Television series

Broad City

Name: Broad City
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2014
Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, Hannibal Buress, John Gemberling, Arturo Castro

Comedy
Light-hearted

Broad City is five seasons of unfiltered chaos, following Abbi and Ilana as they stumble through terrible jobs, weed, sex, and subway indignities across New York City. It's silly and filthy, but surprisingly tender underneath the gross-out gags — a love letter to female friendship that never asks anyone to grow up too fast. Watch it for the anarchic energy and the belief that no bad day is too small to turn into an adventure.

TVMaze rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like two friends whose plans collapse in sticky, unglamorous ways and who keep bouncing back with a shrug, and you find cringe-adjacent chaos warm rather than exhausting.

Skip it if you want a plot that tightens from episode to episode, since this one is loose and happy to ramble through errands and scrapes that often go nowhere.

What it asks of you: Half-hour episodes that move briskly through many small detours; it asks you to sit with scenes that run a beat past the punchline.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Insecure2016

Issa Rae's HBO series swaps the stoner chaos for something quieter but just as true — two best friends fumbling through careers, relationships, and their own worst instincts, staying loyal to each other the whole way.

But It's slower and more emotionally grounded — if you want wall-to-wall jokes rather than drama with laughs, it may feel too measured.

PEN152019

Two grown women play their own thirteen-year-old selves in this gloriously cringe-inducing throwback, and the friendship at its centre has the same fierce, ride-or-die devotion Abbi and Ilana share — just braces-era.

But Middle school humiliation comedy is a specific flavour — if you'd rather never think about seventh grade again, steer clear.

Girls2012

Lena Dunham's messier, more self-serious cousin to Broad City — same borough, same broke twenty-somethings, but with sharper elbows and more heartbreak mixed into the laughs.

But The characters are deliberately insufferable at times, and the show asks you to sit with that discomfort rather than laugh it off.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Broad City

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Thelma & Louise1991

Same core relationship — two women who trust each other completely and would rather burn the world down than be split up. Broad City plays that friendship for comedy; this is what happens when the stakes turn deadly serious.

Two women hit the road and everything goes catastrophically, gloriously wrong — proof that a female friendship story can carry real stakes, real rage, and real tragedy.

But It's a crime drama with a genuinely bleak ending — nothing about it is played for laughs, so temper your expectations hard.

High Maintenance2016

An anthology built around a nameless weed delivery guy who drifts through New York lives — the same shaggy, generous curiosity about the city's oddballs that made Broad City sing, just gentler.

But There's no central duo to latch onto — it's episodic and low-stakes, which can feel slight if you want a throughline.

Difficult People2015

Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner play a viciously funny, deeply loyal comedy duo tearing through New York's cultural scene — pettier and more savage than Abbi and Ilana, but cut from the same cloth.

But The characters are meaner and more cynical — if you loved the warmth underneath Broad City's chaos, this one runs colder.

Workaholics2011

Swap the NYC hustle for suburban slacker energy — three idiot best friends getting stoned and ruining their own lives with the same gleeful commitment to bad decisions.

But It's broader, dumber, and less interested in emotional depth — pure id, with none of Broad City's tender undercurrent.

Search Party2016

Starts as a millennial hangout comedy about aimless Brooklyn friends, then swerves hard into mystery and dark comedy — the same generational voice, wildly different destination.

But The tonal whiplash is the whole point, but it might frustrate you if you came for pure comedy and stayed for something stranger.

The Other Two2019

A sharp, very New York comedy about two adult siblings watching their little brother become a pop star, with the same eye for industry absurdity and city-specific humiliation.

But The showbiz satire aims at a different target than Broad City's street-level chaos — less about friendship, more about ambition and envy.

Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens2020

A scrappy, foul-mouthed slacker comedy about a broke twenty-something drifting through Queens with her family and friends — smaller-scale, but the same don't-have-it-together spirit.

But It leans more on family dynamics than friendship, and the jokes land more unevenly across its short run.

Frances Ha2013

Same aimless, broke-in-New-York, best-friend-shaped hole at its centre, but stripped of the weed and gross-out gags — the melancholy mirror image of the same story, played completely straight.

Greta Gerwig drifts through New York in gorgeous black and white, broke and adrift and clinging to a best friendship that's slowly changing shape — funny, but quietly aching in a way Broad City rarely allows itself.

But It's slower, more wistful, and shot like a French New Wave film — if you want jokes-per-minute, this isn't that.