The Bittersweet Taste of Finales
Spoilers
This week we found ourselves at a similar juncture in our TV watching twice over. The final hurdles careered into sight for two TV programmes we have been watching and the confetti extravaganza of finale-time was in reach for both. With little self control, we found two evenings where the last half dozen episodes were whizzed through to our reward. With any programme, a finale offers a chance for contemplation and consideration of the process one has been through. All ends are hopefully tied, all characters complete, and a final analysis can be drawn. For the best shows, though, finales offer a swell of emotions as you say "Auf Wiedersehen" to characters who feel like much loved friends. This week we found ourselves with fond farewells for Parks and Recreation and Cheers.
Parks and Recreation
4/5
As with most forms of art or culture, the sitcom has moved through varying trends over the years. In America, this process has settled on something satisfyingly surprising over the last decade: 'nice comedy', Twee as it sounds, 'nice comedy' is a refreshing approach to the sitcom formula. It relies on a set-up where, intrinsically, the main characters are fairly nice, warm, considerate, caring, no matter how ridiculous the situation around them appears. Earlier on this year I looked at one of the best examples of this form of comedy, Schitt's Creek, a comedy built upon absurdity with a heart.
In choosing a show mid-summer to launch into, and buoyed by the enjoyment of its spiritual successor, we thought we would give Parks and Rec. a go. To begin with, it felt like a mistake. Series 1, though mercifully short, was light on gags and relied heavily on making Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope seem like an incompetent bureaucrat. It was created by a similar team to the American The Office and felt like a rehash of old ideas. The characters seemed snarky and unsympathetic. But, good friends had insisted it was enjoyable, so we persisted into Series 2.
Here things began to change. Between series, the production team had received feedback that Leslie wasn't coming across very well and, in many ways, was coming across as an idiot. Having not intended that outcome, they quickly worked on recrafting the show. They made Leslie intelligent, if over enthusiastic compared to her fairly low level job. The cast's improvisations found more tract as the actors found their characters. And they began to give this governmental team of park employees a journey. The characters were going to develop and they were going to support each other. With a slightly odd-fitting character leaving at the end of the second series (Paul Schneider's bland Mark Brendanawicz), space was made for Adam Scott and the brilliant Rob Lowe to join the cast, helping to finalise its transition to 'nice comedy'.
From there on in the series has been an immensely enjoyable ride. The core cast work slickly with one another, bouncing jokes with infectious humour, clearly developed through the improvisatory element of recording. As a team, they have created a distinctive set of characters (including the bizarrely hilarious Garry/Jerry/Larry/Barry/Terry), but greatest amongst them is one of the most wonderful comedic characters of all time: Ron Swanson. Nick Offerman often delivers the best gags and plotlines, all with a ridiculously deadpan expression. The core conceit of the character, a libertarian running a government office, would do enough lifting for most actors, but Offerman takes the role and completely crafts something on a higher level of performance.
The plotting moves at a fair pace, with mini-arcs and changing directions, giving the seven series enough story to keep the viewer interested through a binge-watch. Often the writers have taken bold choices with direction in a way most American sitcoms steadfastly avoid. Peppered around the show are a slew of ridiculous side characters, almost 2D to the point of ridiculousness, who are liberally dropped into plots to create the political satire. And at its core, it is a good political satire, tackling the pettiness and intense dramas occurring in small towns across America.
As we began with finales, it is also worth noting that this has one of the most touching and finest sitcom finales imaginable. And trust me when I say that; I am a connoisseur of fine sitcom finales. Following a couple of decades where sitcoms brought us troubling characters being spiteful, selfish, and mean-spirited, however funny they were at the time, Parks and Recreation did a very good job in reimagining the status quo.
Parks and Recreation, 2009 - 2015
Created by: Greg Daniels & Michael Schur
Directors: Greg Daniels, Michael Schur, et al...
Writers: Greg Daniels, Michael Schur, Rachel Axler, Dan Goor, Alan Yang, Norm Hiscock, et al...
Composers: Vincent Jones & Gabby Moreno
Starring: Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Aziz Ansari, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe, Jim O'Heir, & Retta
Currently available to stream on Netflix
Cheers
5/5
It had been a long time since I had visited the bar where "everybody knows your name" when we began watching Cheers. Unlike Parks and Recreation, which we polished off over half a summer, we have been watching Cheers for about five years. A slow, well appreciated, evening of fine dining rather than a spirited gobbling of a bag of chips in the park.
