“

What are we even doing? I want to ask you. But I can’t even do that because it would break this spell we’ve woven around ourselves. Nothing is going on, because nothing is going on.

“

Portlandia is the kind of show you usually hear about almost getting made. It’s one of those shows that seems like it could’ve ended up in the swirling black hole of TV show pitches and pilots that never see the light of day, which are usually the funniest ones, living out the rest of their days in humor heaven with cutting room floor SNL sketches and alternate endings for Superbad .