BROAD CITY - I came late to the party on Broad City but I ended up watching all the episodes so far in one day. People have described it as Workaholics but with girls but I like to think of it more as what Girls would be like if the characters actually liked each other and weren't so miserable all the time. Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson created and star as Abbi & Ilana, two twenty-somethings navigating life in New York City and having all kinds of wacky adventures. It's absolutely hilarious, the two of them are one of the best comedic teams on tv. In the first episode, they try to scrape together some money to see a pop-up Lil Wayne show by stealing & selling office supplies, bucket drumming in the park, and cleaning a baby's apartment in their underwear. The "baby" is Fred Armisen and it's one of the funniest sequences I've ever seen, he brings creepin' to a new level. Props to him. When he doesn't pay since he's a baby and he doesn't have any money, they steal his furs and liquor and go home. Hannibal Buress plays Ilana's sometimes boyfriend/sometimes fuck buddy to great acclaim. Ilana is a manic, klepto horndog who harbors a more than obvious crush on Abbi, who is stuck working as a janitor at a gym who constantly has to clean up "pube situations" in the bathroom and has to deal with the nightmare boyfriend of an absent roommate. Hannah Horvath should run into these girls in the city and drop her terrible circle of friends. She might actually start enjoying life for once.
GRANTLAND - Grantland is my go-to source for sports, tv, and movie discussion. Bill Simmons created Grantland for the purpose of providing a place for smart pop culture aficionados and smart sports fans to get in-depth full length articles about topics ranging from Andy Greenwald's take on what is going on on True Detective to Bill Barnwell's analysis of NFL Free Agency to Chuck Klosterman's obit of Lou Reed. Simmons oversees the Grantland empire in addition to his podcast, The B.S. Report through ESPN and his work as an NBA analyst for ESPN and his 30-for-30 films. Grantland expanded quickly into a multi-headed podcast network as well, with Grantland Sports and Grantland Pop Culture divisions. Weekly shows include a pro wrestling podcast, a reality tv roundup podcast, an NFL podcast, a movie/tv podcast called Do You Like Prince Movies?, and a whole host of others. So much of sports and pop culture is just getting quick headlines or snippets or tweets but Grantland still puts out full length, in-depth pieces that are well researched, thought out and footnoted. I don't always agree with everything their contributors put out, there's a little bit of snarky, hipster, coast bias sometimes but the majority of their work is spot-on. I like having a one-stop blog for all the stuff I love.
@MIDNIGHT - @Midnight is an idea that is fine for a night in the back of Meltdown Comics that could very easily have become a quickly cancelled show but, luckily, quite the opposite happened. It's a consistently funny, smart, ridiculous game show that never reaches hokey, corny levels that any other show could very easily get to. Everyone's favorite comedian/game show host Chris Hardwick is in his element as host of a show where three comedians make fun of pop culture and the internet and each other. It's already hit it's stride and has so far gotten some quality guests, not just the same LA comedians that are on each others podcasts and shows. Will Ferrel showed up last week as Chad Softwick, host of the @midnight spin-off show on the OWN network, @midday. There was a State reunion episode that managed to get all 11 (?) members in on the game as well as a panel with the Broad City girls and Hannibal Buress and an episode with the founding male members of UCB. There are a lot of theme/reunion shows like that in addition to panels with just three really funny people. Regulars include Doug Benson, Natasha Leggero, Kyle Kinane and Tom Lennon as well as some new favorites of mine like Grace Helbig. Outside of the comedy world, the likes of Neko Case, WWE's Chris Jericho and Dominic Monaghan have all shown up. If you can get past Chris Hardwick saying "Points!" a hundred times a night, you'll enjoy this show.
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