Parks and rec starts VERY softly in its first season. Sure, it will make you laugh occasionally, but I think it was trying too hard to be classic "the office", but also tried to infuse it's own humor into it. This mix does not work, and leaves the jokes to be over the top and the characters to be bland.
Leslie is an idiot this season, and I absolutely hate that. Yes, she continues to be a ditz in later seasons, making questionable decisions and having more than a few odd quirks, but this season she is only portrayed as odd, with no other distinguishable qualities.
Ann is another character that lacks spark. She is always the voice of reason, but does the voice of reason have to be sooo normal. She is portrayed as this voice so often that she doesn't even push forward a personality.
Mark seems to be thrown into the show solely to build any romantic attachment with Leslie. He is also very VERY bland and boring, and kind of seems like a cheap rip-off of Jim a lot of times.
Andy is shown as a dead-beat and lazy, which still appears in later seasons, however it is never attempted to make him lovable, and for that, his character and I got off on a bad start.
April is so down and negative that her lines come across as depressing and she often made me wonder if her character was actually severely depressed based on her actions.
Ron has no quirks, and although his hatred of the government provides a few laughs, he comes across as an impenetrable steel wall.
Tom is bored by nearly everything, and in turn, forces the audience to bored along with him.
In conclusion, the downfall isn't the quirkiness or the plot, it's the severe blandness that seems to permeate through the entire season. Yes it'll make you laugh sometimes, but mostly, you'll just be wishing they did this instead of that.
However, do stick through and watch...this show becomes amazing and worth the 6-episode wait for it to become that.