'Portlandia' maintains creativity in its seventh season

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein could read the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions out loud and it would be hilarious.

The comedic duo returned with the seventh season of IFC’s "Portlandia" on Jan. 5. The first episode of the sketch-inspired show, titled “The Storytellers,” featured Saturday Night Live cast member Vanessa Bayer.

Sketch comedy can be very hit or miss. In each episode of "Portlandia," a few sketches usually fall flat. This is the case for the first sketch of “The Storytellers,” in which Armisen and Brownstein play publicists pitching convoluted album promotion strategies to the hip-hop group Run the Jewels. The most humorous aspect of this sketch is Armisen’s fake British accent.

In the second sketch, Carrie and Fred attend a dinner party where a couple tells a story about meeting Tom Hanks in Barcelona. After hearing this, Carrie and Fred become self-conscious about their own storytelling abilities. This plotline is strung throughout the episode. In later scenes, the duo takes storytelling lessons with a former identity thief. The episode culminates with Carrie and Fred telling a theatrical story at a party, using spotlights, background music and costumes.

Vanessa Bayer appears in two sketches, playing a hotel guest who deals with overbearing staff members. To Bayer’s increasing irritation, Armisen explains every aspect of her hotel room in excruciating detail, showing her the robes in the closet and explaining how to use the thermostat. The chemistry between the two, who both rose to fame as SNL cast members, is outstanding.

Longtime fans of "Portlandia" will be delighted to see that Brownstein and Armisen have maintained their imaginative playfulness into the seventh season of the show, as evidenced by a sketch that features vampire roommates who go shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond together.The duo’s bizarre creativity makes "Portlandia" one of the most refreshing comedy projects on television right now. A fake advertisement for a stuffed animal called “Germy” made entirely out of beard-hair may have viewers asking themselves, “How in the world did they come up with that?”

The second episode of the season, entitled “Carrie Dates a Hunk,” aired on Jan. 12. This episode is stronger than the first. The central plot is more intriguing, and the sketches are funnier. In this episode, Fred is infuriated that Carrie is dating an attractive “hunk.” Fred argues that smart women like Carrie should only date nerdy men like Fred. He joins forces with other nerdy men and organizes a rebellion to take over the hunks. At the end of the episode, Fred discovers that he has been a hunk the whole time and changes his name to “Scoot.”

The episode also features a sketch about a woman putting passive-aggressive signs on her front lawn and a sketch about a couple who discuss buying a rug as if they are planning to have their first child. In the most brilliant sketch of the episode, two people who meet on a dating app go to couple’s therapy for their first date.

In the opening sketch of the episode, two men’s rights activists ride their bikes past the feminist bookstore, Women and Women First, a recurring location in the "Portlandia." Women and Women First sketches were filmed at In Other Words, a real bookstore in Portland. In September of 2016, a blog post on the bookstore’s website condemned Portlandia and announced the end of its relationship with the show. According to the blog post, Portlandia’s production crew made a mess in the store during one filming and mistreated In Other Words staff. The post describes the feminist bookstore sketches, in which Armisen wears a wig and a dress, as “trans-antagonistic and trans-misogynist.”

The authors of the blog post also pointed out the homogeneity of the show's cast, writing, “There are a tiny number of people of color on 'Portlandia.' Portland is white but it’s not that damn white.” It is unclear whether or not the reference to Women and Women First in the second episode is a subtle dig at In Other Words. Hopefully, Armisen and Brownstein will scrap the feminist bookstore sketch and other offensive material in favor of the clever satire viewers eat up.

"Portlandia" airs on Thursdays at 7 p.m. on IFC.