Of all the problems associated with city living, transportation is easily one of the biggest. Second only to its cruel twin, shitty housing, bad transit can be the difference between living in the most exciting place in the world and a begging for rides in a rail-forsaken bus desert. So it was only a matter of time, really, before Broad City directly addressed the massive transportation network that enables Ilana and Abbi’s adventures, and luckily it was done in the funniest way possible.
Racing across New York to get to a former coworker’s Connecticut wedding, Abbi and Ilana literally start “Destination: Wedding” running in the most kinetic episode of Broad City yet. Even better, the girls are joined in this trans-transit odyssey by Lincoln and three very funny new characters, at least until they’re picked off by New York’s transit system in a clever homage to both Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Predator. It was a particular joy to watch the jittery, drug-addled Kevin bounce off the always low-key Hannibal Buress, so here’s hoping Kevin doesn’t O.D. like seemingly 90% of the girls’ old catering crew.
There were plenty of other great moments last night, like Ilana’s unique pronunciation of “elephant dongs” and Morgan’s final dismissal of Abbi and Ilana as “druggie, lesbian Jews,” a phrase that doubtlessly served as a working title for Broad City. It was also nice to see a callback to Ilana’s mindmyvagina.com email address, a domain that you’ll be sad to learn just redirects to Comedy Central’s Broad City page. The only real problem I had with “Destination: Wedding” was Morgan’s resonant but still annoyingly repetitive “me too”-ism, but the character’s obnoxiousness was easy to forgive thanks to a hilariously weird coda exploring the unique difficulties of having a brother/lover.
Coming just a week after the lackluster “Hurricane Wanda,” last night’s episode really demonstrated the difference between when the show works and when it doesn’t. Like most comedies, Broad City lives and dies on its jokes, giving fast-paced episodes like “Destination: Wedding” an advantage on gag count alone. But keeping it breezy particularly suits the loose vibe of Broad City, which can feel a bit aimless and inconsequential if there isn’t some narrative momentum driving it along. Luckily, with “Destination: Wedding,” Broad City seems to have discovered how to keep its slacker-powered comedy machine firing on all cylinders, resulting in the season’s most successful episode yet.