Parks & Recreation saw many romances – some successful, others not so much, and one that was a huge mistake was the one between Tom Haverford and Ann Perkins. Parks & Recreation made its debut on NBC in 2009 and came to an end in 2015 after seven seasons. The series had a rough start, as season 1 wasn’t exactly the best, but the writers found the right tone for it and the subsequent seasons were better received.
Parks & Recreation followed the daily lives of eternal optimist Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and her friends from the Parks Department. Through her job at City Hall, Leslie met Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), who approached the Parks Department when her boyfriend Andy (Chris Pratt) fell into a pit next to her house and broke his legs. Leslie and Ann quickly bonded and became best friends, and were there for each other through thick and thin.
One of Ann’s problems was that her personality changed depending on the person she was dating, which was pointed out by Leslie at some point. Ann had a phase where she dated all types of guys, including Pawnee’s local celebrity Howard “The Douche” Tuttleman (Nick Kroll), but not even that brief experience was as bad as her relationship with Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari). Leslie’s coworker showed interest in Ann from the very first episode of the series, and continued flirting with her for a long time, even though she was dating other people. Ann finally agreed to go on a date with him after April suggested it, and that was the beginning of one of the worst relationships in Parks & Recreation.
What some perceive as merely overconfidence from Tom is actually an abusive behavior towards women, and it was mostly evident in how he treated Ann. Although it was clear for both that their relationship was not going to work, Ann decided to give it try and set some boundaries, which Tom refused to accept. He also couldn’t accept that Ann liked very different things, but as mentioned above, she tended to change her personality to fit her partner, and that’s what she did when she was with Tom.
Ann and Tom broke up various times and got back together, and Tom even celebrated that they had spent 48 hours without breaking up – because Ann was out of town for two days and forgot they were together. To make it even worse, on a drunken night Ann agreed to move in with Tom, but they quickly realized they made a huge mistake. However, because the Parks group didn’t expect their relationship to last, Tom made a $1,000 bet with Donna, and so Tom and Ann stayed together for a bit longer. Ann finally broke up with Tom, and they both moved on. Tom’s manipulative ways and Ann’s lack of agency when it came to her personal life were a very bad combination, and their relationship should have never happened in the first place. Ultimately, Parks & Recreation gave Ann and Tom good endings: Ann and Chris got together and formed their own family, while Tom married Lucy and became a successful author.