Despite the constant comparison, The Office and Parks and Recreation are completely different shows. So I’m here to answer the age-old question: Which is better? Parks and Recreation originally started as a spin-off for The Office, the idea centering around Rashida Jones, who plays both Karen in The Office and Ann Perkins in Parks and Rec. The idea for Parks and Rec was going to be a spinoff about Karen moving to Indiana and working for the government. They were planning on tying the two shows together and having guest stars from both in each.
I think The Office is often painted as “the better show” because of this. It was the first and the original is always better, right? But people often overlook how Parks and Rec developed into its own. The first season definitely mimics The Office, having Leslie Knope play a Michael Scott type of boss, but after that, what does the show become?
Leslie Knope is definitely a great mark of how the show progresses. Just look at the level of respect her employees have for her in the first season versus the mid-second season onward. The show develops on its own from a show of zany characters in an average world, like The Office, to average characters in a zany world. And they realized that to do this, they need to make the characters likable.
It started with Mark Brandanwitz, a definitive Jim Halpert type. He attempts to be that one normal character surrounded by his zany co-workers, but once they decided to ground the rest of the characters and center the show around their struggle against the rest of the town, they all turned into the Jim Halpert type. To have Mark Brandanwitz, attempting to be the voice of reason when the rest of the main characters are pretty likable, just made him look like a jerk, so they kicked him off.
His removal from the show turned Leslie into the real leader of the main characters. She became someone that the audience could root for, and having so many likable characters allowed the show to make the background characters as zany as possible. This is what separates the two shows. I believe the popularity of The Office comes from how it makes the audience feel like they’re a part of something unique. They get to witness whatever adventures happen in The Office while the rest of the background world is so normal and boring.
So there is no answer to which show is better because it really depends on what the audience wants to get from the show. Personally, I like Parks and Recreation better, just because the idea of having a zany background to work with allows for so much more creative freedom. The Office’s plotlines have to stay within the characters that they have already created, but Parks and Recreation is able to use whoever and whatever they want.