Pop Culture Fix: “Broad City” Is Back And Ilana Is Saying The “B” Word (Bisexual!)

Welcome to your weekly Pop Culture Fix, this column I co-write and you read while eating a sandwich and waiting for the next chapter of that one Clexa fan fiction to get uploaded.


What’s On The Teevee

+ Riese Bernard’s favorite television series, Broad City, is back tonight, and after making out with her doppelgänger last season, Ilana is ready to say that “B” word. (The “B” word is “Bisexual.”) In fact, she says it in this very trailer.

If you’re looking for some spoiler-free reviews of season three to whet your appetite, IndieWire says Broad City “prevails as the singular and innovative comedy of the now.” The Atlantic calls it “the triumph of the platonic rom-com.” And Slate believes season three is “the best yet.”

Riese is going to write about this one for Boob(s On Your) Tube, so get excited for that.

+ ABC has hired its first black female broadcast president! In fact, Channing Dungey is the first black female broadcast president in major network history. Entertainment Weekly notes that the “shakeup comes a week before ABC’s presentation of the Oscars – often the network’s top-rated program of the year – which is under intense criticism for its lack of black nominees.”

+ Is watching TV together a good date? (Yes.) Vulture has the researched answer.

+ The Mindy Project, now with more Fortune Feimster, will return on April 12.

+ The A.V. Club agrees that the best love stories are always between two women.

iO Tillett Wright will co-host the new MTV show MTV Suspect.


What’s In The Movies

+ Todd Haynes’ longtime producer Christine Vachon, who is very much responsible for getting Carol into our lives, will receive a Special Teddy at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday. She spoke at the Queer Academy Summit today about financing female-led films and the evolution of LGBT cinema.

“Female-driven stories, whether they’re gay or straight or black or Latino or whatever, are tough. They are amongst the hardest. When you’re trying the finance a female-driven story, most of the time you’re being asked, ‘Who’s the guy?’ With ‘Still Alice,’ a lot of the financing was about the guy. We used to say, it’s not called ‘Still Alice and John.’ That’s an issue. … ‘Carol’ has two bona-fide movie stars in it, and that is a big part of how it got financed.”

+ Guess who’s buying up the most films at the Berlin Film Festival? Mmm hmm: Amazon and Netflix. It’s a brave new world out here!


What The Queer People Are Doing

+ Julianne Moore feels very happy that Ellen Page was so happy to play a lesbian for the first time in Freeheld. According to The Mirror, Moore recently said:

“This was the first time that [Ellen Page] had played a gay character on screen and she was delighted. She felt that she was able to play her authentic self in her part. Even though the story was very sad, it was joyful for her that she was able to participate in it, in that way. Ellen would answer any question I had what it was like to be out, what it was like when you can’t talk about your sexuality. What it would do to you emotionally, she was very anxious to share all of that.”

+ Cynthia Nixon, who is starring in this upcoming Emily Dickinson biopic everyone’s really psyched about, says Our Lady of Rhyming Misanthropy would have been really good at Twitter.

The thing about her was that she was able to what we call today unplug, and be selfish in the best way. But when she was plugged in, she was very plugged in. I can imagine her emailing and tweeting all day long. If virtual communication would have been as easy then as it is now, she would have derived great benefit from it.

+ The British LGBT Awards feature a lot of familiar faces.


Also.Also.Also.

It’s hard to tell if queer women love Hamilton or Muppets more, so here’s both.

P.S. Have you checked out Brittani Nichols’ Hamilton podcast?

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

18 Comments

    • Haha, true story, I read this comment and it all of sudden dawned on me that -in part- the reason I keep thinking that today is Tuesday and not Wednesday. is because I didn’t read Boob(s) yet. I think that subconsciously my body/ brain space felt out of rhythm. lol.

    • My brain is just repeating “Broad City” over and over. Even the 1minute 40 second trailer is filling me with joy.

  1. Yas kween I am excited for Riese recapping Broad City! It is one of my favorite shows. And I’m excited that Ilana is talking about bisexuality instead of that weirdo interview comment that implied that labeling her character bisexual was pointless. In any case, it’s the best comedy while also being feminist!

  2. I’ve never understood the popularity of Elmo. Even as a kid I just found him kind of annoying, but even my Elmo hating ass has to admit that was the cutest thing ever. Chris Jackson & Elmo singing a Hamilton song with a surprise LMM cameo was everything I never knew I needed.

  3. Anyone know is Broad City is going to be on Hulu? I checked last night and all they had were the episodes for S1&2. >:|

    • I think Hulu was weird about it last season, too. The episodes would show up, but not until a couple weeks later. I checked Comedy Central’s website, cc.com, and the season 3 premiere is there.

  4. Does anyone know where/how I can watch Broad City on the interwebs? I don’t have a cable subscription and I’m desperate to see season 3

  5. Wow I had such high hopes for the “love stories between women” article but lost all interest when I realized they were talking about female friendships (mostly between straight characters).

    Also!!! Ilana is bi!!! I think this is a sign that I need to get back into Broad City

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