TV Review: Broad City S3 E01, “Two Chainz”

By Sachin Hingoo

It takes approximately zero minutes for the third season premiere of Broad City to scream, with all the unhinged joy of a Kelly Ripa girls night, that BFFs Abbi and Ilana haven’t missed a beat and that the shit is on.

Using a split-screen view of the girls’ bathrooms over the course of what seems to be a year, we get a bizarre tapestry of everything we love about the twosome–their very different reactions to a pregnancy test, their very different ways of using a curling iron, and their very similar techniques with a bong. You notice something new each time you watch it, and Abbi and Ilana are so hilarious and badass that you want to know about and share everything they do. And what better way to start the third season of a show than to remind us of that? I sure don’t think I wanted to see those turds on Sons of Anarchy by the time season three rolled around. But anyhow.

Like many of the best Broad City episodes, the premiere places Abbi and Ilana in various spots around New York City, gives them the easiest tasks in the world to accomplish (peeing in a port-a-potty, getting a security tag removed, locking up one’s bicycle) and letting the women bungle them to a “surreal, but so-real” degree. No matter what, though, it’s Abbi and Ilana’s ability to be exactly the thing each other needs in whatever situation that keeps us coming back.

New York itself still gets the second billing in the show’s title after the two ladies, because its bizarre charms are still very much on display. From restaurant reservation drama to the mysterious, transient, and downright frightening nature of pop-up sample sales, Broad City is still my favorite travel guide to New York because it’s also a love letter to it–even when the city seems out to kill you. The best of these is this Broad City’s take on the New York art party which serves as the climax of the episode. It has to be seen to be believed.

When Broad City works (which is basically always), there’s no show on television that can touch it, and that’s saying a lot with women-driven comedies like Rachel Bloom’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Lena Dunham’s Girls both killing it right now. There are similarities with all three projects; I think each explores female friendships in really interesting ways, and are each compelling for different reasons.

Broad City, though, is the only one that can consistently surprise me and absolutely nail the execution every time, while never falling into any sitcom traps. Hopefully I’m not jinxing it for episode 2, but if you’re not on this train yet, Broad City’s never been better. And if what we were watching up to now was Broad City with the chains on, you’d better watch with an empty bladder now that they’re off.