Portlandia: Season Two Blu-ray Review
My kind of town.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 11, 2012
Any of you guys with brothers probably know the routine: you could beat your sibling senseless while you were growing
up (hopefully not as adults), but if any "outsider" attempted to take him on, you would spring to his defense, no questions
asked. There's something just slightly similar at hand when I approach
Portlandia. As I discussed in my review of
Portlandia: Season
One, I have lived in Portland for most of my adult life and there is probably no one, either "SNOB" (i.e., Society of
Native Oregon Born) or not, who has taken this city more to task for its pretensions and outright weirdness than I have.
And yet when I watch
Portlandia, I often go almost automatically into "hey, who do you think you are to satirize
Portland that way?" territory. My wife once asked a co-worker what she thought the rest of the outside Oregon audience
saw in
Portlandia? The co-worker replied, "We're laughing
with the show, the rest of the world is laughing
at the show" (and by inference at Portland). That may indeed be the case, but the second season of
Portland exhibits some of the same tendency as the first season toward being overly precious about its subject
matter and often beating punch lines into the ground through sheer repetition, making the actual laugh quotient variable
at times. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen are often amusingly droll in various skits, and there are some standout
moments in this second season, but
Portlandia often plays like a long form
Saturday Night Live outing,
where one bit may be hilarious and the next simply falls flat.
Part of the issue with
Portlandia is its insistent rhythm, which depends on treading (and retreading and
retreading) familiar territory of uptight urbanites, ridiculous hipsters and the occasional angry lesbian, without ever
really
providing any insight into any of the characters. The show exults in poking fun at little idiosyncrasies, and when it finds
its
mark, it can be a very funny show. But often the jokes simply go on for
way too long and in this second season
especially they begin to look more and more derivative. This season for example revisits the "put a bird on it" couple,
who
now have the exciting new tag line "we can pickle that". (Are you laughing yet?) There's also a slightly morphed
version
of the absolutely hilarious first season skit about the metrosexuals eating at the restaurant and wanting to know about
the free range chicken (named Colin, still one of the series' best jokes). In this new skit, they're at a restaurant that
features global cuisine trying to order a simple cheeseburger, but the waiter insists on taking them through the entire
world spanning menu. Another skit finds two denizens of northwest Portland (read: slightly pretentious and uppity
nouveau riche) attempting to get ready for a hike, but repeatedly having to change their gear as they imagine
new
potentialities greeting them in the great out of doors. Good concept, but belabored here to the point of ridiculousness.
Other skits, often featuring recurring characters, manage to find more consistent humor, albeit often within that slightly
annoying ambience that seems to color a lot of the series. The best of these are undoubtedly the feminist bookstore
bits featuring the depressive duo of Candace and Toni, with Armisen hilariously cross dressing and partnering with
Brownstein as the owner – operators of a dowdy
bookstore called "Women and Women First".
Everything is a quasi-sexual assault to these "women", including
an air conditioner repairman who has the temerity to use the word "unit" (which the women take as a metaphor for the
male sexual organ). There's also a decent guest star turn by Penny Marshall as an ex-partner of the women who went
on to fame and glory as the marketer of a Snuggie like phenomenon. This particular episode points one of the glaring
issues with
Portlandia: it often isn't
quite as funny as it tries to insist it is.
Another standout in this second season is Kyle McLachlan's continuing role as Portland's daffy mayor (our
real
mayor Sam Adams portrays his aide). McLachlan's affably clueless take on the character seems to be perfectly aligned
with what many of us here in Portland have actually experienced with many of our elected officials.
Portlandia
also deserves major kudos for regularly utilizing a great group of Portland professionals in supporting roles (since many
of these folks are personal friends of mine, I'll refrain from discussing their performances individually). The second
season continues a nice assortment of fanciful guest turns, as evidenced by Penny Marshall referenced above.
Obviously there's
something about the Rose City that is proving alluring to some of these notable personalities.
If it proves to be nothing other than derisive laughter, so be it.
Portlandia: Season Two Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Portlandia is probably best seen as an acquired taste, kind of like its subject city itself. The show still tends to
annoy as much as it provokes laughter, and Carrie Brownstein's assertion that most of the characters featured in this
season are
just this side of a psychotic breakdown is also one of the series' most frustrating elements. Over and
over (and over) again, we get goofy people doing insanely dunderheaded things, with no relief in sight. As I mentioned in
my review of
Portlandia:
Season One, I personally think the show would be materially better if there were occasional at least
relatively
"normal" people included (think Marilyn Munster in
The Munsters for a decent, if archaic, example). Still, the show
continues to mine the rather fertile territory of Portland weirdness, though I'm still waiting for the episode about the over
critical Portland based Blu-ray reviewer who thinks he can improve a show that has won a Peabody and become something
of a cultural phenomenon.
Recommended.
