Ann Perkins
Encyclopedia
Ann Meredith Perkins is a fictional character in the NBC
comedy Parks and Recreation
. She is a nurse and best friend of Leslie Knope
. She is portrayed by Rashida Jones
.
, her live-in boyfriend. Ann matured faster than Andy did and, while Ann entered into a career in nursing, Andy remained lazy, spoiled and unemployed. After Andy falls into a large pit next to her apartment and breaks his legs, Ann is inspired to attend parks and recreation meetings to advocate the pit be filled in, which leads Ann to befriend parks deputy director Leslie Knope
. Eventually, after Andy's leg casts are removed, Ann learns he could have taken them off weeks prior, but did not because he enjoyed being pampered and spoiled by Ann. This leads to an angry confrontation, and eventually the two break up, much to Andy's despair.
and Michael Schur
had been considering ideas for a possible show involving Rashida Jones
before the concept of the series was even established. Both Daniels and Schur had worked with Jones on the Daniels-created NBC comedy series, The Office, in which Jones played the character Karen Filippelli
. It was only after Amy Poehler
was cast as protagonist Leslie Knope that the concept of the show and Ann's character were fully developed. While most of the Parks and Recreation character work for the local Pawnee government, Ann Perkins was initially conceived as a political outsider who became indirectly involved in municipal government and, in Schur's words, "got drawn into Leslie's world". Ann Perkins has appeared in every episode of Parks and Recreation except for "Woman of the Year
", which she missed because she was filming scenes for the David Fincher
film The Social Network
(2010). Her last name was inspired by Nancy Perkins, one of the casting directors who worked on the show. In crafting the Ann Perkins character, the staff were drawn to the idea of building a show around a female relationship, namely Ann and Leslie Knope.
wrote, "While I like Rashida Jones in the part, her character usually does best when she's got some wacky person to play off of." Entertainment Weekly
writer Hillary Busis said, "Even Parks and Rec lovers often agree that Rashida Jones’s character can seem, well, kind of boring." Matt Fowler of IGN
wrote, "Ann isn't necessarily the funniest character on the show, to say the least", but he said she is capable of being very humorous, adding: "Rashida Jones is sexy and funny, but a lot of her humor is subtle and thankless." New York
magazine writer Steve Kandell said he did not believe the Ann character was necessary for the show because she was too far removed from the other characters. He added, "The Parks and Recreation writers are the smartest in the business, and even they seem at a loss as to what to do with Ann Perkins." However, Los Angeles Times
reporter Robert Lloyd said he felt Jones and Amy Poehler had a good comedic rhythm with each other, and The Atlantic writer Scott Meslow said Jones has a "natural comic sensibility" who rarely gets the best material due to her straight man role. Television columnist Alan Sepinwall said Jones not only plays a good straight man, but particularly excels in bringing the best comedic potential out of her fellow cast members.
Many reviewers were critical of the pairing of Mark and Ann, feeling the couple lacked chemistry and were often the least funniest parts of the individual episodes. Entertainment Weekly writer Margaret Lyons called Mark and Ann the show's "Achilles' heel
", and Sandra Gonzalez, also from Entertainment Weekly, wrote, "No matter what they do with these two, I can’t help but be bored." Alan Sepinwall said the relationship was ineffective because both Mark and Ann are "straight man" characters, and he called the pairing one of the few mistakes of the second season. In his review of "94 Meetings
", in which Mark discusses his intentions to marry Ann, Leonard Pierce of The A.V. Club wrote of the couple, "their scenes just seemed to lay there and die: action was set up but never resolved, and the deferral contained no laughs to compensate for the dramatic fizzle". Matt Fowler of IGN
called the pairing one of the "lesser elements" of the second season, but said it had more to do with Mark than Ann: "Mark just wound up feeling extraneous, [but] I can also appreciate the nuanced realism of Ann just realizing that she wasn't ultimately that 'into him' as a way to break them up."
