But what ultimately makes me love and connect with Broad City so much is because it's one of the few shows on television that lets its character be totally and completely free. The Abbi and Ilana of Broad City (which I assume are at least slightly different than the Abbi and Ilana of real life) live completely by their ids, never worrying much about how they come off or societal pressures or how other people want them to live. They live for them. This is so refreshing not just because characters, and especially female characters, rarely get written like this, but because hardly any people actually live like this. Of course, there's good reason to - to be a functioning member of society, you need to think about other people, and concern yourself at least a little bit with what those other people think of you. But holy shit, is it fun to sit down and watch a show where no one cares about any of that. Even better, Abbi and Ilana aren't concerned with making their characters "TV ready" in terms of how they act and behave - they're honest, they're real, and they make you feel a little bit better about being a human being. So much of TV or film or art in general is often centered around the idea that there's a best version of yourself that you should be living, which is a nice idea but just winds up making you feel shitty in your moments where you're kind of falling apart. Broad City is here to remind you that there is no best version of yourself. There's just you. And that you is sometimes great, sometimes awful, sometimes a mess, sometimes covered in pepperspray while you're standing on the subway holding a shower pole. It wants you to know that all of that is okay, and that being you is okay. Even when it's not. And that's why I love Broad City.
Also, it's hilarious!
