the truth about broad city

i found this critique recently published in the guardian to be a thoughtful and accurate portrayal of why the show works.

But usually these leading ladies are glossy caricatures, Kate Hudsons and Drew Barrymores, with problems like, “I’m too focused on my glamorous career to find love” or “I feign awkwardness when really I’m running around Manhattan in five-inch Jimmy Choos.” These protagonists’ supposedly relatable flaws were the exceptions that proved the rule: they were actually pretty close to attaining the unattainable holy trinity of perfect body, perfect job, perfect man.

In a way that doesn’t feel like obvious parody, Broad City sends up all of these tropes. In one scene, Abbi tells Ilana: “Glasses off, you’re fucking gorgeous.” It’s a nod to makeover montages in which women get a few new dresses and pluck their eyebrows and are suddenly model-beautiful. Far from worrying about the “day to evening” looks touted by women’s magazines, Ilana shows up to the office in a “shirt” the size of a napkin. Abbi doesn’t complain about making time to go to the gym; her job is cleaning up vomit in the bathroom after spin class. Ilana is dating a guy who just kind of … bores her. These are the sorts of problems that young women really deal with in the years when their personal and professional lives are still very much in development. But mercifully, Abbi and Ilana are not discussing them over $14 mimosas at brunch with a gay man who doesn’t appear have a life of his own. They are ignoring them while they get stoned, eat cereal, and shoot the shit on video chat.

also see: this cute video featuring ilana glazer. (thx kennedy)