Parks and Rec Season 7: A Must-See For College Students

By Elana Goodwin on February 24, 2015

The NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation” is unfortunately coming to an end after seven seasons as the show will air its last episode tonight.

While saying goodbye to the show and the characters we’ve come to love over the last several years is sad, “Parks and Recreation” is definitely going out on top.

The 13-episode long season seven has been full of hilarity and poignant moments as the gang gears up to say goodbye, but even more so than that, “Parks and Recreation” has tackled some important issues that make this last season a must-watch for college students.

The cast of “Parks and Recreation”
Photo Credit: Hitfix.com

1. Uncertainty about Careers. April Ludgate-Dwyer (Aubrey Plaza) has been working at the Parks department since season one when she started as an intern. She never intended to continue working there but somehow, the year is 2017 and she’s moved with Leslie to the National Parks department and is basically Leslie’s right hand woman.

April doesn’t know what she wants to do but she knows she doesn’t want to continue working for Leslie and doesn’t know how to tell her she wants to quit and try doing something else.

April finally tells Leslie that she doesn’t want to work in government and after Leslie gets over the betrayal and has lunch with Madeleine Albright, Leslie helps April by taking her to a non-profit to talk to someone about careers which April ends up realizing is the perfect job for her.

2. Issues with Privacy. Pawnee’s internet juggernaut in the year 2017 is the company “Gryzzl” which has given the residents of the town Gryzzlboxes, which are super personalized boxes delivered by drones.

It comes to the gang’s attention that Gryzzl is data-mining their texts, emails, and other communications they’ve used Gryzzl systems for, which basically the whole town is not okay with and it’s an invasion of privacy. The privacy issue is an interesting and timely one and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) gives an awesome speech about the nature of privacy.

3. Feminism. When Leslie decides to opt out of the Pie-Mary, a local pie-baking contest that wives of congressional candidates have long participated in, she gets caught in a tough place, as if she doesn’t participate, the media will focus on that more than Ben’s campaign, and if she does partake in the contest, the Indiana Organization of Women will protest.

Ben then decides to enter the contest untested, which sparks the Male Men, a men’s rights movement, showing up at the contest to protest the feminization of Ben. “Parks and Recreation” does a good job of addressing issues facing women and feminism with both seriousness and humor.

4. Juggling Work and Family. Ben is running for Congress and both him and Leslie have to learn how to juggle work and family, and being there for each other while still achieving their own goals. Maintaing balance is something that many college students have to juggle, and surely will later in life as well.

Photo Credit: zap2it.com

5. Mending Fences. At the beginning of the season, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) and Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) are on the outs over some unknown event called “Morningstar.” It’s later revealed that “Morningstar” is the project Ron undertook that knocked down Leslie’s best friend Ann’s (Rashida Jones) house.

Ron did this to hurt Leslie who had hurt him by standing him up at lunch one day when he was going to ask her for a job since Leslie had taken all his friends with her to her National Parks department upstairs.

After being locked in the old Parks department offices, Ron and Leslie hash things out and when their friends come back in the morning to release them, they find the pair drunk and rockin’ out to Billy Joel. Mending fences has never been classier or more hilarious than when it’s done on “Parks and Recreation.”

6. Becoming Friends with Unlikely People. Garry Gergich (Jim O’Heir) has long been the butt of every joke on “Parks and Recreation.” He’s picked on and over the course of the show, has been called Jerry/Larry/Terry and it’s only this season, thanks to Donna Meagle (Retta) that the gang finally call him Garry.

Garry and Donna have a beautiful moment and actually become friends, after Garry did a classic Garry screw-up when he dropped his wedding ring down a drain, followed by his keys. After seeing Garry be kicked around and made fun of for so long, season seven finally rewards him for his dedication, as the gang accept him and even decide he should be mayor.

7. Accepting Change. As the last season draws to a close, it’s revealed that the gang is splitting up, as Ben and Leslie will start splitting their time between Pawnee and Washington D.C., April and Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) are moving permanently to D.C., and Donna and her husband Joe (Keegan-Michael Key) are moving to Seattle.

Other changes are also happening, as Garry is really retiring from the Parks department and is going to be the interim mayor, Tom (Aziz Ansari) and Lucy (Natalie Morales) get engaged, and Ron’s beloved barber dies, leading him to have to find a new one.

Overall, this season of “Parks and Recreation” has probably been the show’s best, and has addressed some major issues in a relatable and humorous way and is a must-watch for college students.

“Parks and Recreation” will air its hour-long series finale tonight on NBC.

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