Portlandia Season Two
Last year, Sleater-Kinney alumna Carrie Brownstein and SNL-cast member Fred Armisen rocked the grungy, vegan, environmentally-conscious, northwest urbanite world with their IFC hit show, Portlandia. This upcoming Friday, January 6th at 10/9c, Fred and Carrie will be back with the second season of the show, continuing to skewer bike riders, hipsters, folk singers and everyone in-between.
Portlandia was successful because although it was obviously Portland-specific, its characters were not. Their memorable and obnoxious outdoor movie-goers who brought a kingdom to the show were as relevant in Ann Arbor as in Portland. Their Harajuku Japanese tourists who visited the northwest were certainly resonant to Seattle viewers, as well.
Although there were many highs in the first season of Portlandia, it also suffered some of the pitfalls of Armisen's other show, SNL. Many of the sketches relied on a single funny element that simply kept building, rather than adding new, idiosyncratic elements to keep audiences interested. Characters were often too one-note, while good comedy often lends some sort of relevant human quirk on top of all of the satire--that was why the sketch "Sparkly Pony" about an odd-looking folk musician who couldn't get into a club to play last season was so successful. She wanted to play and be accepted, and that was why the audience rooted for her.
I am excited for the second season for one big reason: Kristen Wiig is guest starring! They have also released several videos from the upcoming season, and they look pretty funny, although they don't seem to have dramatically evolved from season one.
In the sketch "Wanna Come to My DJ Night?", Paul and Carrie are invited to DJ nights from a number of Portland residents until they have to run to escape zombie would-be-DJ's all over town. In "Battlestar Gallatica," two partners get hooked on the series until they find themselves unemployed and disgusting several weeks later. Again, both of these sketches rely on the build-until-its-funny trope that is perhaps too often used on this show to be effective. Another sketch "Dog Park" skewers environmental and/or animal activists who are almost always incredibly bitchy and particular, Portlandia's favorite and most-often picked-on personalities.
Still, I'm tuning in. Maybe just to see what random guest stars (last season they had Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan and Kyle Maclachlan, just to name a few) will bizarrely show up the sketches.
Will you be watching Portlandia Season 2?