‘Broad City’
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Good news: the season premiere of “Broad City” was not a fluke. The second episode, titled “Mochalatta Chills,” brings another new batch of strange and wonderful hilarity.
This installment of the series was about Abbi Abrams and Ilana Wexler facing new challenges at their workplaces.
Things seem like they’re looking up for Abbi when she’s given her first training assignment. However, that assignment takes the form of the despicable Matt Bevers.
This is a great instance of the show’s Seinfeldian universe. “Broad City” has this sort of cosmology in which the improbable, even if farfetched and absurd, is precisely what unfolds.
Abbi chews out Bevers for being a slob. Of course, he does take Abbi’s advice to turn his life around, but he does so by enrolling at the gym where Abbi works.
What happens in between Abbi losing it with Bevers and later discovering him at the gym is probably the moment in this entire series with which I have most identified.
Abbi comes out of her room to discover Bevers has actually left — presumably already on his way to make Abbi’s life a new hell at the gym. Abbi celebrates in a single-take scene of her dancing with triumphant abandon and nudity around her house to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory.” You read this correctly. This is why this show is so excellent.
Meanwhile, Ilana encounters a different tribulation appropriate for her nonexistent work ethic. Her mousy boss, Derek, played by Chris Gethard, tells her before leaving if she doesn’t do her job that day, she will be fired. So it is not just Abbi, but also Ilana who is tasked with something she has never before done.
This workplace-challenge structure of the episode was great because it showcased how differently the two women attack their problems. Like most things in life, it can be categorized using houses from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is the pop culture section, so I do expect you to have, at a minimum, a conversational proficiency in Harry Potter references.
Abbi is a total Hufflepuff, using hard work and focus to overcome her battle with Bevers. Ilana, on the other hand, is all about that Slytherin sleight of hand. She is asked to do work and so she hires a trio of interns to work for her without pay.
The eager and productive interns do Ilana’s work and make her look great for her boss. However, a lunch with Abbi makes Ilana realize she has been exploiting these enthusiastic workers.
Once again, the show has decided to make a commentary on millennial life. Ilana’s relationship with her interns acts as a carnival mirror, showing how the modern world has a new slave class in the form of interns who have to rely on work without pay to build their résumé and get anywhere professionally.
Between Abbi’s naked dance and Ilana’s discovery about the slaves of the office sphere, this episode — though sadly lacking in scenes with our heroines together — has an undeniable ability to access its younger audience.
