If you’re reading this, chances are, you can relate to Broad City on a personal level. Whether it’s from seeing the reckless spending habits of it’s characters or their attempts at finding a quiet, peaceful place to eat in St. Marks, Broad City has taught us that you don’t need to be living in a high-end New York apartment with a great job to know what is important, all you need is a friend. Broad City and it’s inspirational central characters, Abby and Ilana, have taught us many things in the two (going on three) seasons on television. Here are some of our favorites:
1. Roommates suck.
Nobody likes Bevers. Period. Well, he’s not technically Abby’s roommate–he’s her roommate’s boyfriend who has taken it upon himself to move in, eat their food, and take over the living room area so he can play video games and watch–well, other programs. Throughout the seasons, we learn that roommates like Bevers just inherently suck. Some of them don’t even need a reason to be the way they are. Like Bevers, some are just dumb. And oddly loveable.
2. Men are animals…hot, dumb animals
Broad City did for the dating scene in New York what Sex and the City and even Girls got wrong: you don’t need a man in your life to be happy in New York City. It took Carrie Fisher several seasons to realize that but Abby and Ilana knew it from the first episode. Broad City ushers in a candid look at modern feminism that films like Frances Ha have expanded on. Abby and Ilana are not living in New York to find love, but simply enjoying the thrill of being in the City. It is funny to see how the men in the show are treated: very attractive with very little brains the girls use for hook-ups, for getting free drinks, as objects. Kind of like how women have been portrayed in male-dominated television. Hmmm…
3. You can do whatever you want now because YOU’RE AN ADULT!
Abby and Ilana have taught us to not just embrace the scary adult world, but to grab it by the balls and show it who’s boss. It is not an entirely unrealistic thing to do, as they display in episodes where Abby goes on a $1,000 Whole Foods shopping spree while drugged up on Wisdom Teeth meds and pot or Ilana decides to cheat death by eating shellfish at a fancy restaurant. Sure, there are consequences to these actions, but why think of those when you can live in the ‘now’? Broad City has taught us that the time to make these mistakes is now because, yes, being a grown up sucks, so you might as well enjoy yourself.
4. The only relationship that counts is the one with your best friend
It takes a true best friend to carry you out of a fancy restaurant after you almost poisoned yourself eating shellfish just to be fancy. That’s true friendship. What Broad City has taught us most of all is that the only real relationship you need, is the one with your best friend. Or, as Frances Ha says, “That person who’s eyes you meet across the room and you know that everything will be okay.” Abby and Ilana have set the bar high for television friendships, inspiring those of us who may be lost in our 20s to find the only sense of sanity and stability in this world full of stupidity is in the friend who is always with you. It is in this duo that Broad City becomes one of the best shows to define our modern era.
