I liked Parks & Rec. I’ve watched it thru multiple times. Animal Control is one of the ten funniest TV episodes of all time. But Leslie is the least funny character and makes the 1.5s seasons almost unwatchable until they figured her out. Same with The Office/Michael Scott & Scrubs/JD.
need to hear this scrubs/jd theory
Like the others, they just took the main character’s odd traits 30% too far. He’s just over the top. I’ve had this conversation with my dad multiple times because Scrubs is the only show he can still watch over & over. I think Zac Braff plays JD like he’s performing live on a stage for an audience. He over-exaggerates in every scene.
Maybe growing up I watched too many Seinfeld & Cheers reruns where the lead is the normal guy and everyone else around them is over the top. Maybe I just think it’s too hard to write a good main protagonist over 5+ seasons. I loved That 70s Show, but now I can’t stand Eric. My favorite show of the last 10 years was The Good Place and it was only 52 episodes. I also think Brooklyn 99 works because they do enough of making Jake an empathetic person to balance his main character trait of being a 12 year old.
I’ve had a lot of conversations about this topic with my dad & brothers. This is the type of stuff we talk about at holidays.