One instance out of numerous times throughout each episode of the show when this can be seen is in the episode "Wisdom Teeth" in Season Two. Not only are they always by the other one’s side, but they are always encouraging and loyal friends to each other. They can have the friendship, the romance, or the career, but they most certainly can’t have it all.īroad City sends the opposite message to viewers, for Abbi and Ilana’s search for personal happiness and success is done while being tied to the hip of the other one. This narrative gives female viewers the idea that to truly succeed, their success must be mutually exclusive. The main characters are all shown on their own path, splintered away from their friendships with each other. An example is the series finale of Girls. This diverges from the patterns of precarious girl comedies, in which friendships are typically slippery slopes due to the main character being an isolationist. The friendship that is expressed by these two in the show is natural, wholesome, transparent, and very dedicated. This constructs the counter-hegemonic ideology that female pleasure both exists and is valuable a theme that narratives up until this point have rarely depicted.Ī prominent and modern aspect of Broad City that opposes precarious girl comedies is the resonating feelings of positivity, sweetness, and hopefulness that the tight friendship and bond that protagonists Abbi and Ilana share creates. These character structures give pleasure to the viewer because while viewers can identify with the struggles Abbi and Ilana face, they are also shown optimism, and that their abject positions are not permanent. Abbi and Ilana always going after what they truly desire, whether it be Abbi chasing her career, or Ilana chasing ultimate hedonism, viewers are offered pleasures that are hard to find in other series’. This opposes the precarious girl who accepts her position to be the end all be all, determining her whole personality. Instead, they acknowledge that perhaps they’re not in the place in life they wish to be, and approach this feeling with the active effort to achieve the self they want. Abbi and Ilana call attention to the ideal self throughout the show, but their characters are not hopeless, and never refer to the ideal self as something that has been lost forever. The way in which Broad City deals with “abjection” ties into how Abbi and Ilana move away from being immobile characters. Additionally, these are all steppingstones to stay afloat financially, as on her own time she works hard to turn her passion for drawing into her dream job of becoming a successful illustrator. An example of this is Abbi’s progression from being a cleaner at the gym she works at, an immobile position that is very unrewarding, to getting the position of a trainer, which is one that she always wanted and went out of her way to achieve. Abbi and Ilana use their desperation to “make it” to try, to the best of their ability, to persevere and obtain their goals in the end. Yet, they still reach beyond having this position mark them as immobile characters. In a good portion of the show Abbi and Ilana are stuck doing jobs they find to be a drag.
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