What did Broad City’s Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) and Ilana (Ilana Glazer) do in their past lives that they are constantly the victims of the universe’s most vicious karma? They are buffeted about by fate more than poor Ulysses, sent from one corner of New York City to the next on a series of misadventures and brushes with death. In the first episode of the third season alone they drop their keys in a storm drain, are attacked by a passing subway car, get trapped in a porta-potty, hijacked on the back of a delivery truck, and beset by a writhing horde of rabid customers at a pop-up shop.
It’s so much that you might often feel bad for them if their escapades weren’t so incredibly hilarious. The number of actual laugh-out-loud moments packed into 30 minutes hovers around the five to seven range for the sober and well into the double digits for those who enjoy the show as high as, well, Abbi and Ilana would be on a Wednesday evening.
The premiere, like so many episodes, is a litany of setbacks while on their way to accomplish a big mission – in this case attending an art show thrown by Abbi’s former college roommate. If you aren’t chuckling heartily by the time they have an interaction with a giant pair of gold testicles hanging from the ceiling, then I don’t know what is wrong with you.
Other episodes are more high concept, like Abbi and Ilana having to pose as each other for a day or both women taking on challenges at their respective jobs at a gym and a Groupon-esque website. No matter the format, the comedy has gotten sharper, deeper and better observed. Ilana has to interrupt going on a tear about the plight of women in Saudi Arabia to comment on the unfairness of a brunch without bottomless mimosas. There are offhanded remarks that comment on race in America (“the cops scare the shit out of me and I’m white”), the insanity of internet culture, or other topics you wouldn’t think could be expertly tackled on a show that relies so heavily on slapstick.
This season, as much as any, is sort of the anti-Sex and the City, even though the characters espouse their devotion to Sarah Jessica Parker’s late-90s love letter to Gotham. In Broad City the women don’t wait in line for Magnolia cupcakes to talk about how amazing they are. The stand in line for “churroons”, a combination churro and macaroon, only to make fun of the ridiculousness of standing in line for some fetishized foodie fad.
Another episode expertly eviscerates the intricacies of the Brooklyn organic food co-op. These are scenarios that people outside of the five boroughs might not entirely understand, but those who live in the city will recognize that the parody is close enough to reality to be truly biting. But even that dissembling is strangely loving. If someone truly hated these things about the city, they would decamp for Los Angeles like so many New York Times trend pieces tells us they already are. No, Abbi and Ilana stay because there is no other place in the world that would provide them with the opportunities to explore that New York does.
This season, more than ever, Abbi and Ilana are shown as a sort of romantic couple (at one point Ilana even proposes after Abbi saves her life). The very opening of the season, which was made available early by Comedy Central, perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the series. It shows Abbi and Ilana in split screen in their respective bathrooms, sometimes doing different things; sometimes doing the same thing independent of each other; sometimes partying together; but always getting intimate away from each other.
It’s been said before, but the real reason why this all works is because Abbi and Ilana really are truly in love with each other and would do absolutely anything for their chosen life partner. Like Seinfeld there’s no “hugging and learning”, instead they’re always there for each other, making the best out of their constant string of difficulties. I don’t know if I could endure the danger to life and limb if I hung out with them in real life, but spending time with them for 30 minutes a week in the city we both love is one of the highlights of the year.
- Broad City starts Wednesday 17 February on Comedy Central at 10pm EST
