Parks and Recreation: Season 3

When I first learned that Parks and Recreation would not be returning for the fall season in 2010, I was about as devastated as a grown man can be by a primetime network TV schedule. After all, the show had just enjoyed a breakout season in which it had gone from being a mediocre Office clone to a legitimately hilarious piece of comedy fueled by a deep and talented ensemble cast. My fear was that the show would be canceled before enough people had even given it a chance in the first place. I was one of the pioneers of the Arrested Development bandwagon, after all, and spent three lonely years there wondering where everyone else was only to witness just about every friend, peer, and classmate latch onto that show on DVD a few years too late. Fortunately, when Parks and Recreation did return, it did so in the lucrative post-Office 9:30 time slot. That meant it had to get semi-decent ratings! And it did. And more importantly, the wait was worth it, because Season 3, in all its compacted glory, was the strongest season of Parks yet. There's still a soft spot in me that prefers Season 2 to Season 3 because I enjoyed watching the show find itself a bit more than I took pleasure in seeing it spread its wings once it was fully aware they existed. That said, it was still quite an impressive wingspan, able to stretch from one end of Season 3 to the other with nary a dud episode in the mix. (Okay, weird and probably terrible analogy. My apologies.) I still haven't forgiven NBC for slashing the episode order from 22 down to 16 - what hilarious hijinks could have occurred during those missing three hours of Pawnee time? - but I suppose at this point I've got bigger fish to fry, what with Community just kind of up and disappearing from the schedule, and in the midseason no less. Sigh. I guess as long as Community comes back as strong as Parks did, I've got nothing to be afraid of. And, as much as I hate to even try to find a silver lining in this worst case scenario, if Community does get canceled, it only all but ensures a fifth season of Parks. After all, NBC can't just cancel everything they're currently airing, can they? Somebody talk me off this ledge.