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Last night’s 2 Broke Girls was probably the most annoying one yet, if you can believe it. Not only was it as ridiculous and racist as usual, but it also managed to eradicate the master plot that the show has been establishing since the pilot. At least there was an appearance by Chestnut, who has come to be the most down-to-earth character on this show, even though he is a horse living in a  backyard in Brooklyn. FREE KAT DENNINGS! (more…)

Chestnut the horse is rocking some jeggings.

Last night’s 2 Broke Girls was focused on the show’s one broke horse. With winter coming, Max and Caroline need to find a place to keep Chestnut safe and warm (because it’s a recession for horses, too — think about it!). The girls decide to hand over custody to Peaches (the super rich woman who employs Max as a nanny), because she wants to adopt an animal in order to get cast on Real Housewives of TriBeCa. While the whole horse-in-the-backyard thing has been a big point of ridicule for 2 Broke Girls, this episode used Chestnut to show how deeply Max and Caroline care about their little dysfunctional family, and it was one of the best 2BGs yet. So … what did they say about Brooklyn? (more…)

Cassandra addresses Max and Caroline at a group art show.

This week’s 2 Broke Girls episode almost didn’t get recapped because I came very close to throwing my TV out the window when Caroline says to Max, “Girls cannot be friends with guys!” This again? It’s 2011. Haven’t we settled the great debate about if men and women can be friends with each other yet? Yes, they can, of course duh obviously. But Max cannot seem to be pals with Johnny, her bartender/street artist crush who, we found out last week, has a secret girlfriend. When Max and Caroline end up selling their cupcakes at one of Johnny’s art shows, there is sneaky kissing in the bathroom and all-around stress for everyone involved, including the viewer.

Luckily, this episode redeemed itself with not one, not two, but three jokes about Adele, as well as a much improved effort at reflecting real life Brooklyn. (more…)

Caroline enters the clutterdome

I’ve now spent many a Monday night watching 2 Broke Girlsin service of Brokelyners everywhere (you’re welx), and this week was probably my most enjoyable evening of duty. In the episode, Caroline decides to make extra money by responding to a Craigslist posting looking for a professional organizer, which leads to her and Max cleaning up a hoarder’s apartment. At night, Max serves as the lookout for Johnny (the hot bartender-slash-street-artist) while he tags a billboard and simultaneously flirts with her … but then in a shocking (and RUDE) twist, it turns out he’s had a secret girlfriend this whole time. What a jerk!There was a whole hoarding-as-a-metaphor thing going on, with characters aggressively stowing away huge portions of their emotions and personal lives. And this actually ended up giving us a lot of info about what’s going on in the minds of Max and Caroline and Johnny, which is something show has often struggled to do. But anyway, what about Brooklyn??? (more…)

Cupcake lessons at an Italian bakery. Photos via CBS.

There was a scene in last night’s ’2 Broke Girls’ where Max stays up super late trying to craft the perfect icing flower atop a cupcake. It reminded me of a similar scene in Bridesmaids. Then I wished I was watching Bridesmaids, because that’s a fun movie, and then I could write all about Bridesmaids right now and we could all have a laugh and a moment of female empowerment. But we’re here to talk about CBS’ latest effort to portray broke life in Williamsburg.

This week, Max and Caroline attend a cupcake decorating class after a coffee shop owner declines to sell the girls’ treats because “they’re not pretty enough.” After a dreadful class and many labored attempts to make frosting flowers, Max finds her new niche: insult cupcakes (that say things like “Bite Me,” but I don’t even think it was meant to be an eating pun?). There was something in all of this about how society is too concerned with other people’s ideas of what’s pretty, but it kind of got lost in the fray of racism. (more…)

The murphy bed, an untapped roommate resource? Photos via CBS.

Whatever you say about 2 Broke Girls’ wackadoo portrayal of Brooklyn (and I say a lot about it), the show always accurately depicts that Kat Dennings is awesome. She was particularly funny in this week’s episode, in which Max has a delightfully specific awkward encounter with her bartender/street artist crush: When Johnny pretends to be interviewing Max with a celery stalk, she seductively bites it while looking him right in the eyes, and everyone gets all weird. Awkwardness, hijinks and believable girl-bonding follow.

And of course, lots of deets about Brooklyn: (more…)

The girls encounter "hipsters" at the local laundo. Photo via CBS.

2 Broke Girls made great strides rando horse gallops this week in its depiction of Williamsburg. Instead of seeming like a land of murderous, toothless meth-heads (who make tons of racist/rape jokes), the nabe was portrayed as home to annoying, spoiled hipsters (who make sporadic racist/rape jokes). Let’s take a look! (In case you’ve fallen behind in your prime-time CBS viewing, you can catch up with episode 1, episode 2, episode 3 and episode 4 right here.) (more…)

Max and Caroline dine avec extra luggage. Image via CBS.

2 Broke Girls did not get off to an unracist start this week, with characters affectionately referring to each other by the ethnicity-based nicknames “Hot Chocolate” and “Little China” within the first two lines of dialogue. So that’s still happening. From there, the girls went on a Manhattan adventure where they snuck into Caroline’s government-seized townhouse to recover her bite guard (which might be the same thing as a retainer?). When Max sees Caroline’s old home, she realizes that her new friend didn’t just used to be rich, but used to be so-so-so crazy-rich. This makes Max feel even worse for Caroline’s recent flight to Brooklyn.

Most of this episode actually took place in Manhattan, so we’ll have to leave it to the blogs about being rich on the Upper East Side to fairly analyze what went down. But there were still plenty of scenes in our heroines’ usual spots: (more…)

Brooklyn thrifting, Hollywood style. Image via CBS.

This week’s 2 Broke Girls was not only the best episode so far, but it also gave us the most legit portrayal of Brooklyn (and thankfully only two minor references to horse poop). When Max and Caroline go to Goodwill to thrift for cheap clothes, they realize that they have very different ideas about what it means to be a good friend to another female. While Caroline wants to trade sassy pick-me-ups (“You’re fierce!” “You got your glam on!”) and get two-for-one manicures, Max wants to not talk about feelings and be considered “a guy.”

The sitch gets resolved when it’s revealed that Max has been secretly walking Caroline’s horse for her. The two leads (Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs, who everyone seems to agree are the best part of this show) bring their chemistry to this loaded topic. By the end of the episode, Max and Caroline appreciate that they’re both trying to help each other out in their own way. And that’s a pleasant (and sorta rare) thing to watch on TV!

But who cares … what did they say about BROOKLYN? (more…)

Broke girls Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs at the Williamsburg Diner. Photos: Monty Brinton/CBS.

You’ve known about the concept of being broke in Brooklyn for years. But with this fall’s CBS show 2 Broke Girls, the lifestyle is getting Carrie Bradshaw-ed. The show, co-created by Sex and the City’s executive producer, focuses on two cash-strapped waitresses, Max and Caroline (played by Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs), at the Williamsburg Diner, a dive that recently changed ownership from the Russian mob. Max has been poor her whole life while Caroline suddenly finds herself without money after her dad gets busted in a Bernie Madoff-type scandal.

So how does the show’s portrayal of broke-in-Brooklyn life compare to the real thing? Brokelyn got a screener of the pilot before it debuts Sept. 19 to investigate. Here are some of the most accurate, and most confounding, representations of outer borough brokedom: (more…)