tvhangover:The Low-Key Radicalness of Broad CityIn one of the many, many great moments from the seas

tvhangover:The Low-Key Radicalness of Broad CityIn one of the many, many great moments from the season two finale of Broad City, Ilana and Abbi are sitting on the filthy New York City sidewalk, eating pizza, and sharing their future plans. At one point, Ilana says that one of her goals for the next year is to “gradually lower my dosage of antidepressants.” It’s a throwaway line, but not really.The key is in the casual delivery: It’s not a punchline to some joke about Ilana being depressed nor is it some huge reveal and the beginning of a long conversation with her best friend. It’s just a simple statement. The reason why it’s important is because television tends to deal with depression and mental disorder — and the medicines used to treat them — only as Very Important Plot Points, rather than just a fact of life. We’re so used to seeing depression depicted in extremes (the hysterical crying jags, the self-harm, the ultimate suicide) or as a character’s only defining trait; we’re used to seeing medication as The Enemy, as characters wax poetic about how they will lose their creativity if they take antidepressants, shortly before dramatically flushing them down the toilet. Rarely do we see someone who just shrugs away the fact that she needs to take meds every morning, or to reveal their depression casually, in passing, rather than in a Big Moment. It reminds me of the another low-key approach Broad City took this season: Ilana’s sexuality. When she hooked up with Adele (Alia Shawkat), it was never a thing or a big reveal; there was no coming out scene or long discussion about it. It was basically always accepted that Ilana is interested in both men and women (and not just the running gag of her crush on Abbi; Ilana also made out with one of her female interns earlier in the season).  And though “Coat Check” contained perhaps the queerest scene on television this year, it wasn’t treated as such. The queerness in Broad City is so radical because it’s not portrayed as radical. But back to the finale: It’s especially important to see a character like Ilana — a fierce, confident, creative, hilarious woman, and someone who so many viewers relate to and latch onto —reveal that she takes antidepressants (Glazer herself does), effectively showing that being depressed and/or medically treating that depression is an OK thing. It’s understandable for people to think antidepressants are an evil, crippling thing because television portrays it as such but Broad City does quite the opposite: Ilana is happy, she’s functional (well, as much as you can be on Broad City), and she spends her days having adventures, dicking around with her best friend, hooking up with devastatingly attractive men and women, and just overall being one of the best characters on TV. Her depression, and her medicine, doesn’t define her. -- source link

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