This article contains a few sort-of spoilers from last night’s episode of Parks and Recreation. If you haven’t caught the Season 6 finale, we suggest turning back now.
For six seasons, Parks and Recreations has lit up NBC’s Thursday night comedy lineup, keeping fans entertained during what may be the darkest timeline of NBC’s lineup history. Last night, Parks and Rec ended its sixth season with a very fine double episode featuring a slew of excellent guest stars (including Michelle Obama) and callback jokes. The series will be back next fall, but on Friday, showrunner Mike Schur confirmed that Season 7 will probably be Parks and Rec’s last. In addition, he talked about what he has planned for the show’s big ending.
Schur's conversation happened with EW, and during the chat, he talked about a ton of different Parks and Recreation-related subjects, including the show’s upcoming seventh season and where it fits in the timeline.
It’s fairly likely that next year will be the last. The natural rhythm of the show and the big creative jump we take at the end of this season certainly suggests that we’re moving in that direction.
Over the years, the Pawnee gang has grown into a unit. We know the myriad of ways the characters have interacted and bonded with each other and we know their current strengths and faults. We also know that Season 6 has been slowly moving Leslie, but also Ben, Ann, Chris, Andy, April, and Tom’s narratives forward. The time hopping aspect of the season finale, however, has made it clear the show is moving to wrap up. Leslie is working for the National Parks Service. She and Ben have children. And a 22-episode order seems like the perfect way to explain a thee-year jump into the future and wrap the show up in a feasible, meaningful manner.
Since Season 7 is likely to be the show’s last, Mike Schur says he has already mentally worked out some of the directions the series finale will be going, although it sounds like most of the episode has not been set in stone, yet.
“Chunks of it are mapped out. We have signposts and stuff, but other parts are wide-open and are very much up in the air. I’m sure that some of the chunks that we felt are mapped out are going to change. We just have a general idea of what is going on in the world, and we have some general ideas for what happens to those people over the course of this future season, but until we really get back in the room, I’d really prefer not to try to commit to anything too soon.”
If that's true, it sounds like the writers are going to need to sit in one giant room and start mapping out all of the more minor details. That might sound less important than the ending point, but in many ways, it's all of those little details and touching moments on the way to the conclusion that give the show its real impact. Besides, with the exception of Six Feet Under and a few other finales, our fondest memories of TV shows are random occurrences.
We'll pass along Parks And Recreation news as it comes along this summer.
