3) Broad City – Hurricane Wanda
Girls live in New York and attempt to “make it” as adults, but find themselves unable to shed the immaturity of being twentysomethings in the big city. Sound familiar? Well, given the first word of that sentence, it should. And here’s the thing, Comedy Central’s Amy Poehler-produced Broad City is, in fact, very similar to HBO’s Girls.
But the key point here is that Abby and Ilana, the titular Broads of the City, are so endearingly uncaring in matters concerning work, stress, and nearly anything unrelated to one another and, well, sex, that they feel like people you actually want to be around. They’re like the Bill and Ted version of that much-maligned HBO touchstone. You get the sense that if they were waiting for the same subway as the titular Girls, they’d be secretly getting high and helping some street performers on the drums while Hannah Horvath waxed poetic about the universal importance of schedules.
Their unapologetically bizarre mannerisms and escapades reach a fever-pitch in “Hurricane Wanda,” in which most of the main cast is finally lassoed into one room for an entire half-hour, including Abbi’s neighbor crush Jeremy and her flatulence-prone roommate Bevers. Spoiling the innumerable cleverly executed comedic surprises the episode presents – “Can’t flush. Wanna die.” – would be tantamount to treason, so I’ll just leave you with this: ‘poop ninja.’