In an age of binge-watching, it is unusual to take one's time with a programme. But some programmes can be excellent examples of television without needing to be swallowed in one go. In fact, taking ones time can often reap benefits. Cheers was produced over eleven series designed to be watched weekly. There are some minor through plot lines, but mostly this is a 'tune in next week for a similar episode' affair. Binge-watching would have damaged the show. Taking our time allowed us to appreciate it as intended.
Cheers acts as the benchmark for what other 'filmed before a live studio audience' shows could be. The cast were told when filming that all cameras of the were on constantly, to encourage them to keep acting in the background of the bar through all scenes. At the very least, the live studio audience was watching. In many ways, that seems to have given them an extra focus that allowed these 22 minute episodes to feel like a stage comedy. The cast respond well to each other and the audience, creating that sweet balance in sitcom timing.
At the core of the success of Cheers is the writing. Strange as it seems, for a programme focused on finding humour in the repetitiveness of hanging out in a bar, but the scripts are very tight and feel fresh week-in, week-out. The gag ratio is high and the writers know their actors and characters well. Cheers was one of the first shows to use a cold opener in a sitcom, for instance, and pretty much every cold opener is a knock out joke, even when predictable.
The comedic talent is top notch too. Ted Danson became so culturally ingratiated in the role of Sam Malone that his later roles, in characters more in-keeping with his normal softer personality (think Michael in The Good Place), are surprising and hard to believe initially. The work between Danson and Shelley Long, as Sam and Diane, created a pairing unmatched in cultural lexicon until Ross and Rachel. But Danson is shown to be the glue which holds the show together, as Long's departure barely makes a dent in the smooth operation of the programme.
Around him were a troupe of one line masters. George Wendt's Norm ("Norm!") revelled in his beer soaked lethargy. John Ratzenberger's Cliff, taking a pause for laughter before every rubbish anecdote, brought to life any know-it-all barfly you have met. Kelsey Grammer's Frasier, soon to leap off into his own success, finds his best footing when sparring with Bebe Neuwirth's perfectly deadpan Lillith. And both Nicholas Colasanto and Woody Harrelson mastered the art of stealing a scene with lovable absent-mindedness.
There is a lot of talk about the progress made in TV through programmes like Friends and Sex and the City, both of which revelled in the liberations of the 90s, the sexual empowerment of women, and using 'hot topics' as a basis for plotlines and comedy. Both shows have also recently begun to feel dated under the scrutiny of a modern lens. In many ways, Cheers would also struggle under such a lens, but I don't think as badly. And it definitely touched upon many issues almost as openly a decade earlier.
The embodiment of this is the character of Carla, played by the formidable comedian Rhea Perlman. Whilst Sam is a skirt chasing letch, of his time but frequently berated for it, Carla almost has as an equally 'promiscuous' life. She has separated from her husband before the show begins and by the end has eight children from different fathers. Although the children themselves are a source of humour through their criminal antics, the joke is never on Carla. At a point where we are led to believe such an existence was not being discussed on TV, Cheers showed a strong female character, independent, and fierce; a single mother working hard at a job; she was never presented with judgement. Carla was consistently celebrated and she, most importantly, she was funny. Although I doubt its creators or stars would wish for it to be scrutinised as such, it often serves as a better example of liberal progressiveness than the shows that followed.
Cheers was a consistently a 'hoot' from start to end. Every episode brought a smile to our faces. The finale explored a human's purpose. Was it to marry? Find a job? Become a person of note? As Norm put it to Sam, it was to find love - love for a person, an object, a place. Cheers, it turned out, did indeed have a through plot - Sam's search for purpose. In the end, his bar was it all along, and he was content. Would that we all could learn such a lesson from every sitcom.
Cheers, 1982-1993
Created by: James Burrows, Glen Charles, & Les Charles
Directors: James Burrows et al...
Writers: Glen Charles, Les Charles, Ken Levine, David Isaacs, David Angell, et al...
Composers: Gary Portnoy & Judy Hart Angelo (theme) / Craig Safan (score)
Starring: Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley, Shelley Long, Bebe Neuwirth, & Nicholas Colasanto
Currently available on DVD or to rent via Amazon Prime