Many reviewers felt Ann's relationship with Chris in the third season was a major improvement, with several writing that Chris' near-perfection took the normally composed Ann out of her comfort zone, giving Rashida Jones more comedic material to work with. Several commentators felt Ann's character in general saw major improvements during the third season, such as in subplots where she started acting eccentric after he break-up with Chris, or her phase of dating several random men. Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club wrote that by the middle of the third season, "Ann's character defies all the expectations heaped on her from two previous seasons". Eric Sundermann of Hollywood.com wrote: "Rashida Jones hasn't been given too much opportunity to shine within the ensemble, so pushing her off the deep-end seems to be a good decision. Jones is a really funny actress if given the right material, and it's quickly becoming apparent that the 'crazy, almost slutty' approach is one that works in a comedic way for her very, very well." Matt Fowler of IGN wrote, "While Ann still isn't the best of the bunch as far as characters go, she was able to be a part of more great scenes this year by getting paired up with Chris in the first half of the season and getting to have some great moments of drunken anger in 'The Fight
'." Several reviews also praised the pairing of Ann and Donna Meagle
, the latter of whom gives her dating advice in the episode "Harvest Festival" and "April and Andy's Fancy Party".
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
comedy Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation is an American comedy television series on NBC that focuses on Leslie Knope , a mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series debuted on April 9, 2009; it has run for three seasons and...
. She is a nurse and best friend of Leslie Knope
Leslie Knope
Leslie Barbara Knope is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is portrayed by Amy Poehler. Poehler garnered two Emmy Award nominations for Best Lead Actress in Comedy Series for her role.-Background:...
. She is portrayed by Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones
Rashida Leah Jones is an American film and television actress, comic book author, screenwriter and occasional singer. She played Louisa Fenn on Boston Public and Karen Filippelli on The Office as well as roles in the films I Love You, Man and The Social Network...
.
Season one
At the start of the series, Ann Perkins was dating Andy DwyerAndy Dwyer
Andrew Maxwell "Andy" Dwyer is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He is Ann Perkins' ex-boyfriend, a talented-if-yet-unsuccessful musician, a shoe-shiner at Pawnee City Hall, and April Ludgate's husband. He is portrayed by Chris Pratt.-Background:At the start of the...
, her live-in boyfriend. Ann matured faster than Andy did and, while Ann entered into a career in nursing, Andy remained lazy, spoiled and unemployed. After Andy falls into a large pit next to her apartment and breaks his legs, Ann is inspired to attend parks and recreation meetings to advocate the pit be filled in, which leads Ann to befriend parks deputy director Leslie Knope
Leslie Knope
Leslie Barbara Knope is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is portrayed by Amy Poehler. Poehler garnered two Emmy Award nominations for Best Lead Actress in Comedy Series for her role.-Background:...
. Eventually, after Andy's leg casts are removed, Ann learns he could have taken them off weeks prior, but did not because he enjoyed being pampered and spoiled by Ann. This leads to an angry confrontation, and eventually the two break up, much to Andy's despair.
