PORTLANDIA: a review

Next week the Independent Film Channel will air the first episode of "Portlandia" a sketch comedy show all about Portland's alternative lifestyle. 

And Geoff's got the first episode for you.

Impatient types should skip down past all this verbiage. Normal people should just keep reading.

For those not familiar with the series, it's a sketch comedy show starring Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen, and Portland native and singer guitarist Carrie Brownstein.

Armisen and Brownstein play almost all of the characters in Portlandia, switching off between male and female characters between skits. Each skit focuses on a different silly aspect of Portland's zany über-liberal environmentaly friendly alternative hipster lifestyle.

Episode one, "Farm" has Brownstein and Armisen as the owners of a feminist bookstore, finding out exactly how fresh the chicken at their local restaurant is and going crazy from constantly checking e-mail, texting and updating their Netflix queues.

Portlandia is clearly not a show for Portlanders. It's an exaggerated take on what makes Portland so "weird" in the eyes of other cities, but to Portlanders it seems kinda... lame.

Looks like an average trip to the waterfront to me...

For me and the other Portlanders I've talked to the show just doesn't seem that original. Maybe it's because I've grown up here and lived my entire life here and grown up with us making fun of ourselves that I don't see the same spark of originality that other people do.

"Portland is a place that young people go to retire," Arisen says at one point of the show, and I swear I've seen that bumper sticker someplace in Portland before. Years ago.

Granted, my viewing of the show is a bit skewed, I think, because I've lived here all my life. If you've visited Portland on vacation or have friends or family here, then you might find one or two of the jokes funny, (and, to be fair, I did chuckle once at the line "Nance, you're being a real bitch right now") but mostly it feels like an SNL sketch that goes on for waaaay too long.

Yeah, I get it. We're weird. Ha ha.

No. Really. I get it.

Stop.

Whatever guys, I'm out of here.

Armisen himself has said that the show isn't meant to poke fun at the city. "We don't even know if it's necessarily comedy," he told The Oregonian in September.

If that's the case, then they hit it square on the head.

All in all, give Portlandia a shot by watching episode 1, but personally I won't be watching any more than that.

Speaking of which, I have Episode one here for you watch. Follow on down past the Morrison Bridge...

Here you be. Episode one: Farm.

Portlandia airs on IFC Jan. 21.

---GEOFF