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I’m not one to watch a lot of television.  Never have been.  (As a child, I would get up and wander away from Sesame Street after five minutes because I got bored.)  There just aren’t many television shows that I want to spend my time on.  If I’m going to be sitting in front of a TV screen, it’ll usually be showing a hockey game.  Preferably a Sabres game, the MSG feed with R.J., and the Sabres are winning.  And it’s a Ryan Miller shutout, and Drew Stafford gets two hat tricks.  Whatever, I really don’t ask for that much.  (I miss hockey so much.)

What was I talking about?  Oh, right, TV.  Anyway, there are a few shows that I do like.  I watch The Office religiously.  I’m also devoted to Glee (Finchel forever!) and Downton Abbey (I secretly fantasize about being BFFs with Anna or Lady Mary).  And occasionally – usually on a rainy Sunday – I sink back into one of my late-great favorites, like Friends (I’m a Monica), Gilmore Girls (I’d like to say I’m a Rory, but if I’m being honest I’m probably… a Paris), and Jeeves and Wooster (tootle pip!).  But there’s one show that I’ve always been intrigued by but never watched.  It would come on after The Office and my DVR would usually catch the cold open, and inevitably I’d crack up at the characters’ antics and remark to hubby, “Why don’t we watch this show?  I think I’d really enjoy it.”

I’m talking about Parks and Recreation.  The premise is this: Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) is Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department of the great city of Pawnee, Indiana – “First in Friendship, Fourth in Obesity.”  Leslie is bubbly, idealistic, and filled with enthusiasm for local government, parks, and her city – much to the perpetual annoyance of her Libertarian boss, Ron Swanson.  Together with the rest of the Parks Department employees – flamboyant Tom, taciturn April, fabulous Donna and perpetual scapegoat Jerry – Leslie works tirelessly to improve Pawnee and defeat the evil Library Department.  When beautiful nurse Ann Perkins comes to a town forum to complain about the pit behind her house (into which her unemployed musician boyfriend, Andy, has fallen and broken both of his legs), Leslie decides to turn the pit into a park.  In the process, Ann and Andy become unofficial Parks Department employees and take part in the local government hijinks.  Then, when two financial specialists come from the statehouse to help Pawnee dig itself out of bankruptcy, the entire Parks Department feels the effects – but not in the way you’d expect.

I’m obsessed.  It helps that I actually took a class on local government in college, so I have some idea of how their bureaucracy works.  But you don’t have to have any kind of local government background to get a gigantic kick out of perky Leslie, anti-government Ron, surly April and the rest of the gang.  You root for Leslie as she repeatedly butts her head against the brick walls set up by the city council, shake your head at Tom’s increasingly ridiculous business ideas and Ann’s parade of dates, groan as Ron rails against government waste, vegetables and his ex-wives Tammy One and Tammy Two, and secretly wish you could be friends with April and Andy.

I can’t believe it took me so long to start watching Parks and Rec – they’re into the fifth season now!  But I’ve been watching obsessively on Netflix and I’m all caught up now… and I was right.  This is a show I really, really enjoy.

Do you watch Parks and Recreation?  Are you obsessed too?