Season two
After Mark fell into the construction pit (at the end of season one), he is nursed by Ann during his time at the hospital. The two develop a romantic interest in each other and start dating only after Leslie, who previously harbored feelings for Mark, assures Ann she is fine with the pairing. At first, she seems to be happy with Mark, but as time goes on, she starts getting bored having a normal and healthy relationship, remembering that her relationship with Andy, while terrible, was more interesting. Furthermore, she shows a hint of jealousy toward Andy's budding relationship with April. She and Mark break up, and Mark leaves his job working for the government. In the season finale episode after Andy crashes his motorcycle, Ann kisses him while nursing him at the hospital. One night she gets drunk and kisses state auditor Chris Traeger, which prompts him to continually ask her out on a date, which she refuses to do because she is put off by his excessive positivity.Season three
Ann continues to be asked out by Chris and she refuses. Leslie sees an opportunity to utilize Chris' positivity to bring more funds into the parks department by having Ann bring it up on a date. While out, Ann learns of the reason for his positivity, being that he was expected to die as a baby and is happy to still be alive many years later, and she takes a genuine liking to him. Their date is ruined when both Leslie and Ben crash it and Leslie accidentally reveals the motive behind the date. Ann later apologizes to Chris and asks him out on another date. The two soon enter into a relationship. At first Ann was intimidated by Chris' intensity calling him "the perfect human man" but after he is stricken with the flu and immediately becomes incapacitated she relaxes. After a few weeks of dating Ann is infatuated enough with Chris to have no issues with the idea of leaving Pawnee and following him to Indianapolis. When the two discuss the issue of a long distance relationship or the notion of Ann moving with him, Ann believes that things are a bit cleared up although she came up with no definite solution on the issue. Ann later tells Leslie of Chris being distant after their "talk", which prompts Leslie to search his house for items which would suggest his infidelity when she and Ron are at his house in Indianapolis, where she finds a pink razor and pink swim cap. Leslie calls Ann about it who storms into Chris' house drilling him about whether he is cheating on her, only to find out that he had actually broken up with her in their conversation the week before; Ann did not realize he had dumped her because Chris was so cheerful about it and Ann had never been dumped in her life before this point. Ann is shown to be emotionally affected by the break up, and ends up doing strange things like dying part of her hair and making out with a patient during the Harvest Festival. When Chris returns to Pawnee as the temporary city manager, the two of them discuss their relationship over dinner, where Ann is fooled again by his positive attitude into thinking their relationship is back on. In order to cope, she decides to start dating again, which causes her to be more distant from Leslie. Leslie, in response, recommends her as the new health department public relations director. Ann ends up taking the job part time so she can still be a nurse at the hospital.Season four
In season four, Ann moves on from Chris after they shoot a PSA. Ann gets closer to Ron and April after she tells them a disgusting medical story. This results from several failed attempts to engage in small talk, over fact-checking Leslie's book.Development
While in early stages of developing Parks and Recreation, Greg DanielsGreg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
and Michael Schur
Michael Schur
Michael Herbert Schur is an American television producer and writer, best known for his work on the NBC comedy series The Office and Parks and Recreation, the latter of which he co-created along with Greg Daniels...
had been considering ideas for a possible show involving Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones
Rashida Leah Jones is an American film and television actress, comic book author, screenwriter and occasional singer. She played Louisa Fenn on Boston Public and Karen Filippelli on The Office as well as roles in the films I Love You, Man and The Social Network...
before the concept of the series was even established. Both Daniels and Schur had worked with Jones on the Daniels-created NBC comedy series, The Office, in which Jones played the character Karen Filippelli
Karen Filippelli
Karen Filippelli is a fictional character from the U.S. television series The Office. She is played by Rashida Jones. She is loosely based on the character of Rachel from the original UK version of the show, in that she transferred during the merger of the two branches, and became romantically...
. It was only after Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...
was cast as protagonist Leslie Knope that the concept of the show and Ann's character were fully developed. While most of the Parks and Recreation character work for the local Pawnee government, Ann Perkins was initially conceived as a political outsider who became indirectly involved in municipal government and, in Schur's words, "got drawn into Leslie's world". Ann Perkins has appeared in every episode of Parks and Recreation except for "Woman of the Year
Woman of the Year (Parks and Recreation)
"Woman of the Year" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the 23rd overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 4, 2010. In the episode, Ron is presented with a woman of the year...
", which she missed because she was filming scenes for the David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
film The Social Network
The Social Network
The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits...
(2010). Her last name was inspired by Nancy Perkins, one of the casting directors who worked on the show. In crafting the Ann Perkins character, the staff were drawn to the idea of building a show around a female relationship, namely Ann and Leslie Knope.
