Parks and Recreation featuring Louis C.K.

So I have been on board with "Parks and Recreation" this entire season and have been loving it so far. I am very late to the party as this is their fourth season and the show seems to just continue to do well. It has a loyal following and a number of award nominations and I generally laugh out loud at least once every time I watch, which is big for me. Their most recent episode featured a cameo from Louis C.K. who is without question one of the funniest comedians performing currently. Needless to say I was very excited when I turned on my DVR-ed episode this morning and saw his face. I anticipated a hilarious episode and sadly I was let down.

Louis C.K. is a phenomenal comedian and a decent actor in his roles on "Louie" and "Lucky Louie" (when playing himself). However this latest "Parks and Recreation" episode missed the mark big time. I found Louis' character to be flat and unbelievable and it was really hard developing any sort of feeling about him either positive or negative. The entire episode dragged to the point where I just cooked my breakfast and stopped paying attention.

My theory here is that as of late NBC has been going out of their way to be the edgy network TV station. CBS has their formulaic cop shows and fucking Sheenless "Two and a Half Men", ABC has the now vomit inducing fallen from grace "Modern Family", "The Bachelor", and now "The River" which I shut off, and NBC wants to make people believe that they're like FX or even HBO and get some cool young hip viewers. In the past year NBC has debuted the pathetically edgeless "Whitney", "Chelsea Lately", "Two Broke Girls" and now this most recent episode of a show that works and works well but just totally bombed with the edgiest comedian around. Louis C.K. toned down, out from behind the mic, and molded into an NBC character isn't funny and never will be. I can imagine him trying to ad-lib lines about his cock and NBC executives getting really nervous and begging him to stick to the script. It's tragic that the episode didn't work because I truly love the show but this one just missed.

A few other things I didn't like about the latest episode of "Parks and Recreation"

1. Aziz Ansari's singing/annoying baby talk voice/general attitude (in this episode and the last one)

2. Adam Scott acting like a total pussy

3. Not enough Ron

4. Rashida Jones getting work because she's Quincy Jones' daughter

ANK