StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Portlandia Television Show - Movie Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper discusses the ways in which Portland is portrayed to its audience, which parts of Portland city are presented in the film, and how people look like in the show. It also discusses how the people in the film talk, and what people from Portland and outside Portland think about the show…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97.2% of users find it useful
Portlandia Television Show
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Portlandia Television Show"

Portlandia Critique Introduction Portlandia refers to a satiric sketch comedy television series (Sidereel 1). It was set and shot in Portland, Oregon. The film features Saturday Night Live actors, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. Carries Brownstein is the lead singer and guitarist for Wild Flag. Andrew Singer and Jonathan Krisel of IFC Original Productions and Broadway Film Television take credit for production of the film. The film debuted on the Independent Film Channel on 21st January, 2011 (Sidereel 1). This paper will discuss the Portlandia television show. It will discuss the ways in which Portland is portrayed to its audience, which parts of Portland city are presented in the film, and how people look like in the show. It will also discuss how the people in the film talk, points of view of filmmakers regarding the city life, and what people from Portland and who live outside Portland think about the show. Finally, it will discuss whether the film is well-done or not, whether there should be a season three or not, and if there should be, which topics should it address. To the audience, at a first glance, Portlandia looks like a coterie television series that could only be clear to former university radio disc jockeys in their late 20s and early 30s. Featuring the dubious trio of Saturday Night Live's Sleater Kinney, Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, Portlandia is created atop a complicated system of allusions, nods, and winks. Andrew Singer and Jonathan Krisel directed the film specifically to post-hipsters, post-post-punk viewers, and to post-collegiate (Sidereel 1). Its humor might effortlessly alienate viewers from a variety of demographics. The series, which just concluded its leading season, turns this slim focus into its greatest force (Sidereel 1). Parts of the city that are presented in the show are In Other Words. It refers to a feminist bookstore that sells mostly books for ladies. The book store features heavily in season one. The second place is Gilt Club. Gilt Club refers to the restaurant which Fred and Carrie try to find out facts regarding chicken in the pilot episode. The third place that features mostly in the show is Oblique Coffee Roasters. This refers to the place where Fred and Carrie meet with the mayor of Portlandia to discuss setting up a basketball team for Portland. Voodoo Doughnut is also one of the major spotlights of the show (Sidereel 1). The joint was dominant during the scavenger hunt where the team looked for clues in the doughnuts. Portland Esplanade was also covered in the show. Portland Esplanade was where the music video for Dream of the 90’s was shot. Wealth Underground Farm was also covered in the show. The farm was seen in the pilot episode at the time Carrie and Fred fell under the influence of its charming leader. Finally, the place where the rehearsal dinner took place is referred to as the Cathedral City Park. In relation to how people in Portlandia look like, numerous social practices occur outside the art world, both public and private in nature. Portlandia citizens have these personalities. One explanation why they are concerned with social practice is because it concerns expanding the potential of an art practice. They prove that art is not a professional, elite or a lone act. It can be a spirit or a means of living in the world. The Portlandia citizens are seen as supporters of this spirit. With regards to the way people in the show talk, the tone is set from the leading episode. Coming back from a trip in Portland, Fred asks Carrie: “Do you ever think of the 90s? Individuals were conversing about getting piercings, having tribal tattoos and they were singing about saving the world and setting bands. There is still a region where that thought lives.” Fred also reminds Carrie of the poem concerning Portland which recommended sleeping till 11 in the morning and not doing any job. The poem had an outstanding chorus, “The tattoo ink will never run out.” It was composed by a bearded man wearing a leather jacket, tiny Speedos and nothing else. Portland, Fred concludes, refers to “where youthful individuals go to retire” (Sidereel 1). According to filmmakers, Portland is full of miniatures. They think of the place as full of vignettes. The film features an array of people who prefer to eat locally produced food, theoretical artists, and light-bulb makers. They think of the region as where the 90’s dream is still alive and kicking. In the show, the city mayor comes out as a reggae bassist. To some people residing in Portland and outside, the show might seem to offend them in various ways. To some also residing in Portland and outside the show might thrill them because of various reasons. This is why the show has a majority of viewers (Sidereel 1). The show might seem to annoy some people because they are not conversant with comedies that mock a society. It might also annoy the people residing in Portland because the show does not mainly praise Portland. Those who like the show do so because they like watching funny comedies and it the end just laugh about its content. Many critics say that the series is well done. The brilliancy of Portlandia, and what individuals thought would be its driving force, was that the comic stories of Portlandia worked as a tool that rated culture, as well as absurdism. Viewers may find Fred's kamikaze bike messenger or Carrie's feminist bookstore manager so funny because they picture them to be surrealist creations. They might find these characters as awkwardly accurate representations of real individuals (Sidereel 1). The ability of the characters to come out as both minutely observed cartoons and pythonesque nonsense are the driving force of Fred and Carrie's anxious satire. The series should indeed have a third season. This is because it would be unfair to deny people their right to laugh and have fun. Funny ideas that season three can incorporate are applying the current trends that are happening in the Portland society. This means creating a show that focuses on the recent political and social trends. People love to watch comedies that make fun of politics and their own culture. Portlandia producers, Andrew Singer and Jonathan Krisel could also make use of media personalities to come up with an enhanced comedy. They could use the existing formats: commercials, news programs, soap operas among others to create even funnier scenarios. In conclusion, plans for the upcoming season of the series should progress as the film portrays creativity and is truly hilarious which is liked by many viewers. Work Cited Sidereel. Portlandia. NP, 2012. Web. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Portlandia Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1451628-portlandia-critique
(Portlandia Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1451628-portlandia-critique.
“Portlandia Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1451628-portlandia-critique.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Portlandia Television Show

Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture

“The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” for example, is a television show that surrounds the drastic, negative changes that befall teenage parents.... Some television shows do not directly show the sexual act, preferring to imply it and use the camera to skirt around the scene, but the images are no less graphic.... As long as these television shows make their viewer rating known prior to the start of the show, they are allowed to display graphic acts of sexual violence....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Mutation of the Television Police Drama through the Decades

The Jack Benny style variety show is still around but quite different, with shows such as Saturday Night Live.... History of the Cop show.... The genre was pioneered on TV by Jack Webb, bringing his Dragnet from radio in 1951, and the show lasted for over twenty years.... The show was indeed groundbreaking for its time with the show's stars rotating between the various divisions.... There has not been a season since 1951 that did not have at least one cop show....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Inside Iraq : The Untold Story

Why is it important to describe today's situation in Iraq This is the question that someone may ask while listing all the different documentaries, reports, articles and testimonies from the Middle East.... Especially when we consider that 83 journalists have been killed since the beginning of the conflict and 2 are still missing....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

History of Nike

Radio and television were also considered as other ways which have been used since the beginning of NIKE to market its products, but Ingham (314) provides proof that a print ad from the 1970s suggested that "word-of-foot" advertising was causing more people to like the products of BRS/NIKE rather than television ads....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper

4 Questions

Media is considered as a way of transmitting… Examples of media include radio, television, internet, newspaper among others.... Examples of media include radio, television, internet, newspaper among others.... In the next five years creativity in the digital media will bring heightened competition on television broadcasting....
2 Pages (500 words) Research Paper

Reliable Way of Deciding How Worried We Ought to Be about Crime

Films show a wide range of weapons, arsenals, battlefields, snipers and other negative aspects in which harsh and threatening words and behaviours have considerably legalised crime and violence in today's society.... The cultivation theory is primarily based on the assumption that prime-time television shows highlight world news and affairs more accompanied with menace than it is normally highlighted in other television hours (Gerbner et al.... In other words, the prime-time television programs are more dramatized in a way to exaggerate real events on which such programs are based....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Steve Jobs - Genius by Design

This paper 'Steve Jobs - Genius by Design" focuses on the fact that Steve Jobs was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of Apple and Pixar.... He was born in San Francisco, California to a Syrian father and mother Joanne Simpson.... Paul Jobs and Clara of Mountain View later adopted Steve Jobs....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Rhetorical Context of The Simpsons

NALYSIS OF THE TEXTUAL FEATURESIssue Being Addressed“The Simpsons” is consistently and intellectually ironic show on television (Martin, 2004).... and Every Woman", it was shown by the show how the body of Homer was cut into three parts such as the head, the gut, and the butt....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us