Parks and Recreation

Series two, episodes 23 & 24
It had to happen: the recession has hit Pawnee and cutbacks are looming. State auditors Rob Lowe and Adam Scott are the good and bad cops (or should that be the other way around?) brought in to assess Ron and Leslie’s department, while the fallout from April’s twenty-first birthday – held, naturally, at Tom’s horrendous bar – threatens to envelop them all.

This double bill that concludes the second season is emblematic of a show that has truly found its feet and left unwelcome ‘Office’ comparisons behind. Characters evolve and relationships develop; the warmth is never cheap; and the laughs keep coming. Sure, Ann and Mark’s fling was uncharacteristically grown-up (read: dull) for a gleefully silly series, but who cares when manchild Tom (Aziz Ansari) and libertarian woodworker Ron (Nick Offerman) are in such good form? No word yet on when season three is due, but it can’t come soon enough.