Broad City: Sliding Doors
September 14, 2017 9:26 AM - Season 4, Episode 1 - Subscribe

On a spring day in 2011, Abbi and Ilana meet for the first time.
posted by Pendragon (13 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I really enjoyed this! I liked the insights into Abbi & Ilana's past and where they began. I feel like it was a necessary origin story, but told sweetly and in the Broad City way. So many fun references but the story didn't hinge on them.

I'm so glad this show is back!

(I was watching this at my boyfriend's and he was half-alseep and in and out of the room, but he liked it too, despite never having seen Broad City before. He was sad about the current state of Brooklyn, but I told him that's a big part of the show, too! I don't know how much he believed me about that.)
posted by darksong at 6:10 PM on September 14, 2017


So glad this is back. I love the twist that it took a hellish day for them both to survive and be friends.

Abby's hair!!! Now I know what I need to do for that Rod Stewart look.
posted by LizBoBiz at 9:00 AM on September 15, 2017


Oh and fuck Ilana's roommates (although I would never want to live with her either). I so would not have expected that in Ilana's backstory at all.
posted by LizBoBiz at 9:05 AM on September 15, 2017


I love the creepy, uncanny-valley-ripped Bevvers convincing Abbi that his role was to eat all the food and contribute nothing to the apartment. We've never seen Melanie, right?

I loved this episode, and a frienship origin story was the perfect way to get back into the season.
posted by gladly at 9:23 AM on September 15, 2017


Wasn't Bevvers saying he wanted to contribute but Abbi denied him ?
posted by Pendragon at 10:01 AM on September 15, 2017


Oh and fuck Ilana's roommates (although I would never want to live with her either).

The greatest trick Ilana ever pulled is convincing us she's not actually a horrible person.
posted by Etrigan at 10:43 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


The scene with the horrified Madisons describing Ilana's penchant for showcasing the Mr. Hands video made me laugh tears until I changed several colors because I have done that exact thing with that exact video to roomies and SOs for several years, with just about that same explanation. My favorite approach was to play it once with just audio, no video, and get people to guess what was happening before having their minds scarred for all time. Ahhh, the internet...
posted by FatherDagon at 2:14 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


I love the creepy, uncanny-valley-ripped Bevvers convincing Abbi that his role was to eat all the food and contribute nothing to the apartment. We've never seen Melanie, right?

Nope! Even when they've shown photos of her in shots it's always angled so that you can't actually see her.
posted by Itaxpica at 4:47 PM on September 15, 2017


The unashamed Jewishness of this show means so much to me, and is one of the best things about it, so I loved Ilana's backstory with her hair, and that Abbi was the one to give her the confidence! Both on a level of Ilana being a total weirdo but having not reached the full heights of wild self-regard we are used to from her, and as like...yeah, that's a real thing, and I don't know that I've ever seen it addressed in such a casual, funny way.

The twist was great. A long time ago (not sure if it was an interview or the show) Abbi said that they met randomly on a bench somewhere, but I guess that was our first clue to the real timeline!
posted by colorblock sock at 9:12 PM on September 15, 2017


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posted by roger ackroyd at 12:05 AM on September 16, 2017 [5 favorites]


Wasn't Bevvers saying he wanted to contribute but Abbi denied him ?

It felt more calculated than that—offer to contribute right off the bat when he's really just a guest, but then intentionally lock down the "guest rules" for once he's a de facto roommate.

And I was completely convinced that the two timelines were contrasting A&I meeting and becoming friends with the darker timeline where they never met, right up until the bus crushed that theory.
posted by JiBB at 3:46 AM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


I felt like Bevvers was being sincere, but when Abbi lays out the "rules" of being her guest he has an life/personality-changing epiphany with the slow realization he can just freeload there forever.
posted by mikepop at 8:20 AM on September 22, 2017 [3 favorites]


This season was finally made available on Hulu! What a clever way to do backstories, and I definitely didn't anticipate the twist regarding which timeline was "ours" (until the psychic's prediction, of course).

One way I'd expected it to go was a jump to election night, with Hillary winning in a timeline where they hadn't become friends, contrasted with the two commiserating in our universe where she'd lost. It would imply an odd sense of karmic balance. Like how some Cubs fans have expressed remorse that their team finally winning a World Series in October 2016 seemed to have knocked reality into a Trump-victory dimension. But the way it actually went was probably better.

I feel like there's been at least one non-sci-fi TV show that pursued this kind of divergent-timelines plot for at least an entire season, but I can't remember what it would be.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 10:58 AM on February 4, 2018


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