P&R reminds me of a place I used to work at, so it's always funny when I catch it. But to me it suffers from The American Office Syndrome. If I was a Luddite and thought TPB was a real documentary, I would still be interested in what the gang's up to for 8 years, but can I honestly say that I'd care about a small office or small town parks department? For me anyway, after a while it would just remind me of going to the same job for however many years it's been on.

On the other hand, for the last 6 years I was living in basically a TPB world, complete with asshole landlord, wannabe rappers and a ton of drugs, among other things.. everything except that trailer park looks a lot nicer than the apartment complex.. I always wanted someone to do a real-life documentary of the complex I grew up in, or the Jesus Camp up the way. When I was a kid there was a "clothing optional" area where us kids weren't allowed to go but did anyway, and the Jesus Camp people were building an arc like Noah's from a trailer, and other things to protect their tenants from looking into our back yard. If mothership's reading this, he probably knows exactly what I'm talking about. And in case you are, I went by there the other day and the arc is complete, as well as many new trailer park surprises! Maybe I'll take a video and submit it on here.

>>If I was a Luddite and thought TPB was a real documentary, I would still be interested in what the gang's up to for 8 years, but can I honestly say that I'd care about a small office or small town parks department?

If I hadn't just woke up in the middle of te night, would I know what TPB means? Cause right now I'm drawing a blank.

Googled it. Trailer Park Boys? What the fuck is Trailer Park Boys?

Are you joking? And I hope that doesn't sound dismissive or annoyed or insulting. I'm not saying that you're dumb for asking "What if this was a real documentary?" I'm just afraid that I'm going to turn out to be the dumb one for trying to answer.

The "documentary" conceit of certain television shows has one advantage; it allows the fourth wall to be breached naturally. Characters can glance meaningfully at the camera (notice Ron in this clip, he glances at the camera for the tiniest half second after getting in a jab about Jamm's relatively tiny dick), or comment on the action, and the suspension of disbelief isn't disrupted.

UNLESS you start to ask yourself about this documentary they're filming. When the fourth wall isn't breached, I think you're encouraged to forget that there's a camera crew following everybody's private conversations. Does anybody even remember that "Modern Family" is supposed to be a documentary?

In the epilogue-finale, The Office finally worked the documentary into the plot. It would be funny if "Parks and Recreation" turned out to be a ridiculously overfunded federal project, and all the footage we've been watching for seven years was finally cut down into four ten minute videos to stream on some website running out of Pueblo, Colorado.

JHM I'm not saying that it's not a good show. It's probably the best show on American network television these days, and Trailer Park Boys breaks that wall all the time, especially towards the end of the initial run of the series, but still suspends the element of disbelief that, although a fictional audience would be watching the same documentary about the same fuckups for 8 years, it's a compelling story about fairly big fuckups committing all sorts of crimes that defy logic.

When I was a kid I honestly thought This is Spinal Tap was a real documentary, and I saw them in concert, and much like WWF I didn't realize that it was "fake" until I was well into my teens. So that's kind of where I'm coming from with the doc aspect. Reiner (and then Guest) were good at crafting the same (or at least similar) style of movies where of course I knew it was staged, but it was also not This is Spinal Tap 2-6 afterwords. If I was their fictional audience, I would've stopped caring about a washed up metal band as I would an office or a bureaucrat or a guy who attempted to make a theme park for abandoned cats.

And here's a little clip from TPB for you:

http://youtu.be/C5UltlRkxko

Something about what I know about you makes me think you'd like it. Unless you like squirrels. Cheers :)

Aubrey Plaza is terrific actress, who plays an unexpressive character expressively, and that can't be easy. Acting is often the ultimate example of something that is a lot harder than it looks.

There's nothing wrong with my priorities. The trick is to not let the dumb shit you like get in the way of liking smarter shit.

I'll explain.

After watching the Grumpy Cat movie with my best friend, I ran an episode of P & R to show her who Aubrey Plaza was. She really liked it, and I am ALWAYS looking for something to distract her from the hours and hours of INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY we'll watch if I don't intervene. That was what got me hooked.

Hey, how about a TV show with Aubrey Plaza as a phone sex operator, but the joke is that she sounds really engaged and sexy when she's doing fake sex talk, and the rest of the time she sounds like Aubrey Plaza?

^^^ green light

You think Aubrey is acting?

That's cute.

Do I think the persona is pure fiction? I don't.

But is she's acting? Of course she is. She does a great job of conveying April's emotions within the confines of the confines of the taciturn character. I love how she handled the period of Andy and April's complicated courtship. I was especially impressed by how she used awkward body postures to convey April's insecurity. This is acting, and it's good.

We get it, you like young ladies. I also think they are very charming.