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10 best episodes of Parks and Recreation

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Johannesburg - If you loved the office politics in The Office, you’ll want to add quirky sitcom Parks And Recreation (2009-2015) to your must-watch ShowMax list. 

ShowMax has now added all seven seasons of the Emmy Award-winning mockumentary that focuses on the life of Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler, who won the Golden Globe for Best Actress – Television Musical Or Comedy in 2013 for her role as Leslie), the deputy director of the Parks And Recreation Department in the fictional Indiana town of Pawnee. 

With 125 hilarious episodes to watch at your ease, here’s our list of 10 all-time awesome episodes from the series. Still not convinced? The sitcom has a 8.6 out of 10 rating on imdb.com

1. Limited edition

Season 1 of Parks And Recreation only had 6 episodes so to choose our favourite was easy: Leslie’s main focus is to turn a construction pit into a park and in episode 4 she crashes a political boys’ club event to get their support for her project. She refers them to a website for the proposed park but intern April (Aubrey Plaza) causes problems when she uploads a video of their boozing onto the website.


2. Rob and his ex-wives

The Director of the Parks Department Rob Swanson (Nick Offerman) has two ex-wives, both of whom are named Tammy. In season 2 episode 8 we meet Tammy Two (played by Nick’s real-life wife Megan Mullally of Will & Grace fame). She’s a sex-crazed library director who tricks Ron into giving her the construction pit. BONUS MOMENT: Don’t miss Ron rocking a head full of braids in this episode.


3. 1-800-pawnee

Leslie volunteers to co-host a 24-hour telethon in season 2 episode 22. Things get hilarious when a sleep-deprived Leslie runs the telethon in the middle of the night and does all sorts of weird things like flipping a coin, describing episodes of Friends and getting an accountant to demystify complicated spreadsheets.

4. Flu season

Season 3 marks the introduction of two new characters – state auditors Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) and Chris Treager (Rob Lowe). In episode 2, a flu-riddled Leslie refuses to take time off until she gives her presentation to Ben about the department participating in the Harvest Festival. She nails it, which makes Ben see her in a different light. 

5. Snake Juice

The whole department gets wasted in season 3 episode 13 while at a party on a coffee-and-alcohol concoction known as Snake Juice. As if these odd office workers weren’t exhibiting strange enough behaviour already… 

6. Ice, Ice baby

Leslie hosts a rally as part of running for city council in season 4 episode 11 at an ice rink. But things quickly get slippery when Leslie and her team walk towards the podium over the ice. Expect some epic fails falls! 

7. Wedding bliss

Leslie and Ben say “I do” in season 5 episode 14. Leslie looks stunning in a wedding dress made from meaningful memos and important documents from her political career.

8. Highlighter bouquet

Ron and his girlfriend Diane Lewis (Lucy Lawless) get married at the department courthouse in season 6 episode 1 after she reveals that she’s pregnant. Intern April is a witness and Diane holds a variety of colourful highlighters as her wedding bouquet. 

9. A London affair

Leslie jets off to London to receive an international award in season 6 episode 2. But while there, her assistant Andy (Chris Pratt) ends up scoring a job in the UK. Why did he disappear? In real life, Chris was busy filming sci-fi epic film Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014).

10. The end

In the series finale – season 7 episodes 12 and 13 – the gang comes together for the final time to fix a park swing set and we get a cool flash-forward to see what happens in the future with each character.


Get your Parks and Recreation marathon started at ShowMax.com.

*This article is sponsored. Channel24 is part of Media24, a subsidiary of Naspers.

          
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