When I first heard that a TNT show called “Leverage” was filming in Portland, I was super duper excited. “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Wire” all do a great job of capturing and depicting the pulse of the city they are filmed in. After watching the first episode of season two, I was a little disappointed to find our city is actually supposed to be a representation of Boston. The opening scene of Season 2 shows a car racing through “Boston’s” downtown area until it flips and lights on fire… in front of Mary’s Club.
Mary's Grand Opening!
Over the course of the next couple of seasons, the show would continue to highlight more of “Boston’s” metro area spots like Gilt Club, North Park Blocks and Big Pink. This made me wonder, “What other shows are set in Portland?” The garbage began to stack up.
Portlandia – Set and filmed in Portland. If you think this show is a perfect depiction of Portland, you might be right. If you think this show is one of the funniest shows on TV, you would definitely be wrong. Portlandia is a pile of diarrhea. I understand that Fred and Carrie are trying to poke fun at Portland through a series of sketches, but can you remember any that are actually funny? For those of you who say “Put a Bird On It” was hilarious, I ask you to think of how it ends. Now, go back and watch it. Yeah, not very funny.
Free Agents – Set in Portland. Two funny people acting in two unfunny character roles. The PR business is boring, dull and life sucking (like Aloha!). If it hasn’t been cancelled yet, it should be (like Aloha!).
Under Suscpision – Set and filmed in Portland. Cancelled after one season
Life Unexpected – Set in Portland. Cancelled
Nowhere Man – Set in Portland. Cancelled after one season
Grimm – Set and filmed in Portland. Feels like NBC’s attempt to get into the Sci-Fi biz ala “X-Files”, “Fringe” and “Eureka”. Their “pilot” episode is about a college student who is mysteriously attacked. HA! Pilot!
The only successful show I see coming from this city is a fictional, African American comedy about two rookies drafted by the Blazers in the early 00′s (may or may not be on CW). One is from a small town in Texas, where he was born with values and a God-fearing sense of decency. The other is from some ghetto on the East Coast who loooves marijuana. They get an apartment together. Its “the Odd Couple” meets “Weeds.” Comedy. Insanity. Ratings.
What would the name of that show be?
until portlandia starts doing sketches on gresham tweakers, it gets the thumbs down from me.
i kinda like grimm, regardless of it being set in the area… kinda easy pill to swallow kinda show. good background noise while i troll ebay.
I wanted to like “Portlandia” but it is a piece of shit. See, comedies are supposed to be funny. But their self-satisfaction and condesceding smugness overwhelms the whole show. Plus they can’t even pronounce “Willamette.”
I was about to post about Perfect Couples but you beat me to it. I believe the dude wears a Beavers shirt in one episode as well… I didn’t notice the connection until I saw an OR license plate in a throwaway exterior shot.
Portlandia itself might as well be called “Things About Portland That Suck: The TV Series”
So wrong on Portlandia. So wrong.
Under Suspicion and Nowhere Man apparently got pretty good reviews, but yeah, as we learned with Arrested Development, no matter how good reviews are it doesn’t keep a show on the air. In A.D.’s case, which is very, very rare (Family Guy and Smothers Brothers are the only examples I can think of), its actually coming back, apparently.
Portlandia’s sketches with the giggling “Japanese” girls in the coffee shop and Fred Armisen as the militant-to-a-fault bicyclist made me laugh.
You forgot another doomed, craptastic show set in Portland: last season’s Perfect Couples, which aired on NBC. Like Free Agents, it’s set in Portland, but actually filmed in L.A. However, at least Free Agents tries to pretend it’s Portland; Perfect Couples had absolutely NO connection to Portland, other than a random mention of the Blazers.