Five Figure Fanwork Exchange

Title

Parks and Recreation

Media

TV Show

Approx length

122 Episodes. Each episode is about 21 minutes long on streaming. (Note that there are 3 episodes that are double the regular length. Depending on the platform you watch it on, these episodes may either be one 40+ minute episode or split into two regular-length episodes. If these episodes are split into two episodes, then the episode count would be 125.)

Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips)

It can be found streaming on Peacock.
This website should provide info about additional places to watch it: https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/parks-and-recreation/1030230437/

What is it, in summary?

Parks and Recreation is a sitcom set in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. It follows the day-to-day lives of the employees of the Pawnee Government’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

What do you love about it?

The show has a great ensemble of characters. They all have very quirky and colorful personalities, which makes them very funny and entertaining. But the show also handles the serious emotional moments very well, which manages to make these goofy characters feel like real people who you want to root for rather than caricatures. It is a very positive and uplifting show. The bonds between the characters are very well developed, and they really feel like a family by the end of the show. It’s the type of show that really makes you care about the characters, and by the time you finish watching, you feel like the characters are your friends as well.

I specifically want to call out my favorite part of the show, which is the relationship between April Ludgate and Andy Dwyer (this is the relationship that I am requesting for my exchange). Their relationship follows the classic black cat and golden retriever dynamic. April is a cynical and apathetic loner who hates everybody, while Andy is a cheerful goofball who loves everything. But their personalities complement each other very well. April is usually gloomy and negative, but Andy is the one person who is able to consistently make her laugh and smile. She usually hates spending time with people, but she loves every minute that she gets to spend with Andy. April is usually very apathetic, but Andy’s enthusiasm wears off on her and motivates her to want to actually care about things. Andy is not very intelligent and is often prone to making basic mistakes. While other characters sometimes get annoyed by Andy’s screw-ups, April views them as endearing. April sees that there is more to Andy than his intelligence and sees that he has a lot of positive qualities that others seem to overlook. She helps him to take his enthusiasm and big ideas and direct them towards goals that are actually realistic and attainable.

While half of their personalities are very different, the other half of their personalities are very similar. Andy and April are both immature goofballs who don’t like to take anything too seriously and have a ton of fun goofing around together. They understand each other’s quirkiness in a way that nobody else does, and they are able to be as weird and silly as they want around each other. They feel like genuine best friends who fell in love with each other, and this chemistry never fades away even after they have been together for years. And even though they have a lot of funny and goofy moments together, the emotional moments between them are very sweet as well. You can tell that they are both deeply and madly in love with each other. They both have very unique personalities that would make it hard for most people to understand and love them. But with each other, they both found that one person who was the perfect match for them. They have a very special and unique relationship that is unlike any other fictional romance I have ever seen before.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?

As mentioned above, I will be requesting a fic centered on the Andy/April relationship. I have read pretty much all of the Andy/April fics that are already on AO3, and I would be very excited to see any sort of new fics for them! I put together a letter with some suggested prompts for inspiration: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOU17Nw1ixT11ypDxwL-E_JeSL1_lIklqO04rftNmnI/edit?usp=sharing. But these prompts are just suggestions. If you have another idea for an Andy/April fic, I would love to see that too!

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?

The first season of Parks and Rec is known to be a slow start, so fans sometimes recommend new viewers skip Season 1 if they are having trouble getting into the show (some fans even suggest skipping Season 2 as well and starting with Season 3 if you are really having trouble getting into the show). If you wanted to focus specifically on the April/Andy relationship, you can start with Season 2 Episode 10 "Hunting Trip", which is the episode that kicks off their relationship storyline. If you want to write about Andy and April's relationship, I would recommend at least watching the second half of Season 2 (from "Hunting Trip" onwards) and all of Season 3. I think if you at least watched those episodes, you would have a pretty good idea of their relationship and the dynamic between them. But there are a lot of great moments for them throughout the show, so I would recommend watching the whole show if you have the chance.

If you want to get a taste of Andy and April’s dynamic, here is a YouTube video with some of their key moments (note that this will contain spoilers about their relationship arc, so don’t watch if you want to avoid that):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNZz96AKJJY

Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive

There shouldn't be any content beyond what you would expect in a typical sitcom.