STARS: 3.5/5
The long-awaited season four premiere of Broad City delivered an inventive and fun punch to my Wednesday night.
The show took us back to 2011 when Abbi Abrams (Abbi Jacobson) and Ilana Wexler (Ilana Glazer) first met on a New York City subway platform, after Ilana graciously swiped her Metrocard for Abbi when she didn’t have enough funds left. From here, the show splits into a back and forth between two completely different scenarios — one where Abbi and Ilana miss the train at the last second, and one where they both end up on board in the nick of time.
“Sliding Doors,” the name of the episode, serves as homage to the 1998 film of the same name starring Gwyneth Paltrow, in which she runs to catch a train and two contrasting scenarios also ensue.
To make the premiere a flashback with a twist was a good move on the show’s part, as it kept me wanting more before the episode was even over.
In the first storyline, in which Abbi and Ilana both make it on the subway, they both go about their own way at first. They have funny encounters with the somewhat strange, yet always humorous, random residents of New York City that are sprinkled throughout all of the Broad City episodes.
Eventually, they run into each later on the street, and we see their beautiful friendship begin to bloom. They write their names in nearby wet cement, and the rest is history.
One of the best scenes is when Ilana shows up late to her class at NYU, and is called on to make a presentation, despite not knowing what day it is or what class she’s currently in. Glazer and Jacobson are so good at their craft that it shows in moments like this — when they can make seemingly any situation genuinely hilarious.
On the flip side, when Abbi and Ilana both miss the subway, they decide to make the most of their situation and hang out with each other. What ensues is a classic Broad City adventure around the Big Apple, filled with outrageous escapades like Abbi getting a lower back tattoo of Oprah Winfrey.
Broad City can definitely be somewhat predictable at times in the sense of Abbi and Ilana are always running around the city dodging adulthood and usually end up in odd situations, but the writers make up for the slightly similar plotlines by elevating each episode to be creative and hilarious in its own way.
The duo quickly bond over various tidbits, like their Jewish heritage and their shared love of then-President Barack Obama. They visit a Chipotle-eating psychic, who tells the new friends they will die that day, and sure enough, the pair are struck by a bus not long after. It is then made clear to the audience this scenario was the fake one, which honestly took me by surprise, yet in hindsight did in fact seem off by the end.
Broad City always leaves me feeling comically satisfied, craving more and wanting to run around New York City with my own partner in crime. Every episode always feels like just the right amount of weirdness, randomness and amusement packed into one.
The premiere will definitely satisfy fans of the show, lure in new ones and have them looking forward to the rest of the season. Glazer and Jacobson never let us down, and make every joke and pitfall effortlessly hilarious. I hope they continue to pack a punch with each week’s episode.
