Portlandia: Season Three

“Portlandia” is a sketch comedy show that can be seen on IFC. The show stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein and the show is all about Portland, OR and its unique culture. They just finished their 3rd season and have their new season starting in early 2014. Shakefire had the chance to review the entire 3rd season of the show and I can honestly say it was a unique experience all in itself.

I didn’t think a show all about Portland would be so interesting and different, but “Portlandia” was definitely both. The sketches were hit or miss most of the time, but most of them were hits. The overall show had a more mature comedic feel to it and might not be funny to the general public, but it was definitely funny for those that actually understood the jokes. The guest cameos were also a big surprise and added a lot to the show. I am still not sure how Fred and Carrie were able to keep their compsure through some of the more hilarious sketches.

However, there were some issues I found with the show. They did recycle a couple of skits and even though they were funny the first time around, they lost their appeal the subsequent times they reappeared. Also, Fred’s characters lacked variety despite which sketch they were performing. Lastly, the season finale episode was the most bland and boring of them all. It was interesting how they tried to tie all or most of the sketches throughout the season into one episode, but it was fairly boring. Other than those issues, this was a pretty good show.

If you like sketch comedy, “Portlandia” might be the show for you. It might not have the mass appeal of SNL, In Living Color, or Mad TV because of the mature comedy, but the show is funny and the writing is pretty good overall. I do recommend checking out this show, but ignore the season finale and any recurring sketches. For those reasons, I am giving “Portlandia: Season 3” a “B-.”