After seven incredible seasons, Parks and Recreation, starring Amy Poehler, decided to shut its’ doors and end the show. Arguably in its prime, the show came to an end on February 24, 2015, much to fans’ disappointment.
The seventh season closed after only thirteen episodes, which many thought were thirteen too little. The main reason as to why the show was cancelled, however, was easily seen. It had been losing viewers ever since it aired back in 2009 and struggled to stay on air. The six million viewers that the show had started out with had quickly turned to nearly four million in the years following. However, despite losing so many viewers, the NBC show was deeply loved by the fans that remained.
The show falls under the “mockumentary” and political satire genres; it was created as a sort of a copy of the hit show, The Office. Every episode is available for streaming on Netflix except for the final season, which will be uploaded to Netflix later on in the year.
Two cast members that had left the show back in season six had made a long overdue return in order to make one final appearance in the finale. Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe returned as Ann Perkins and Chris Traeger. Upon their return, the original employees of the Parks and Recreation department of Pawnee, Indiana, around which the show revolved, came together for one last day in the office before going back to their new lives. Season seven also starred series regulars Aziz Ansari (Tom Haverford), Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson), Aubrey Plaza (April Ludgate-Dwyer), Adam Scott (Ben Wyatt), Chris Pratt (Andy Dwyer), and Rhetta (Donna Megel).
The season was created to show how the characters’ lives would progress in the future. The final season began with a flash-foward to 2017 with Leslie Knope (Poehler) and Ben Wyatt still looking optimistic at their political futures, but still find themselves surrounded by their friends from Pawnee, Indiana. The season shows how each character has changed as an individual and how everyone, in the end, was able to keep in touch, despite their very different lives. In the end of the finale, the writers attempt to imply that either Knope or Wyatt have optained Presidency when they flash-foward to the year 2048. They show the couple attending a former co-workers funeral, but they appear to be surrounded by secret servicemen. This implies that Knope has, overall, accomplished her political dreams-or at least her dreams of living in the White House.
The final episode differed greatly from regular episodes; it was created more to honor the cast members and give a final good-bye to the fans than it was about comedy and the plot. It truly was a proper farewell to a beloved series.
