Skip to main content

Portlandia renewed for final, eighth season

Portlandia renewed for final, eighth season

/

But Carrie Brownstein wonders if it will ever end

Share this story

IFC presents Brockmire and Portlandia
Photo by Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images for AMC Networks

Even Portlandia, “a city where young people go to retire,” must come to end. The critically acclaimed sketch comedy hit on IFC, was renewed for an eighth and final season, Variety reports.

Portlandia, starring co-creators and writers Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, debuted in 2011. It captured the essence of what it means to be DIY, off-kilter, and misdirected. Brownstein and Armisen’s portrayals depicted the more absurd aspects of gentrification and the creative class’s return to cool urban enclaves, like Brooklyn and Portland, through rose-colored, albeit horn-rimmed, glasses.

“I think nothing ever really ends anyway.”

“I think we barely decided to do that,” co-creator Jonathan Krisel said to Variety about the decision to end the show. “Season 8 seemed like, ‘Okay, we’ve done a lot.’ We’re not getting to a stage where we’re not bored with it. We still love it…it seems scary to say it’s over.”

But good ideas don’t really fade away, they are often repurposed, repackaged, and rereleased. Brownstone, founder of the indie rock band Sleater-Kinney, has already shown how everyone loves a comeback, when Sleater-Kinney emerged again after a decade hiatus in 2015, and recently announced on its Facebook page that it will drop a live album. In her remarks to the TV Critics Association Brownstein joked, “I think nothing ever really ends anyway,” Variety reports. As the market for irreverent, ongoing niche series grows through Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, it’s possible that Portlandia and its brand of local color will rise again.

Portlandia, currently in its seventh season, has kept up with the times. This recent clip of Run the Jewels discussing avant-garde album strategy is only the latest example.

Stream on.