Right now a lot of you are either racing home as we speak, or are already at home impatiently watching a download speed indicator on your… uh… totally legal magic internet-based TV acquisition program waiting for the moment you can wrap your soon-to-be-watering eyes around the series finale of Parks & Recreation.
‘Course if you’re like me and you’re lucky enough to work in the media industry where watching it is technically part of your job, then you’ve already seen it and are currently suffering through stage one – maybe even stage two – of the Kübler-Ross “Five Stages of Grief” model. Not because of anything that happened in the finale, mind you. But because IT’S GONE AND THERE ARE NO MORE NEW EPISODES AND EVERYTHING IS NOT OK.
The entire Parks gang stopped by Late Night with Seth Meyers to mark the final ever episode (again, *SOB*) and have a little bit of fun bringing up stories and failed show ideas and the like. One such one involves Chris Pratt aka Andy Dwyer aka Bert Macklin aka Johnny Karate and his idea for how the series ended.
It should be pointed out that it’s probably best you don’t watch this BEFORE the finale, as it contains a FAIRLY HUGE SPOILER concerning the episode because that goddamned weasel Seth Meyers can’t keep his stinkin’ mouth shut.
For the sake of preserving the sanctity of the finale whilst still appreciating the gag, Pratt wanted to it to end a la Six Feet Under where the show skips forward through time and shows how each character died.
April would be revealed to have died of a broken heart, immediately followed by the reveal that Andy died after being locked in a car at the supermarket with the windows rolled up.
I saw that, and I laughed, and then I felt bad again because there is no more.
Just… just go now and watch the end of it. Please. Don’t argue with me, just do it. It’s… it’s beautiful.
Thanks for everything, Parks & Recreation. Miss you in the saddest fashion.
