Reality Bites – Young, Broke & Beautiful
Television for the week of July 25th
IFC is like the hipster generations MTV, and like its acronymed predecessor it’s started replacing the films which were once it’s bread and butter with reality based programming having nothing to do with the title of the channel. Young, Broke and Beautiful is IFC’s stylized travelogue following host Broke-ass Stuart and his alarmingly large scarf collection around the country seeking out the gritty hot spots off the beaten path. The show is a spinoff of the travel writer’s popular zine Broke-ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco, which earned him a Best of the Bay Award and official DIY cult hero status. Always fashionable Stuart has the perfect hat and fingerless gloves to fit in anywhere from a steampunk party in Boston to a back yard punk club in San Diego. I actually think the concept is pretty fantastic I just have a hard time getting past the hipper-than-thou offspring of Urban Outfitters and American Apparel douche proclaiming broke-ass isn’t a financial state, it’s a state of mind.
The opening credits proclaim if you’re into speakeasies, underground shows and vintage stores you might be a redneck — er, broke-ass. The series opener takes place in San Diego where home-town boy Stuart tries to make good by pimping as many friend’s bands as possible and memorializing the city in a tattoo. He checks out the ironic-tiki -bar scene complete with electronic neo-sixties beach band too high to answer any questions and hitches a ride with a bicycle pirate who shows him the wonders of the amateur Black Lights Circus and his very own corner accordion band. Broke-ass Stuart sure makes hanging with street people look like fun, I’m sure if I made friends with the homeless guy down the block it would be just as magical and not at all stabby.
Stuart shows up in Boston decked out in a new military blazer ready to hit the town. He pilgrimages to the Sam Adams brewery to pay homage to microbrewer mack daddy Jim Koch and make at least three comparisons to Boston’s role in the American Revolution and Koch’s part in the craft brew revolution — the tastiest of all military campaigns. At the COLLISIONCollective Stuart joins a group of cyclists who build and ride custom bikes decked out with disco balls and sound systems ensuring the funkiest gathering of fixed-gearheads ever, then visits the steampunk house to meet the league of people with an extraordinary amount of time on their hands to put together super detailed gadget laden costumes. I’ve never watched a travel show about Boston that at all piqued my interest because history and baseball are boring. But while I was mocking Broke-ass Stuart in all his pretentious glory I found myself really getting into the stuff he was doing. Like the nercdore rap stylings of MC Frontalot at the Penny Arcade Expo who then took us on a tour of the Museum of Bad Art. Ok a video game convention is always a good time and I am officially in love with the idea of nerd rap, but the fact that there is an entire museum dedicated to art so bad its good is just the kind of kitsch that makes me proud to be an American.
The concept of the show is engaging and much more relevant to the twenty-something’s interests than your typical travel show. But it never quite shakes the ambiance of just trying too damn hard to appeal to the kids. Every so often a joke appears PopUp Video style. But unlike the incomparable PUV who layered its quips over the action, this show does it on a freeze frame which just stunts the flow of the narrative and forces the audience to stare at the not so funny joke a beat longer than is comfortable. Oh and the part about being a Broke-ass, totally a gimmick to be ignored when it suits. I’ve been broke all my life and have never once felt the need to buy custom fitted vampire fangs for $100 (of course I never knew they existed before…and now I totally want some…but the point is I am legitimately broke and would never waste precious beer money on such frivolities!) Plus apparently flashing a video camera is as good for getting free stuff from businesses as getting drunk girls to take their tops off so every time the receipt icon appeared onscreen to tally the monetary toll of the day’s adventures it was skewed way lower than any of us could hope to score.
Young, Broke and Beautiful does a good job of encapsulating the hipster aesthetic IFC has been openly courting lately with shows like Portlandia and the upcoming Whisker Wars which is literally a reality show based on growing epic facial hair. It’s so niche it feels a little like pandering, but if a burlesque act featuring Busty Keaton performing classic silent films as interpretive striptease sounds like a good time then this is right up your alley. Watching Broke-ass Stuart bum around the gritty side of various cities is kind of like having that friend who is way cooler than you tell you all about the underground parties and midnight art openings you would never be able to find — right before he asks to borrow money and crash on your couch. -AS