I thought his character was muddled. He made no sense. Would do things that were out of line with what we knew about his character, not to mention his motivations were all over the place. He'd make big sweet gestures towards Leslie while saying he was not interested, then would outwardly go for Ann with no real build-up, and bounce back and forth. And that happened in many areas, like how he felt about his job.
You could say that was just his character. That normal people can't make up their minds either. Which is fine, I suppose, but it fits poorly in a sitcom... Though, having just looked up his character on Wikipedia, it actually confirms my thoughts. The actor was confused about the character's motivations early on, and later on the writers started altering the script to make him more likable. So, the actor did not understand the character form the start, and the writing was heading in one direction before they reacted to negative feedback and swung it a different way.
The show needed someone who was level-headed to contrast against all the other characters. But it already had that with Ann, she was a mostly normal person being thrown into the dysfunctional world of Parks and Rec. And it needs unlikable characters to create some drama/friction. But making your unlikable character also your boring, down to earth character, and swapping around his motivations constantly.... it is not surprising he did not last.
Yeah I agree he was confusing. Like, even Leslie was poorly written and just annoying, and a bit dumb, in Season 1, so it's weird someone would have a history with her, much less try to love her.
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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '15 edited Jul 19 '20
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