{"id":5916,"date":"2013-07-17T16:34:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T23:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=5916"},"modified":"2021-06-13T16:30:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-13T23:30:57","slug":"review-portlandia-s3-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2013\/07\/review-portlandia-s3-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Portlandia: Season Three Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cPortlandia\u201d Season Three<\/b> is hit or miss with the jokes, but when they land, it\u2019s quite amusing, especially for somebody born and raised in the state of Oregon. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen are both fairly versatile in their outlandish characters and situations.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\n“Portlandia” Season Three (2012-13)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Genre(s): <\/b>Comedy
\nBroadway Video | NR \u2013 242 min. \u2013 $24.95 | July 9, 2013<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/span>Directed by: <\/b>Various
\nWriter(s): <\/b>Carrie Brownstein & Fred Armisen (created by)
\nCast: <\/b>Carrie Brownstein, Fred Armisen<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:
\n<\/span>Features: <\/b>Featurette, Deleted Scenes
\nNumber of Discs: <\/b>1<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/b>English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
\nVideo: <\/b>1080p\/Widescreen 1.78
\nSubtitles: <\/b>NA
\nDisc Size: <\/b>42.9 GB
\nCodec: <\/b>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/b>A<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

THE SEASON<\/strong> \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cPortlandia\u201d<\/b>, speaking as a native Oregonian, albeit one who hasn\u2019t spend a lot of time in the Rose City, the extreme nature the series has taken over its three seasons is amusing and often spot on. However, and what is most impressive, is how creators and stars Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, who recently left \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d, are able to poke fun at some of the personality extremes who inhabit Portland and yet do it in a way that\u2019s not derogatory or mean-spirited. In fact, based on reading comments online and news stories in and around this state, it\u2019s a point of pride. As the slogan goes, although stolen from the city of Austin, \u201cKeep Portland Weird\u201d is something they take to heart.<\/p>\n

This third season is basically the same as the first two years. Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein once again don wacky personalities, often with eccentric make-up and costumes, playing up outlandish characters created to expose some of the quirkier places and people in the city.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t seen \u201cPortlandia\u201d<\/b> before, each episode often takes one subject and runs with it with a variety of skits. For instance, in \u2018Nina\u2019s Birthday\u2019, Armisen plays Nina while Brownstein plays \u201cher\u201d boyfriend and the entire episode finds her planning for the party, including expected expenses for the attendees, and an invited couple needing to take out a birthday bank loan. As with most of the skits this and previous years, the jokes themselves aren\u2019t exactly laugh-out-loud funny but the inane situation is what makes it pure gold… or high-end silver.<\/p>\n

Guest stars this season include Chloe Sevigne, Jim Gaffigan, Jeff Goldblum, Patton Oswalt, former MTV newscaster Kurt Loder, Kyle MacLachlan and Roseanne Barr as the Interim Mayor.<\/p>\n

Episodes (favorites in asterisks):
\n<\/b>1. Winter in Portlandia (Winter Special)
\n2. Take Back MTV*
\n3. Missionaries
\n4. Nina\u2019s Birthday*
\n5. Squiggleman*
\n6. Off the Grid
\n7. The Temp*
\n8. Soft Opening
\n9. Alexandra
\n10. No-Fo-O-Fo-Bridge
\n11. Blackout<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 2.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Like for seasons one and two, thankfully to keep consistency, the one disc is tucked in a thin digipak foldout with a thin cardboard outer layer.<\/p>\n

Portland Tours (24:43; HD)<\/span><\/b> are a series of locations, and the real people, featured in the show including the Feminist Bookstore and Voodoo Doughnuts; Hosted by stand-up comic Kumail Nanjiani.<\/p>\n

Deleted Scenes (5:59; HD)<\/span><\/b> \u2013 There are two scenes\/segments, \u2018Changing for Roommate\u2019 and \u2018Earth Day\u2019, not included in the episodes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

VIDEO \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Released through Broadway Video, \u201cPortlandia\u201d Season Three<\/b> offers all 11 episodes on one dual-layered Blu-ray disc. The show is presented with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and a satisfying 1080p high-def transfer (MPEG-4 AVC codec). The picture itself isn\u2019t anything extraordinary as it was either shot on the cheap or on the move, but there\u2019s no obvious signs of artifacting and the detail levels is good enough and on par with what\u2019s seen on the IFC HD channel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AUDIO \u2013 3.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Unfortunately, but not surprising, Season Three only offers a standard Dolby Digital 2.0 track. While it stinks this didn\u2019t get the proper lossless treatment, it\u2019s at least adequate for the home video audience providing for dialogue which is at least clear.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

OVERALL \u2013 3.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, \u201cPortlandia\u201d Season Three<\/b> is hit or miss with the jokes, but when they land, it\u2019s quite amusing, especially for somebody born and raised in the state of Oregon. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen are both fairly versatile in their outlandish characters and situations. The Blu-ray released isn\u2019t anything incredible but given its relatively low $25 retail price ($2.27\/episode), it\u2019s not a bad deal though I do wish there were more features and that the audio were upgraded to at least 5.1 channels.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The Movieman
\n<\/i>Published: <\/b>07\/17\/2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPortlandia\u201d Season Three is hit or miss with the jokes, but when they land, it\u2019s quite amusing, especially for somebody born and raised in the state of Oregon. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen are both fairly versatile in their outlandish characters and situations.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2192,2191,2193,2190],"class_list":["post-5916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-carrie-brownstein","tag-fred-armisen","tag-ifc","tag-portlandia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5916"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26599,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5916\/revisions\/26599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}