As I’ve been using my love of movies and TV to explore my neurotype over the last year, much of that has been in looking at stories I already love through a new lens. As I’ve said repeatedly, so many of “my” shows have Big Neurodivergent Energy, so much so that I realized a mere Top Five would be insufficient. To that end, I recently started looking through my old posts on some of these shows, at what I wrote about them as an “unhatched” AuDHDer. And to put it mildly, a big theme is “I love everything autistic/ADHD about you,” even if I didn’t have those exact words for it.
So, I’d like to revisit some of those posts periodically through a new feature called Unhatched Observations. We’re kicking things off with Parks and Rec!
Favorite Characters: Leslie Knope
Whether it’s overseeing a crazy-making public forum, raising money for an ambitious new park project, or searching for a rogue possum spotted in the vicinity of the golf course, she consistently puts in 125%. Leslie thrives on solving crises, and she never met an issue she couldn’t tackle head-on, usually armed with a fastidiously-assembled binder on the subject and an increasingly-complex multi-point plan.
***
She puts her head for obsessively-detailed minutiae into furthering these goals, and she fights tenaciously to see those goals realized.
***
Among her friends/significant others, she’s known for her thoughtful gifts, her love of scrapbooking fond memories, and the irritating degree to which she believes in people and pushes them to be their best. Not to say that work never gets in the way of a relationship or vice versa, but it’s never because Leslie is consciously letting something fall by the wayside. It’s just that she cares about so much that she inevitably loses track of something or someone every now and then, if only for a short while.
***
Like many people, her best qualities can just as easily become her worst ones under particular circumstances. She’s very confident and take-charge, and that means she sometimes “steamrolls” over people under the assumption that she knows what’s best. She cares deeply about what she does, but when she inflates the importance of a situation too far beyond what it warrants, the whole thing can spiral out of control and turn into an even bigger mishap. She’s honest to a fault, and she’s been known to unintentionally hinder herself in her refusal to be crafty or diplomatic.
Favorite Characters: Ben Wyatt
While Chris is the chipper good cop ready to approve everything, Ben is the spreadsheet junkie who makes the tough calls and the hard cuts. But that doesn’t mean Ben is the heartless villain Leslie imagines, a la Ebenezer Scrooge or Mr. Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life. Rather, he’s exceedingly practical and doesn’t mince words about it—when cities are bankrupt, hard decisions have to be made, and he’s prepared to do it.
***
The man named his calculator, bless him.
***
He’s not a player like Tom or a “man’s man” like Ron, but Ben is very self-assured. He knows who he is, and he doesn’t mind. So he takes it when others tease him about being nerdy or liking calzones (Pawnee is relentlessly anti-calzone.) When he gets flustered or overwhelmed, he doesn’t play it off or pretend he’s more confident than he is. He openly admits to being afraid of cops, and roller skates are a turn-on for him.
Relationship Spotlight: Ben Wyatt & Leslie Knope
While Leslie comes in hot, determined to crusade against Ben the evil budget-slasher that she believes is champing at the bit to fire everyone, Ben is just a guy doing his job, one who demonstrates a surprisingly-high tolerance for her manic steamroller tendencies from the jump. It isn’t long before they start to get to know each other and immediately develop a friendlier relationship.
***
Leslie and Ben, delightfully, are simpatico and complementary at the same time. They’re both hardworking policy wonks with a devotion to government who pay great attention to detail. With Ben, we see that come out in his love for budget minutiae, and nothing makes Leslie happier than filling an enormous binder with every last scrap of information about a planned project. They also share a similar dorky glee for a job well done, a tendency to spiral out when they’re stressed, and a fondness for Model UN. Meanwhile, Leslie is a sunshiny dreamer who uses hyperbole like it’s going out of style and brings an Energizer-Bunny-like determination to the proceedings, while Ben thrives on logic and pragmatism, responding dryly to Leslie’s over-the-top enthusiasm.
***
We see how they get along, and what’s more, we really see how they like and admire each other. Yes, they’re both physically-attractive people and that’s part of their attraction to one another (over time, we learn how much Leslie loves Ben’s butt,) but that’s never presented as the reason why they like each other. Instead, first and foremost, they like one another as people, and the love is born out of that.
No comments:
Post a Comment