Fans of Portlandia were recently given the news that the shows seventh season, which premiered tonight, would be its second last (note: I originally said it would be the last season. That was the result of misinterpreting an article about the show coming to an end. My bad,). After watching “The Storytellers,” one can’t help but wonder why Carrie and Fred are packing things in so soon. While you could make the argument that a sketch show about how people in Portland are kinda quirky and hipster-y should have grown tiresome by now, that’s just not the case. The show’s array of wacky characters can still be quite entertaining, and this was a sure-footed, and often hilarious episode.
The episode begins with an appearance from Run The Jewels, fresh off pleasantly surprising us with the release of their third album. Sure enough, the sketch focuses on the modern phenomenon of the sudden, unexpected album drop from a major artist. Killer Mike and El-P are mostly deadpan as two music execs present them with ideas like faking El-P’s death, and dropping the album at the bottom of the well Baby Jessica fell into. The sketch works partly because both members of RTJ have strong comedic timing, but also because if we’re being honest, it can be frustrating having so many major acts drop albums out of nowhere instead of giving us a release date to look forward to, and the elaborate stunts involved with some of these releases can be a bit much. Popstar made a similar point about this by mocking U2’s disastrous album launch, and the sentiment works here, too.
From there, we go into the episode’s main thread, Fred and Carrie playing two people who are hopelessly unskilled at telling stories. This plot is broken into three separate sketches that air over the course of the episode. In the first segment, we see Fred embarrass himself while telling a story about not realizing what pocket he put his passport in, then making reference to an “abortion story,” which ends part one on a rather abrupt note.
Later on, the couple realize they need help being entertaining at parties, so they enlist the help of an acting class instructor and former identity thief played by Claire Danes, who is the biggest revelation of the episode, as her eccentric character completely steals the sketch. She has the two act out role-playing scenarios, then destroys things each time they screw up, which, of course, is often. This show has long been known for having memorable appearances by surprising celebrities, and Danes’ brilliant performance certainly fits that bill.
The third part of the saga — which closes the episode — sees Carrie and Fred try out their new storytelling techniques on their friends. At first, it works brilliantly, as they’ve added lots of extra touches and special effects to make things more powerful, and the dinner guests respond positively. Unfortunately, they are done in by one fatal flaw: their story still lacks a satisfying ending. The humor in this trilogy was often subtle, but effective nonetheless. Anyone’s who’s ever struggled to be interesting when spending time with a group of friends could be find something relateable from these segments, and Danes revealed some strong comedic chops.
Elsewhere, we get a two-parter about Vanessa Bayer checking into the world’s most awkward hotel. In the first segment, Armisen plays a concierge who insists on describing the function of literally everything in the room, including the bathrobes. This segment couldn’t help but remind me of The Simpsons episode “Mountain Of Madness,” where Mr. Burns explains to Homer that “this doorknob, properly turned, will provide access to the cabin.” Bayer quickly grows impatient with the overexplanation, and asks him to leave, only to realize she never got the wi-fi password. Oh, the brutal irony.