NBC Premieres Two Shows Last Night

For those The Office and 30 Rock fans out there, you may have accidently caught the new comedy Parks and Recreation or stayed for the new crime drama Southland. I've been quietly anticipating Parks and Recreation since I first got word that the people behind The Office we're putting together a new show around Amy Poehler. It seemed like it was destined for good laughs, but early reviews are harsh.

(Trailer)

I'm not going to be quite as harsh, though I definitely left disappointed. I don't get the criticism of it being "too much like The Office" as I thought that was the selling point. It's shot in the same style, the humor is very similar, but hopefully Poehler and her pretty decent supporting cast (Aziz Ansari, Human Giant and Rashida Jones, I Love You, Man and former cast member of The Office, swoon) can make it their own. Either way, while I'm not going to go out of my way to catch any episodes I'll definitely check back in if it makes it to a second season. The Office took off to a slow start too and look at it now.

Southland, on the other hand, was much more impressive out of the gate. Pretty much if you're a fan of CSI or Law & Order you'll enjoy this as it falls right in line with other cop dramas. However, there's a bit more personality here. The story didn't go from point A (crime committed) to point B (crime solved). There was a lot of background on the characters and on their lives outside of the job. I know shows like CSI do this sometimes, but it always comes off as filler and rarely matters when it comes to understanding what's going on episode to episode. I hope this wasn't done to get to know the characters in the first episode and is something visited in every episode.



The main character is played by Benjamin McKenzie aka Ryan from The O.C. and it's created by John Wells of ER fame. So there's a good mix of sitcom star power and resume to grab viewers and keep them. Oh and they used a song off one of my favorite albums of 2007, The National's Boxer.