Broad City is a comedy that follows the lives of two twenty something women trying to get a living in New York. I wanted to compare it to 2 Broke Girls, except that is a show I haven’t been able to watch for more than a total of three minutes because it is so bloody awful.
Broad City distinguishes itself by its three way focus. There are the two protagonists, who are a pair of sexually liberated, somewhat skanky bohemians. The third character is the city itself, which is shown to be a hectic, frightening, dirty, intractable mess of a place. Broad City is a mixed bag when it comes to its ideas and writing. Its bread and butter is gross out and cringe humour, often involving people inserting things into their orifices. To its credit, it usually works, perhaps because it pairs the physical comedy with two unlikely subjects; sexy women are usually spared from the effects of sweat, drugs and shit in other comedies, but this show seems to take a pleasure in putting them through the ringer. These two are so peculiar, they provide a lot of comedy fodder.
The rest of the humour comes from mocking the idiosyncrasies of New York; its zoo-like public transport and nightmare bureaucracy. Much like The Simpsons or Parks and Recreation, the writers have realised that the community is too ripe a subject to miss. My favourite joke comes from the discovery that the city's post office consists of one cadaverous old lady in a warehouse, doing nothing but eating yoghurt from a bowl all day.
Less successful is the show’s use of lazy stock support characters, such as the slobbish, squatting housemate and a squealing, camp gay Latino. When these are involved, the show goes for easy jokes at their expense, which is a bit disappointing.
Broad City is okay. I didn’t laugh every minute, but the big laughs were enough to get me through at least one season already. I will be watching the next.
A Mixed Bag of Big Apples
Broad City is a comedy that follows the lives of two twenty something women trying to get a living in New York. I wanted to compare it to 2 Broke Girls, except that is a show I haven’t been able to watch for more than a total of three minutes because it is so bloody awful.
Broad City distinguishes itself by its three way focus. There are the two protagonists, who are a pair of sexually liberated, somewhat skanky bohemians. The third character is the city itself, which is shown to be a hectic, frightening, dirty, intractable mess of a place. Broad City is a mixed bag when it comes to its ideas and writing. Its bread and butter is gross out and cringe humour, often involving people inserting things into their orifices. To its credit, it usually works, perhaps because it pairs the physical comedy with two unlikely subjects; sexy women are usually spared from the effects of sweat, drugs and shit in other comedies, but this show seems to take a pleasure in putting them through the ringer. These two are so peculiar, they provide a lot of comedy fodder.
The rest of the humour comes from mocking the idiosyncrasies of New York; its zoo-like public transport and nightmare bureaucracy. Much like The Simpsons or Parks and Recreation, the writers have realised that the community is too ripe a subject to miss. My favourite joke comes from the discovery that the city's post office consists of one cadaverous old lady in a warehouse, doing nothing but eating yoghurt from a bowl all day.
Less successful is the show’s use of lazy stock support characters, such as the slobbish, squatting housemate and a squealing, camp gay Latino. When these are involved, the show goes for easy jokes at their expense, which is a bit disappointing.
Broad City is okay. I didn’t laugh every minute, but the big laughs were enough to get me through at least one season already. I will be watching the next.