Portlandia Seasons One & Two   Starring: Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein Distributor: MediumRare Entertainment RRP: £29.99 FHED3059 Certificate: 12 Release Date: 24 June 2013

Portlandia was conceived as a sketch show in the twisted minds of by its stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, with the help of Jonathan Krisel. Armisen is probably better known for his time on Saturday Night Live, Carrie Brownstein is a musician, actress and writer.

Portlandia, seasons one and two have been released on a three DVD set. The show is set in and around Portland Oregon, although the pairs take on the city probably bears little resemblance to the real place. The Portland of Portlandia is a weirdly absurdist and surreal place, full of strange and obsessive characters. The show won the Peabody award.

Made on a shoestring, the show was able to attract a cornucopia of big names, with Kyle MacLachlan playing the Mayor, kudos to the real Mayor who ends up playing his assistant. The show starts off strong with Steve Buscemi and Zac Pennington appearing in the first episode.

As a character based, sketch show based on increasingly ridiculous situations, it’s pointless to examine the two seasons on offer from a narrative perspective, so I’ll whiz through one of my favourite sketches from season two.

A young couple, waiting to go out to a birthday party, decide to watch one episode of Battlestar Galactica, then another and then another. Over a period of time she loses her job, they get the power cut off and start to decline physically. When they get to the last episode their lives are in ruin, but undeterred they want to see more, so they look up Ronald D. Moore in the phone book and go over his house. It is not the actual Ronald D. Moore, but an old guy with the same name, who gamely sets about writing the new episode, much to the chagrin of his wife.

When the script is finished they get the real Ronald D. Moore, James Callis and an increasingly annoyed Edward James Olmos to read through the ridiculous script. Things are brought to a head when the wife returns home. In order to bring down the tension Callis suggests that they watch Doctor Who, starting with the first episode.

This encapsulates pretty much all the sketches in the two seasons, silly, but with great guest stars. They reuse a number of places and characters, including the Feminist Bookstore who takes their political correct views into the realms of wrongness. The combination of elements makes this one of the best American sketch shows out there.

The two seasons are spread across three discs with a wealth of extras; each twenty-two minute episode has a commentary from the stars of the show. Disc one has some Bloopers (4 min, 56 sec) with the cast messing up their lines and the other actors cracking up. There are two Extended Scenes and seven Deleted Scenes. Fred Armisen Speaks to Oregon Episcopal School Graduates (11 min, 12 sec) has Fred giving a funny speech at a graduation ceremony in 2011. There are also two Thunderrants shorts, which was the precursor to the current show.

Disc Two has commentaries for episodes one, two, three and ten. The last disc consists of only extras, kicking off with Portlandia the Tour (9 min, 21 sec) with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein taking the show on the road. Inside Portlandia (22 min, 36 sec) is a look behind the making of the second series, as well as a look at how the two came to make the show.

Brunch Village: The Directors Cut (43 min, 14 sec) is an extended cut of the last episode of season two. The disc wraps with a Deleted Scene from the Feminine Bookstore.

Portlandia is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time, so if you’re feeling a little blue why not take a trip to Portlandia.

8

Charles Packer