Portlandia

This is brilliant. It is so offbeat and quirky..very enjoyable. It may not be for everyone but you'll know right away if it's for you. The writing is so good. This isn't your ridiculous run-of-the-mill network comedy. You have met some of the characters before...self involved do-gooders, aged hippies, counter culture losers, the politically correct, protect the dogs but forget the people, people variously stuck in the 70s,80s and 90s all offbeat and most amusing. Portlandia will not appeal to people who enjoy: Jersey Shore, 2 1/2 Men, WWE. It may appeal to people who like: Walking Dead, Jericho, Breaking Bad. However, give it a go...you will know..."the dream of the 90s is alive in Portland".

Written by and starring Carrie Brownstein, of Sleater-Kinney fame, and Fred Armisen, of Saturday Night Live fame, a sketch comedy show set in Portland, Oregon.

Funny, clever and original comedy. Captures well the absurdities of everyday life as well as parodying many organisations and types of people. Often irreverent in the institutions and people they take on.

The humour spans subtle to over-the-top. Therein lies the main problem with the show - the subtler stuff can be too subtle and you miss the joke. Some skits just don't work. In addition, while having regular characters helps familiarity and engagement some of the characters are just plain irritating, limiting engagement. There's also a degree of repetitiveness too.

Brownstein and Armisen are wonderful as the lead actors. While Armisen's comedic credentials are already well known and respected, Brownstein is a revelation. Her background, through Sleater-Kinney, is in socially-orientated rock music, and here she takes on sketch comedy, and does so extremely well.

Kyle MacLachlan is also great as the Major of Portland.

Another great feature of the series is the star-spotting as just about every episode has a major star (or several) in the cast, often as themselves. I can only imagine the clout Brownstein and Armisen must have to get those names on their show.

Portlandia is a sketch comedy show that contains two main characters played by Fred Armisen of SNL fame and Carrie Brownstein of popular band Sleater Kinney. These two come up with rad skits in which they play Hippy Vegans, Cult members, Cos Play characters, and Yuppies just to name a few. Every episode contains famous actors, which add to the fun!!

Port goes stageless! SNL, and Kids in The Hall take place on stages or sets. Port does not. This gives it a more authentic reality show feel which makes it more accessible and less artificial.

This show makes me feel like I know these people or grew up with them. They make fun of things me and my friends make fun of. Everyday young adults, who understand punk, politics, indie rock, college life, and getting over all of that will relate.

Portlandia is a 9 1/2 star show yet it's not over the top. It's not pretentious. This is why Port is for now. This generation. It's almost like a consistently funny SNL. An SNL that doesn't make fun of pop culture but rather everyday life. Therefore it's easy to laugh at again and again.

Though it's great Port lacks just little in two areas rewatchability and characters. If they could just some more stable characters and focus a little bit more on consistent relationships (non sketch stuff) to give the audience something to look forward to than maybe next season it will be a 10.

Portlandia depicts life in Portland, Oregon for many characters played by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstei. Each episode is a collection of sketches featuring reoccurring and cameo characters played by Fred and Carrie.

This show is 8 seasons of consistently good sketch comedy. I didn't realize that was still possible.

I am forever in awe of Fred and Carrie's work and relationship. I highly recommend this show.

Portlandia is a wonderful mockery of a sort of the silliness of the modern age, poking fun at obsessions with food and authenticity and playing with concepts of gender.

Portlandia walks that very thin line between so weird it's funny and too weird to be funny. That means you can see something truly inventive, original sketches, but also that you can watch an entire episode without a single funny thing in it. This has become increasingly true as the series has progressed - as of season 8 the humor has been somewhat patchy, although it is still sometimes brilliant.

If you haven't seen this series, you should definitely check it out. Start with the early episodes to get the most bang for your buck.