Parks and Recreation (2009)

Pawnee's town hall meetings, where residents queue at the microphone to air grievances that have nothing to do with the agenda, are the show's best set pieces. Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope loves local government with a fervour that keeps running into zoning rules, budget cuts and Ron Swanson, a parks director who wants government to do nothing at all. Skip ahead if the first season feels stiff; it finds its warmth from the second.