The Broads of Babylon City
By Ah, here is a sad tale of one woman who wanted desperately to love two shows that were seemingly right up her alley, but could only muster up tepid like.
Broad City: I feel as if I should love this show, but don’t for reasons I can’t put my finger on. So I’m just going to move my finger from here to here to here and tell you why it doesn’t quite land for me. The show has been compared to “Girls,” which–not having seen the show–sounded really dumb to me, because I mistakenly thought it was going to be sketch show. But now that I’ve seen a couple of episodes, I think the show reads as a spoof of “Girls.” I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but it’s not hugely appealing to me. It’s one thing to watch women in their twenties act like idiots, but to watch women in their 40’s doing it–at least in this specific Girls-esque way–just feels weird. It bothers me that I think this, because as I’ve said before, it’s important to the health of comedy that we let women act like idiots and assholes. But something about this particular brand of idiocy is not working for me. It’s too bad, because the show is occasionally laugh-out-loud funny and it’s obvious that Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson are incredibly talented.
The Spoils of Babylon: I should say right up front that if don’t have at least a passing familiarity with the golden age of mini-series’ and/or the books upon which they’re based, you’re not going to get the joke. That right there is going to be a huge barrier to enjoyment for most people. So start with that and add in the fact that it’s only tepidly funny, and what you get is a show that makes you feel as if you ought to be laughing more…but won’t actually go to the trouble of eliciting your laughs. It’s disappointing, because the cast is great (Kristen Wiig, Tobey MacGuire, Tim Robbins) and it is an almost-loving homage to the mini-series. Great concept that failed in execution.
UPDATE: I’ve gotten their ages wrong. In the interview I watched with them, the interviewer says they are in their 40’s playing 20’s. It didn’t come off as a joke, though I admitted to being surprised. Anyway, I guess–age aside–the show just doesn’t quite work for me. Also too, tried to do some Googling to find their real ages with no luck. (Although they are mentioned in the WaPo article mentioned in the thread.)