6 - Friday, January 21, 2011
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
6 - Friday, January 21, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
'Episodes' adapts
Sketchy look at Portland
An American show
about the American
version of a Brit show
By CAROLYN KLARECKI
MagazineEditor
This season of television series
premieres comes with a noticeable
British invasion. MTV's "Skins"
and Showtime's "Shameless"
both originated
across the pond.*
After Holly-
wood found W
success in "The
Office," "Who Pilot
Wants to be a
Millionaire" Sundays at 9:30 p.m.
and "American Showtime
Idol," - yes,
"American Idol" was originally
Britain's "Pop Idol" - the adap-
tation of shows from the U.K. has
become a common practice. This
complicated process is the butt
of the joke in Showtime's sitcom
"Episodes."
Sean (Stephen Mangan, "Green
Wing") and Beverly Lincoln (Tam-
sin Greig, radio's "The Archers")
are a successful British husband-
By SHIN HIEFTJE
DailyArts Writer
People living an "alternative
lifestyle" - the kind of people
who only eat organic food and
refuse to shop
anywhere but ,
mom-and-pop
stores and per- Portlandia
haps live in a
co-op. Depend- Pilot
ing on who
you talk to, Fridaysat10:30 p.m:
they could be IFC
called hippies
or hipsters. Either ways, it's easy
to see that the creators of com-
edy "Portlandia" have an inti-
mate knowledge of this lifestyle,
or they wouldn't have such a fun
time lampooning it.
"Portlandia" centers c spund,
unsurprisingly, Portland. The
city is a hub of sorts for this cul-
ture, described in the opening
minutes as a place where people
still talk about saving the planet
and dream of starting their own
bands, and where "all the hot
girls wear glasses." The show is
basically comprised into a series
of vignettes of off-the-wall situ-
ations, exaggerating the alterna-
tive lifestyle for comedic effect.
In one of the sketches, a couple
orders a chicken in a restaurant
and proceeds to ask the waitress
an inordinate amount of questions
about how the chicken was raised.
"Did it have a lot of friends?"
one of them asks the waitress.
The couple then becomes so
invested in how the chicken was
raised, they tell the waitress to
save their seats as they go to visit
the farm where it was raised to
see if it really is as organic as the
waitress claims.
Another scene has the same
couple running a "Women and
Women First Bookstore." They
find it very inconsiderate and
offensive that a man would use the
bathroom without buying some-
thing, while they, as clerks, are
inconsiderate too by being prissy
and condescending. The woman
at the register gets offended at the
man offering a $20 bill for a small
item, saying, "What do you think
I work for, tips?" They also offer
the man who used the bathroom
to take a class on protest organiz-
ing instead of buying something,
which is pretty on-the-mark satire
of the alternative liberal mentality.
It's not all satire, though; some
of it's just absurd. When the cou-
ple gets to the farm to see how
organic it is, there happens to be
a charming Charles Manson-like
character running it, and things
naturally get a little bizarre from
there. The whole show is just kind
of goofy, with unrealistic scenar-
ios and random quirky quips that
are hit-or-miss in their humor.
Exaggeration becomes par for
the course in attempts for parody.
The caricatures are over-the-top
and the script is silly.
Laugh out loud
at the liberals.
"Portlandia" isn't especially
well acted or directed, but it
doesn't really seem like it's try-
ing to be. It's a small show with
a singular idea to poke fun at the
"alternative lifestyle," and it does
that well. Since it's a show with
multiple sketches, the jokes take
a while to develop - there's only
about six or seven major laugh-
out-loud moments in each epi-
sode. It's ridiculous and dumb,
but if you like parody, "Portland-
ia" isn't a bad way to spend 30
minutes.
"How you doin'?"
and-wife comedy writing duo,
with their sitcom "Lyman's Boys"
winning its fourth BAFTA. When
American television mogul Merc
(John Pankow, "Mad About You")
proposes a U.S. version, Sean and
Beverly agree. They're met with
a slew of drastic changes, despite
the fact that everyone insists
they love the show. In fact, Merc
may not have even seen "Lyman's
Boys," despite claiming he loves
the series so much he wants to
have sex with it. The biggest cul-
ture shock for Sean and Beverly
is the studio's desire to cast Matt
LeBlanc in the lead role as the
headmaster of a boy's boarding
school.
Though written by Americans
David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik
- the team that brought us "The
Class," - "Episodes" has a hearty
British feel of humor. The exag-
gerated stereotypes of Brits clash
See EPISODES, Page 7
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RELEASE DATE- Friday, January 21, 2011
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 4 Ruinous 39 DuPont's Fiber A, 51 State of matter
1 Cape Cod 5 F equivalent now 54 Like a thorough
feature t6Blubber 0 40 Wor symbol of update
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competitor 10 Stalk frequenter Chan
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alma mater sank in Luke kicking game marshal
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