SummaryIFC has greenlighted a new series that will focus on how life really is in Portland, Oregon. Lorne Michaels will executive producer the short-based series, which stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein.
SummaryIFC has greenlighted a new series that will focus on how life really is in Portland, Oregon. Lorne Michaels will executive producer the short-based series, which stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein.
Brownstein and Armisen move so effortlessly between characters, then execute their riffs, tics, styles and voices with such skilled abandon that before long this doesn't seem like satire any longer but a fun house mirror reflection of intensely real people.
The series is a better-heeled, better-paced and, within the bounds of its own Portland-ish modesty, a more ambitious extension of the occasional videos that Armisen and Portland resident Brownstein have posted online over the past few years under the name ThunderAnt.
Absolutely hilarious. If you are a fan of Two and Half Men or most CBS sitcoms, you probably won't care for this show. I have a new respect for Fred Armisen. One of the best shows since The Upright Citizens Brigade.
This show isn't the funniest show, but the reason I give this show a 10 out of 10 is because of the great cast and the great humor of this show. Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein are a great duo! The first episode wasn't the best, but ever since, it's been building up steam.This Show is a definite must watch for indie comedy and any kind of comedy lovers out their!
Armisen and Browstein's masterstroke is showing how certain flavors of modern leftist sensitivity/engagement can seem (to outsiders) like passive-aggressive self-absorption laced with contempt for the unenlightened.
Often Ms. Brownstein, wide-eyed and sincere, gets the best of Mr. Armisen, who's been exaggerating characters for so long on "Saturday Night Live" that it's tough for him to capture the understatement of these caricatures.
Portlandia, a vanity project from "Saturday Night Live's" Fred Armisen that plays like an awful night at the Groundlings, or worse, a collection of the most uninspired sketches from "SNL's" final half-hour.
I kind of trailed off in my first review, and I meant to rate it higher than a 5! So this review is to fix that. In fact, Portlandia is over the top, but this compensates for the way the Pacific Northwest is usually depicted in pop culture media, which is either not at all (as if it didn't exist) or very little. Let's face it, as far as comedy goes it's as if the universe ends at the borders of the New York metropolitan area (Friends, 30 Rock, SNL--need I go on?). As for the West Coast, take your pick between Seattle (Frazier--which basically took place largely in an apartment and a simulated radio station studio) and various sketches set in L.A. It's great to see a show that depicts sort of a Northwest zeitgeist. In fact, that's what Portlandia seems to be aiming at.
If you are from Portland or have spent much time there, definitely watch this show. If you have no connection with Portland, eh, you can probably just skip it. By far the funniest thing for me are the myriad references to Portland culture, since I used to live there, this show is very nostalgic for me. But besides that, the laughs are sporadic. I love the fact a show was made based around Portland though, that makes me happy.
Damn, I so wanted to like "Portlandia." Like some other reviewers, I live in the Pacific Northwest, and the culture here truly is hilariously contradictory: idealistic on the surface but judgmental beneath, earnestly zany, educated but anti-intellectual. For me, though, the first episode kept forcing the humor. The musical number was wonderful, but the sketches would start as satire then grow more and more absurd until they became just random collections of improbabilities. If the writers were to observe more and contrive less, the show would be both funnier and sharper. I'll keep watching for a while, though my daily bus ride offers more amusement than "Portlandia," so far.
Should be funnier(?). The more I think about that statement, the more confusing it becomes. Why should it be funnier? The cast is great. Well, okay, that's well and fine, but if Hollywood has taught us anything, it's that a cast can't save bad writing, or in this case, okay writing. Independent is supposed to = better, right? They could do a whole skit on that: Annoying snobs (from Portland) comment on how everything independent is better than everything that's what, dependent? That would be so funny, to someone else. The problem with Portlandia is simple, it's one great big [not very funny] inside joke. If you haven't been to Portland (Oregon), then you might not realize how many people in Portland are like the people they fun of in this show, and I don't use the word realize lightly here. Of course you realize that they're making fun of annoying Portland people, but only on an academic level. Can you recount specific instances of interacting with stupid hippies, organic food ****, or d***heads on bikes, in Portland? Sure they're everywhere, but the nature of the mockery in this show just leaves you annoyed, and not laughing. It feels [too much] like Saturday Night Live, and we know how long ago that particular ship sailed... Please try harder guys!
I was really looking forward to this series. I love Fred Armisen. However, the first of six episodes ended with a thud and not much promise. I shouldn't watch this much comedic talent in one show and not even crack a smile.