Portlandia – Season 1
Portlandia – Season 1 DVD (IFC)
Fred Armisen (Saturday night Live) and Carrie Brownstein (Vocalist/Guitarist for Sleater Kinney) come together to give us Portlandia, a sketch comedy show about everything that is Portland, Oregon and the 1990’s explosion of the “hipster” scene. They start the show with a music video all about “Portlandia” and its inhabitants, from the militant bike messenger, to the Hippie Women who own the local Women’s Bookstore, “Women and Women First”. There are more than a few laughs, Steve Buscemi as the male customer who needs to use the restroom in Women and Women First and ends up having to buy something to get out is hilarious. I also really enjoyed the Hide and Seek League in the library, with the old lady questioning Fred Armisen’s character’s life choices – hilarious! Over all, all six episodes were funny, not gut busting funny, but enough to get a chuckle out of even my 15 year old son who has no idea what the 90’s or Portland were all about. I feel the audience might be a bit limited for a show like this, because unless you lived though this part of the 90’s (I did) or knew people like this (I did) or watched your friends move to Portland (yep) then some of this might not be funny. It’s kinda like when I tried to show my twenty-something year old kids the 70’s version of Saturday Night Live and all the references and political jokes went right over their heads, causing lots of “why is this funny, dad?” moments. Over all, I really enjoyed Portlandia and look forward to Season 2, and if you can relate to it, then I’m sure you’ll dig it too.
Jethrobot
