It’s a strange week: there was a burst of new programming last week, and there will be another next week, but right now there are only two shows with Latinos in the mix that are premiering, both of them on NBC and both of them happily familiar: The Office, with Oscar Nuñez, and Parks and Recreation, with the hot-as-a-pistola Aubrey Plaza.
Oscar’s been the accountant at Dunder Mifflin since the very first episode back in 2005, and he’ll be riding that horse all the way to the finish line, along with the rest of the remaining cast. Of course, Steve Carrell moved on last year, and Mindy Kaling has left for her own show on Fox, and the producers have announced that this is the final season, in which many questions will be answered (including: who are those guys behind the shaky-cam, and why have they been filming the office for almost seven years?). Oscar played a key (and sweetly hilarious) role in Without Men last year, and is currently filming the TV movie Prosecuting Casey Anthony, starring–among others–Marisa Ramirez of Spartacus and The Young and the Restless. A veteran of more than ten years on TV, this Cuban-born actor and comedian is sure to be highly visible for year to come.
Meanwhile, Aubrey Plaza has become something of an “It” girl for television and independent movies. Her starring role in Safety Not Guaranteed, a time-travel romcom, became a favorite of the film festival circuit last year, and she already has two other movies in the can–A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swann III, with Bill Murray, Charlie Sheen, Donald Glover (Community), and Connie Britton (American Horror Story, now Nashville). Meanwhile, a third film, The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, is in post-production; we’ll see it in 2013. And Aubrey herself is all over the place, on talk shows and red carpets on both coasts and in between. Parks & Recreation itself as a large cult following and a number of breakout stars, but its overall ratings have kept it a ‘bubble show’ from the very beginning. This may be its last year–no one really knows–but it’s certainly not the end of the line for Aubrey.
New episodes begin tonight–The Office at 9P on NBC, and Parks & Recreation at 9:31. Both are likely to be available on Hulu and NBC.com the next day.
