TV Review: Woman-child

The endearing burnouts of slacker sitcom “Broad City”

“Broad City,” Comedy Central’s new Amy Poehler-produced sitcom, represents a minor, unassuming step forward in the evolution of the contemporary slacker comedy. Like the characters that populate the shows “Workaholics,” “The League,” and “Wilfred,” as well as every film that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg produce or write, its two leads are adorably aimless, neurotic, self-medicating losers whose stupidity is the engine that drives the series’ laughs. But unlike every example listed above, the characters in “Broad City” are female, a fact that may seem insignificant until you watch the show and realize how rare it is to witness a woman dive headfirst into the scatological and slapstick realms of comedy usually dominated by men.

Expanded from a popular web series, the show depicts two 20-something “Jewesses” (as they refer to themselves) barely scraping by in New York City. Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) is the janitor at a fitness center and Ilana (Ilana Glazer) works as a sales cog for an Internet startup. They possess little ambition outside the moment; Abbi calls herself an artist, but after an entire episode devoted to her frantically trying to meet a deadline for a gallery show, we discover the “gallery” is actually a vegetarian sandwich shop. Ilana, meanwhile, is eternally stoned and flagrantly violates her company’s attendance and personal-conduct policies on a daily basis.

“What’s worse?” Ilana asks her flabbergasted co-worker. “Constipation or diarrhea? Constipation, I think. Diarrhea, I’m like, ‘Okay...’”

Later, after she has once again left work early after arriving late, the horrified co-worker pulls out an audio recorder and speaks into it. “Day number 257. Five hours late, wearing a napkin for a shirt, violently high.”

Their romantic prospects are bleak, and they’re both forced to tolerate foolish men. Abbi must put up with the sloth boyfriend of her perpetually absent roommate (whom we never meet) as she pines after her dreamy neighbor, while Ilana casually sleeps with a dim, lovelorn dentist (Hannibal Buress). Abbi’s and Ilana’s relationship with the male gender is one of the show’s greatest strengths. These women may be fools, but they’re always most self-possessed when colliding with their hapless male counterparts, who are portrayed with varying levels of perversity and incompetence by guest stars like Fred Armisen, Jason Mantzoukas, Matt Jones, and Steven Ogg. Among the men, Buress, a woefully under-utilized comic, is the standout.

“This is purely physical,” Ilana tells him, after he seeks to define the relationship mid-coitus.

“Why does this always happen to me?” he moans.

Jacobson and Glazer inhabit their underachieving-millenial characters with a commitment devoid of vanity. Both leads are especially adept at physical comedy, which provides some of the show’s funniest moments — a visit to the dentist’s office becomes an epic Keaton-esque collision of bodies and objects. Like Lena Dunham (sorry to “Girls”-weary readers, but the comparison is apropos), Abbi and Ilana refuse traditional femininity — that is, the need to appeal to the libidos of that crucial 18-34-year-old male demographic — but, unlike Dunham’s characters, they lack even a modicum of drive. They’re the weirdo burnout neighbors that Hannah Horvath would barely notice, but who are much more fun to be around.

“Broad City” airs Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. on Comedy Central.