Jared Berg
Editor In Chief
Portlandia, the critically acclaimed yet perpetually commercially underrated sketch comedy series from IFC, recently debuted its seventh season. While only four of ten episodes have aired, the sampling is more than enough to say that the seventh season stays true to its predecessors, even if the jokes do not come as fast and furious as they used to. Overall, while the show’s razor-thin budget is still evident, Portlandia manages to chalk up what looks to be another strong season due to its characteristic charisma and wit.
Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein’s brainchild has done well to launch a seventh season, especially in an age where television executives are harsher than ever with their renewal and cancellation decisions. Portlandia languishes on a channel that only 63 percent of American households with televisions receive. Its place on Netflix has undoubtedly done wonders for its popularity amongst populations that consume their television primarily or exclusively by streaming. Although its quality has diminished somewhat over the past few seasons, this season makes it easy to see why this series has been a difficult one for producers to pull the plug on.
While the season’s first two episodes, “The Storytellers” and “Carrie Dates a Hunk,” have some notable moments, namely a pseudo-guerrilla war fought between Portland’s nerds and hunks, the third episode, “Fred’s Cell Phone Company,” is Portlandia back at its best. Every method and medium of joke-telling that Portlandia has mastered over the years is here, including hilarious bits about an overzealous Google calendar complicating a long-distance marriage, a massage chair immobilizing its user and Fred opening his own low-cost cell phone provider. This episode, like Portlandia overall, cheerfully and incessantly lampoons hipster culture in a way that provides equal parts comedy and social commentary.
Episode four, “Separation Anxiety,” continues the momentum of “Fred’s Cell Phone Company” by relying on new favorites, such as the recurring men’s rights activists of this season (who, in this episode, defend gingerbread men against the “castration” of classifying them as gender-neutral gingerbread people) and old standbys, namely television’s favorite feminist-bookstore-owning feminists, Toni and Candace. Judging on the trajectory of these first four episodes, it is safe to say that Portlandia might have finally shaken off the slump of its sixth season. With Portlandia set to end after season eight, all evidence of this season indicates that this quirky and unique comedy will go out in good form.
Other notable segments of the season include Peter and Nance buying a rug “before marriage,” rats bemoaning “squirrel privilege” and “the freaks” discovering Bed, Bath & Beyond. This season has also benefitted from the usual appearances of a number of high profile actors. Natasha Lyonne and Claire Danes have both, made guest appearances (Danes role as a “conversation coach” hired by Fred and Nance in an effort to improve their dinner party conversation is one of the highlights of the season thus far), and one must imagine that perennial guest stars Steve Buscemi and Jeff Goldblum will show up sometime in the rest of the season to provide more memorable moments of lighthearted levity.
In the oversaturated television market of today, a quaint series such as Portlandia is oftentimes overlooked as executives and audiences alike fixate on epic-style, hour-long behemoths with a multitude of characters and plotlines. Conversely, Portlandia is a show that knows what it is: a five hours-a-season comedy that is lighthearted, smart and economical.
For the viewer that is looking for a thoughtful series that doesn’t beat you over the head with its indulgences and extravagance, Portlandia’s seventh season indicates that this series is still a good place to look.