TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

[longhornbaseball]

I'm really excited for Awake tonight.

Hearing good things.

Yeah, this is the most excited I've been about a network show in a long time.

[Arthur Dent]

The chicken farm and opening number were great, but the show peaked in the first 15 minutes.

Yep. Also, it's pretty much just the same exact joke over and over. And at whole lot of the characters don't work. Like the feminist bookstore owners who are boring and don't seem to be satirizing anything real. I get what they're going for, but they haven't got the characters right to capture the real personality type. It feels like just another silly sketch character -- they're so wacky and don't care about actually running a bookstore!

Then there is that while supposedly mocking Portland the show is really just an ongoing advertisement for the cult of Portland.

I don't think it was ever intended to be mocking.

[heyzeus]

[lukethedrifter]

I have never laughed at anything Fred Armisen has done. The very small amount of Portlandia that I've seen was no different.

Same here. Me and Armisen started off poorly with his way too long appearance in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.

[MrSaigon]

The chicken farm and opening number were great, but the show peaked in the first 15 minutes.

Yep. Also, it's pretty much just the same exact joke over and over. And at whole lot of the characters don't work. Like the feminist bookstore owners who are boring and don't seem to be satirizing anything real. I get what they're going for, but they haven't got the characters right to capture the real personality type. It feels like just another silly sketch character -- they're so wacky and don't care about actually running a bookstore!

Then there is that while supposedly mocking Portland the show is really just an ongoing advertisement for the cult of Portland.

I don't think it was ever intended to be mocking.

Getting made fun of is almost always a badge of honor in pop culture these days.

[G. Keenan]

I don't think it was ever intended to be mocking.

Perhaps mocking is the wrong word but most of the sketches make fun of the sensibilities Portland is famous for. I'm thinking of parodies of the militant cyclist, of the Seattle inferiority complex, greater concern for animals than people, the famous put a bird on it sketch, and general hipster memes. This is basically the joke that they repeat over and over. It's funny for about 15 minutes like haltz said and then you're like okay, I get it. But the satire is so gentle that it's not really funny. The chicken farm sketch is the best because it goes in an unpredictable and increasingly weird direction.

Really I think Portlandia is a rip-off of an English show called Big Train, but with the actual weirdness and edge removed so that the sketches have no heart, no danger, and don't really take any chances.

The celebrity cameos bother me as well because they amount to really lazy writing. Rather than make the sketch funny in its own right they rely on the cameo novelty factor to do most of the work.

Basically, the show is very mediocre and I don't understand the fascination with it.

[maddash]

I don't think it was ever intended to be mocking.

Perhaps mocking is the wrong word but most of the sketches make fun of the sensibilities Portland is famous for. I'm thinking of parodies of the militant cyclist, of the Seattle inferiority complex, greater concern for animals than people, the famous put a bird on it sketch, and general hipster memes. This is basically the joke that they repeat over and over. It's funny for about 15 minutes like haltz said and then you're like okay, I get it. But the satire is so gentle that it's not really funny. The chicken farm sketch is the best because it goes in an unpredictable and increasingly weird direction.

Really I think Portlandia is a rip-off of an English show called Big Train, but with the actual weirdness and edge removed so that the sketches have no heart, no danger, and don't really take any chances.

The celebrity cameos bother me as well because they amount to really lazy writing. Rather than make the sketch funny in its own right they rely on the cameo novelty factor to do most of the work.

Basically, the show is very mediocre and I don't understand the fascination with it.

This reads like a Portlandia sketch.

But I agree that the show doesn't have legs.

[TGantz]

The chicken farm and opening number were great, but the show peaked in the first 15 minutes. It's all sort of funny, and maybe not well-executed isn't the best way to put it. It's just generally devoid of punchlines so it's hard to really laugh.

I bet it's a really funny writer's room.

You're watching it wrong. Can't watch it without smoking first. Worst show I've ever seen sober. Pretty unbelievable hilarious when you're not.

[Maclowery]

Lots of things are funnier if you're baked. Portlandia is one of those things. Like the others have said, its first 15 minutes was its best. Whatever level of sobriety, there's better stuff to watch.

[ghostrunner]

Well, hate the game not the player. It's hard coming up with funny stuff.