Portlandia 6x2 'Going Gray': Portland discovers the Passage of Time

Portlandia 6x2 hilariously explores the theory of aging in a world where the Dream of the 90s is a thing... PERFECTLY.

Reviewed while watching ANDY STILL NOT LOSE!! DAMMIT!!!... Also while listening to Kiasmos.

When I was in college, my friend and I often joked that we lived in the 'Mecca of the Aging Hipsters.' We joked about how it's 'non-conformist' people graying out but still trying to pull off the Portland-like young edginess, all while pushing a flatbread into an oven at the local restaurant or going to the local hip cafe or, dare I say it, micro-brewery. We joked that they just couldn't seem to reconcile with the concept that they're getting older. This was all a joke, mind, and admittedly I know a rather generalized and mean one (Don't judge me). It was our own way of trying to deny aging ourselves, to deny entropy. But still, the joke seems apt here. 'Going Gray' os the polite, non-mean way of joking about the 'Aging Hipster.' And it is glorious.

When one morning Fred suddenly wakes with gray hair, he freaks out. This isn't supposed to happen. This is the place where the Dream of the 90s is alive. It gets to a point where Fred refuses to accept that he's 48 without 'visual evidence that I am this age.' I mean, he friggin scratched out his age on his driver's license because it was too depressing. He must be 32 by his logic because he's 'into music, I walk around, have a cup of coffee, wear, like, cool clothes, got a little shirt, you know, little black pants.' You know, what the 'Youth' wear. Carrie, for her part, while conscious of her age, has simply ignored the concept of one day not being able to have kids. And now she's just two years away from being 'an old spinster.' Though she personally prefers 'old slut,' in one of the funniest and most self-aware scenes I've seen on misogyny in a long time (There were just so many social layers to the Doctor scene in this episode). Unlike Fred, she readily accepts scientific fact, accepts entropy. She'd just like a nice term to be called now.

Aging is a universal fear, boiled down to the timeless city of Portland. and the show nails it from every single surprise angle. You have the friends who look at it from a shallow pragmatist view, that you need a tall spouse so the posterity you leave behind becomes a model. Fuck compassion. You have Fred's mother who can't accept that her child is getting older, at 48. She can't even accept her own age, and they still remember when she took care of him. You have the Mayor who takes one of those 'If we don't have kids in five years' pacts too seriously. You have KUMAIL NANJIANI WOOT!!... who, uhhh, goes the scientific route, explaining entropy to Fred in one of the numerous perfect scenes that 'Going Gray' has on display. 'If you want to stop entropy, you must stop Time itself.' Metaphysics at a Geek Squad counter, only on Portlandia. And the OBGYN who tries to make light of the whole situation, Life's a joke. It's all here, in one virtually flawless episode.

Really, there just isn't much to say, not without spoiling all the humor. 'Going Gray' is one of those gems that makes Portlandia worth the ride, even through the tougher episodes when not every sketch is on point. And it also seems fitting that this episode in particular focused on just the one plot, the one skit stretched out over thrity minutes, instead of two or three separate skits. Could this be the writers accepting TV comedy's own form of entropy, the idea that you must shake things up sometimes before the show gets stale? That might be too serious and pretentious a thought. And it doesn't matter. Because the result is what matters. And this episode was AMAZING.

I can still go pretentious: Nothing is timeless, all things pass. Everything that has a beginning has an end. YOLO and all that jazz. BUT... a great episode of television can be remembered through the ages, and endure the effects of entropy. 'Going Gray,' my friends, is one of those episodes.

Grade: A

When I got sidetracked

-Wait, so are Fred and Carrie having a kid now?! Is there CONTINUOUS PLOT HAPPENING?!!! WILL THE KID HAVE FRED'S GLASSES?!!

-Let me reiterate that I just love Kumail Nanjiani so much. He is a gift to the world. And has always been a gift to Portlandia.

-'I guess I wasn't hoping that my kid would be a model.' 'Maybe you're not ready to be a mother.' Only Natasha Lyonne can pull that line off. (Yeah, btw, Natasha Lyonne guest starred. And she was exactly as you'd expect. Awesome.)

-This wasn't the only TV this week where Fred Armisen was on point. He also tried to replace Zooey Deschanel.

#TV #review #Portlandia