How 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation defy gender stereotypes

I found a really interesting article on Thinkprogress.com on how NBC has done a good job of showing two weddings this season that defied gender role stereotypes by showing two women who, despite being in serious, loving relationships, were still able to be career oriented. 30 Rock's Liz Lemon and Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope are great role models for young girls to look up to. They both demonstrate that you should not have to give up on your goals just because you fall in love. Link is posted below. Check it out!

Tina Fey as Liz Lemon and Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope via dstv.com

Click here to read!

Weddings Part 2

I am so excited to be blogging about Ben and Leslie’s wedding this week! Unlike last week’s Glee wedding, the Parks and Recreation wedding actually happened and it was beautiful. Last week’s episode featured Ben and Leslie, along with the rest of the crew, throwing a gala to raise money for the park they are trying to build. They were not planning on getting married for another three months, but during the gala they realized that all the people they cared about were there anyway, so why not? This left them with exactly two hours to plan their dream wedding.

via starcasm.net

As the episode progresses, they are forced to overcome obstacles standing in their way including not having wedding rings and the unfinished wedding dress. Thankfully the first two problems are solved with some good-hearted creativity. Ann, Leslie’s best friend and maid of honor, wins the award for Most Creative Maid of Honor. She had to figure out how to complete the bottom of the dress because it was only half-done. Leslie, a recently elected city council-woman, is so passionate about government work that Ann decides to fashion a skirt out of all the important documents and bills Leslie has signed or been involved with.  It is so perfect and unique only to Leslie Knope.

via ew.com

Ron and Chris, Ben’s Best Man, are assigned to ring duty. Because there are no jewelry stores open at such a late hour, it is nearly impossible to find rings that could pass for wedding rings. They even go to a liquor store, and are discouraged after they have no luck. Alas, Ron’s quick thinking and outdoorsy skills save the day! He rips a sconce lamp off of Ann’s wall at her house (we don’t see her reaction, but she would probably be fine with it since it’s for Leslie. Obviously), and fashions two rings out of the lamp using a light torch—in only 20 minutes!

via usmagazine.com

Finally, just a few minutes before the episode finishes the ceremony takes place after bypassing those obstacles and dealing with a nemesis of Leslie’s who tried and of course failed to derail the wedding. The last debacle caused them to have to move the already last minute wedding to the Parks and Recreation office at the last minute. I can’t think of a more perfect location for the wedding because it is such an integral part of both of their lives and they would never have even met if it weren’t for Ben being assigned to Pawnee’s Parks and Recreation Department in the second season. As if everything weren’t already so perfect, they eat waffles served by the local favorite, J.J.’s Diner as they are surrounded by all their friends at Leslie’s place of work. 

This goes along splendidly with Leslie’s motto in life: The most important things in life are friends, waffles, and work! 

Weddings Part 1

This is going to be one of two entries this weekend because I have a (SPOILER ALERT) wedding special coming tomorrow night in honor of Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt. Seriously, you guys don’t understand my excitement! I cannot believe this is actually happening. I feel like I know these people  and now they’re getting married! I’m having flashbacks to the first time they met, their first date, their first kiss, etc. Ahhh! Sorry for getting sidetracked; back to this week’s entry. Because tomorrow is a wedding that I am so excited about, I will do this entry on a wedding that left me very disappointed and unhappy earlier this week.  This was an egregious example of writers who simply don’t care about their fans and only seem to care about pulling as high ratings as they can each week.

I am referring to the wedding that didn’t happen on Glee. Okay, I know that Glee is not meant to be taken seriously anymore, but you don’t spend FOUR YEARS building a relationship up, only to royally mess it up like that. Yes, we got a wonderful performance out of Jayma Mays, who plays Emma, as she left Will at the altar, but I seriously was just so infuriated. When you have fans who have spent four years shipping a couple, sitting through their ups and downs, you don’t just take all of that progress and completely do a 180. We never even got to see Emma contact Will and explain why she left him like that and offer him any kind of closure. Yes, the audience knew that she had anxiety, but it just wasn’t fair to the character to portray her in such a negative light. I almost think the only reason they had her flip out and leave was so they could use the song that she sang, “Not getting married tonight”. It definitely showed the actress’s talent as a singer, but everyone knows Glee gets most of their publicity from downloads on iTunes. This makes me believe that unfortunately the music is probably what drives some of their storylines. I really think that because this is a TV show, that it should be character and/or plot driven, and the songs that they sing should be more in the background. They should not feel the need to alter storylines to fit the songs they want to sing that week. I will admit sometimes it works for them,  but in this case it was glaringly obvious exactly what they were doing. I know I am probably reading way too much into this. It’s just TV and it is supposed to be entertaining. I always hear people saying that TV should be mindless. I disagree with this. I am a believer in mindfulness, therefore you should put your 100% into anything you do, and this also means writing things that actually make sense. Now, I realize this may seem hypocritical of me to say in this blog entry that seems more like a stream of consciousness, but it just really “grinds my gears” as a friend of mine says. 

Five Shows You Should Be Watching

Tomorrow I will be back with reviews of tonight's packed lineup: Glee, The Office, Community (which is FINALLY back!), The Big Bang Theory, and Parks and Recreation. Tonight I wanted to share a list of my top five shows that I think you should be watching now. Feel free to post in the comments what you think I should be watching or what you would like to see me review!

1.     Parks and Recreation: This is my #1 favorite show right now! I am unabashedly just such a fangirl when it comes to this sitcom. It is really just the best show on right now. It has the perfect combination of humor and heart. You really find yourself caring about these characters. I can’t even do it justice. Watch it for yourself and then thank me of course!

2.     The Big Bang Theory: The general premise of a pretty girl moving across the hall from two geeky guys does not seem highly promising at first. However, the show has been on for five seasons so the writers must be doing something right. Each character is so delightfully quirky in his/her own highly personalized way you just can’t stop watching. I watched reruns all winter break and could not get enough!

3.     Suburgatory: TV is not meant to be realistic and this show definitely takes that idea to heart. If I could describe it in one word, it would be zany. Some of these characters probably could not function in real life because they are so over the top clueless, but the writers also give them some depth that makes the viewer care about them every week. Also, actress who plays Dalia is the most monotone person I have ever heard, but she still manages to be hilarious. It’s quite a commendable talent if you ask me.

4.     Glee: Now, before you just stop reading completely, let me defend myself. I am not talking about the Glee of last year that focused on a group of high schoolers trying to win Nationals, Sectionals, Regionals, and anything else ending in –ionals. I am talking about the fierce New York lifestyle of Rachel and Kurt. Fast-forward through the high school scenes and you have a show about two best friends facing the drama (obviously) of drama school together. It’s like a whole different show!

5.     Once Upon a Time: This is the only fantasy show I’ve ever watched. I don’t think you have to be a fan of the fantasy genre in order to like this. Basically the fairy tale world was all cursed to be sent to our time period. I don’t want to give too much away, but it is just so well done. Robert Carlyle and Lana Parilla each do a phenomenal job in their roles. They really both deserve awards for the acting that they do. Half of the episodes are flashbacks so there are times where they essentially play two different characters because their characters change so much over the course of time. I am usually not one to notice acting, but the two of them draw me in every week.