Not just pencil pushers

In an election year, there is ample reason to feel depressed about politics and the people involved in it. So it was doubly welcome to have this full-hearted, brilliant civil-servant sitcom expand its purview from the Pawnee, Ind., parks department to the city council and Washington itself. In the first half of 2012, it took Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) through a bumpy but successful campaign against a local candy-company scion (Paul Rudd); in the last half, it sent her boyfriend/campaign manager Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) to the capital but found time to get the pair engaged. On two levels — political and personal — it was the year’s best love story. 

TIME: Top 10 Everything of 2012; Top 10 TV Series, December 4, 2012