In "One Moore Episode," the second
episode of Portlandia's second (so
far, so stellar) season, Fred and Carrie come closest to developing a
thesis statement for the show, one that reveals that this isn't simply a zany
sketch comedy romp like Mr. Show or Kids in the Hall, but a comedic social
commentary about how hipsters see themselves. In the third sketch of Friday
night's episode, Jeff Goldblum
guest-stars as Alan, the foppish owner of an artisan knot store. Fred and
Carrie visit the shop (after reading about it in the Sunday Times) looking to buy a knot to give to
a friend as a housewarming gift. They end up buying a set of tangled-up iPod
earbuds. "An artist that we work with makes these by jamming them in his
pocket," Goldblum says. "You can pair these with a rosé or even a burgundy." Fred and
Carrie present the gift at the party, and the hostess takes the gift, goes down
to her basement and places it on a table filled with other artisan knot gifts.
The (very funny) joke: Hipsters pride themselves on thinking they're so unique,
but in essence, they're all the same. It's a hipster's worst nightmare. The
punchline to the sketch was the first time I could see why Portlandia gives my Portlander and Greenpoint friends the willies.
Because Fred and Carrie sharpen
their claws with the writing in "One Moore Episode," it's also one of the
series' sharpest episodes. The cold open sketch, "Allergy Pride Parade" casts
Fred and Carrie as TV presenters at a Portland parade celebrating people who
suffer from allergies to wheat, makeup, soy, bug bites, milk, Pad Thai and on
and on. The sketch ends with Carrie's character dying because she's allergic to
dextrose. I love that Portlandia doesn't shy away from heightening a sketch to
the point where someone dies from the game of the scene. The show's
fearlessness in getting laughs (and getting really dark sometimes) is one of
its strengths.
The episode's title sketch, "One
Moore Episode," finds Fred and Carrie getting dangerously addicted to Battlestar Galactica. Anyone who has
watched that show (or The Wire or Doctor Who or Downton Abbey) can attest to the experience of needing to watch
"one more episode" of the serial again and again to the point of exhaustion.
This sketch taps into that TV viewing experience and heightens it to the point
where Fred and Carrie lose their jobs from watching so much Battlestar. When they run out of
episodes to watch, they track down (who they think is) the show's writer, Ronald
D. Moore, to write one more episode. It climaxes with a hilarious read-through,
featuring Edward James Olmos, and
the actual Ronald D. Moore as a
local Portland actor who is "currently playing the Mad Hatter."
This episode also features one of
the biggest guest-stars of the season, Pearl Jam frontman (and Carrie's former Sleater-Kinney
tourmate) Eddie Vedder. Kudos to
Vedder, who's usually described as a humorless dude, for being game to poke fun
at himself. The sketch's premise -- having a terrible tattoo - leads to some
super silly animation, and even though Vedder is such a good sport, you can see
why he hasn't acted since 1992's Singles.
Vedder should stick to crooning "Betterman" and leave the acting to Anthony
Kiedis.
Dowload "One Moore Episode" on iTunes here!
