Portlandia Review

You like hipster culture? You like weird? You like...disturbing? Well if you like one or all three, Portlandia is the show for you! I've been watching this show recently and although its so confusing at first but if you look past the weirdness, its a really interesting and well thought out piece of work. 

Portlandia is a satiric sketch comedy starring Fred Armisen from Saturday Night Live and Carrie Brownstein who is lead guitarist and singer from the band Wild Flag. The show consists of sketches in areas in or around Portland, Oregon which fit perfectly into the genre of satire based comedy. The characters in each sketch exchange ironic dialogue which will throw off many watchers because you don't know what they will say next. However, each word is meant to attack some contemporary theme and when you pay very close attention, each sketch meshes into one another.

But the key note for each sketch is what they are trying to ridicule. Each sketch has a central theme and the dialogue between the characters in each sketch ends up making fun of the central theme. For example, one popular sketch Fred and Carrie perform is when they are in a store called Women and Women First. The store is a feminist bookstore where Fred and Carrie play as Tony and Candace, two women who are true to their feministic idealism. What Fred and Carrie do best in this sketch is truly stick to the feminist rendition towards outside characters who may go against their characters ideals.

For example in the first episode of season 2 "Mixologist", an AC repair man comes to fix the air conditioning unit in the store. Even though he's asking questions which pertain to his work, Tony and Candace constantly go at him about saying things which go against their ideals on how women should be treated, called, so on and so forth. However, you never know what they are going to say next because Fred and Carrie constantly switch up the tones in their characters.

Overall, Portlandia is becoming a popular show for those who love ironic comedy and has many people talking about it. It airs on the independent film channel, or IFC, and returns to air January 4 at 10pm. So if you're interested in watching new age sketch comedy, watch Portlandia!