Rock Show (Season 1, Episode 6)

The first season of Parks and Recreation is often considered a write-off by even its most faithful fans, and it’s easy to understand why. Confusion over whether the show was or wasn’t an Office spinoff was something of a complication (the documentary format and presence of Rashida Jones didn’t help things), but the biggest problem was that the show hadn’t found its signature voice yet. Granted, even The Office didn’t really know what it was doing through its first year, but had the fame and blueprint of the original British series to fall back on. “Rock Show,” the sixth episode of the series, was an 11th hour sign that the struggling sitcom was finally starting to cohere. It’s an eventful episode, with Ann and Andy (Chris Pratt, then still a guest star) breaking up, and Mark and Leslie nearly hooking up. “Rock Show” is nowhere near as perfect as some of the half-hours the show would begin producing by next year (though it did give us “The Pit,” and the runner about Andy’s many band names), but the optimism that would come to be the guiding principle of Parks and Recreation finally sparked during its first season finale.