The fondness that more than one person whose taste I trust feels for Portlandia made me force myself to watch many (possibly all?) episodes so far. It's the densest, most doggedly committed satire I think I've ever seen in any form since A Modest Proposal. Not totally my cup of tea, because for me Armisen is made of 100% all-natural organic whatever is the opposite of charisma, so 22 min with him in every frame is a bit wearing, and it seems because my sense of humor is not sophisticated enough for it- knee-slap/yukky more my thing, I guess- only lol'd once (in the sketch in which he's giving the ultra micromanagey wildly-improbable-worst-case-scenario instructions to the housesitter and he does a sped-up demonstration of involuntarily bouncing one's head along the countertop), to the puzzlement of my co-viewer who giggled pretty much constantly. But I appreciate the sky-high quality in every aspect. If it is as ad-libbed as it appears to be, extremely impressive; if not, they are *damn* fine actors.