Reception
Ann Perkins has received mixed reviews from critics. Ann often serves as a straight man to the other characters, particularly Leslie Knope, and some reviewers have said Rashida Jones' talents has been under-utilized in the role. Steve Heisler of The A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
wrote, "While I like Rashida Jones in the part, her character usually does best when she's got some wacky person to play off of." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
writer Hillary Busis said, "Even Parks and Rec lovers often agree that Rashida Jones’s character can seem, well, kind of boring." Matt Fowler of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
wrote, "Ann isn't necessarily the funniest character on the show, to say the least", but he said she is capable of being very humorous, adding: "Rashida Jones is sexy and funny, but a lot of her humor is subtle and thankless." New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine writer Steve Kandell said he did not believe the Ann character was necessary for the show because she was too far removed from the other characters. He added, "The Parks and Recreation writers are the smartest in the business, and even they seem at a loss as to what to do with Ann Perkins." However, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
reporter Robert Lloyd said he felt Jones and Amy Poehler had a good comedic rhythm with each other, and The Atlantic writer Scott Meslow said Jones has a "natural comic sensibility" who rarely gets the best material due to her straight man role. Television columnist Alan Sepinwall said Jones not only plays a good straight man, but particularly excels in bringing the best comedic potential out of her fellow cast members.
Many reviewers were critical of the pairing of Mark and Ann, feeling the couple lacked chemistry and were often the least funniest parts of the individual episodes. Entertainment Weekly writer Margaret Lyons called Mark and Ann the show's "Achilles' heel
Achilles' heel
An Achilles’ heel is a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common.- Origin :In Greek...
", and Sandra Gonzalez, also from Entertainment Weekly, wrote, "No matter what they do with these two, I can’t help but be bored." Alan Sepinwall said the relationship was ineffective because both Mark and Ann are "straight man" characters, and he called the pairing one of the few mistakes of the second season. In his review of "94 Meetings
94 Meetings
94 Meetings is the 21st episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the 27th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on April 29, 2010. In the episode, Ron is forced to handle 94 meetings in a single day due...
", in which Mark discusses his intentions to marry Ann, Leonard Pierce of The A.V. Club wrote of the couple, "their scenes just seemed to lay there and die: action was set up but never resolved, and the deferral contained no laughs to compensate for the dramatic fizzle". Matt Fowler of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
called the pairing one of the "lesser elements" of the second season, but said it had more to do with Mark than Ann: "Mark just wound up feeling extraneous, [but] I can also appreciate the nuanced realism of Ann just realizing that she wasn't ultimately that 'into him' as a way to break them up."
Many reviewers felt Ann's relationship with Chris in the third season was a major improvement, with several writing that Chris' near-perfection took the normally composed Ann out of her comfort zone, giving Rashida Jones more comedic material to work with. Several commentators felt Ann's character in general saw major improvements during the third season, such as in subplots where she started acting eccentric after he break-up with Chris, or her phase of dating several random men. Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club wrote that by the middle of the third season, "Ann's character defies all the expectations heaped on her from two previous seasons". Eric Sundermann of Hollywood.com wrote: "Rashida Jones hasn't been given too much opportunity to shine within the ensemble, so pushing her off the deep-end seems to be a good decision. Jones is a really funny actress if given the right material, and it's quickly becoming apparent that the 'crazy, almost slutty' approach is one that works in a comedic way for her very, very well." Matt Fowler of IGN wrote, "While Ann still isn't the best of the bunch as far as characters go, she was able to be a part of more great scenes this year by getting paired up with Chris in the first half of the season and getting to have some great moments of drunken anger in 'The Fight
The Fight (Parks and Recreation)
"The Fight" is the thirteenth episode of the third season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the 43rd overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on May 12, 2011. In the episode, the parks department employees become very...
'." Several reviews also praised the pairing of Ann and Donna Meagle
Donna Meagle
Donna Meagle is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is portrayed by Retta Sirleaf and has appeared in the show since the pilot. For the first two seasons of the show she appeared as a recurring character; she became a regular in the third season.-Background:Donna is...
, the latter of whom gives her dating advice in the episode "Harvest Festival" and "April and Andy's Fancy Party".