department and she didn't put up with any nonsense from any of the characters who crossed through the doors. Even as she became a more realized character, she was still good for one-liners all the way to the end.
5. BEN WYATT
I wasn't totally sold on Ben Wyatt as a character when he first joined the cast (Chris Traeger made more of an impact originally) but over time, I grew to love the character and how perfect he was for Leslie Knope. The show famously made the other characters like Leslie more in Season Two but then they went a step further and brought in someone much more like-minded as a love interest and the result was a beautiful relationship.
4. ANDY DWYER
I still maintain to this day that Chris Pratt's performance on Parks and Recreation was very underrated. He was a complete buffoon and he had a heart of gold. Every single line was delivered with such earnestness. In less capable hands, Andy could have just been dumb but Pratt's Andy was so much more than that. Even when he got much more fit in preparation for his future film career, Andy never lost the zest for life and joyful approach to all things.
April was the complete opposite of Andy and that's why they were perhaps the best couple on Parks and Recreation, yes maybe even better than Leslie and Ben. Aubrey Plaza could deliver lines like the Queen of Death but she ultimately did care and there was softness deep below the very cold and dark exterior. The journey April went on from a very disengaged intern to a fully realized woman with ambitions was impressive to watch.
2. LESLIE KNOPE
The top two were really really tough to rank. There were many reasons why Leslie Knope could have been number one. This was her show and she was always the sunny optimist. Parks and Recreation was one of the most hopeful shows about something that people are rarely hopeful about - government. But because Amy Poehler's Leslie was such a happy warrior, it held the entire premise together. And unlike characters like Michael Scott, she was an incredibly competent warrior too even if she sometimes lacked social graces. She was an impressive character.
As tough as it was to put Leslie at #2, Ron Swanson is an iconic TV character. Not just on the show, not just in recent years, but in TV history. Nick Offerman's character was a walking contradiction. A man who hated all things about government and bureaucracy yet made it his career. And he was so set in his ways that he could be unflinchingly funny about things (such as food and government spending) yet he had such delightful quirks (puzzles, Duke Silver). And of course the mustache. It feels like even people who don't know much about Parks and Rec know about Ron Swanson and that's with good reason.
Tomorrow: A One Season Wonder look at Something Wilder!
Next Tuesday: A look at the Supporting Actress categories at the Emmys!
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