‘Broad City’ Dons a New Coat of Paint for Hysterical Fourth Season

For urban twenty-somethings blissfully bumbling their way through young adulthood, the first three seasons of Comedy Central’s “Broad City” managed to perfectly encapsulate the millennial mindset, finding the funny in every youthful blunder no matter how sincere. Whether the show tackled topics like “friends with benefits” relationships doomed for an eternity of aimless wheel-spinning or casually trying to run a dildo through a dishwasher after pegging your neighbor, “Broad City” has done a swell job of holding a mirror up to immaturity and saying “Smile.” But in its fourth season, much like the show’s stars themselves, “Broad City” for the first time puts on its big girl pants and cracks the door to full-on adulting, all while maintaining its rapier wit and crass absurdity.

Almost 18 months have passed since we last caught up with the fictional gal pal duo of Ilana Wexler (Ilana Glazer) and Abbi Abrams (Abbi Jacobson), and since then a lot has changed in the real world. Things just don’t feel as progressive as they did a year ago, a circumstance that could seriously hamper “Broad city’s” relevance. But the show’s fourth season is a testament to its versatility, growing up right along with the demographic it sets out to parody.

Wexler and Jacobson are getting older, a reality that Abbi is forced to confront when she discovers a gray hair. It’s a glorious freakout, one that you almost want to have right along with her. Naturally, Ilana obliges, and Abbi spirals into a full-on crisis that forces her to question her beauty and its longevity. It’s a moment of self-doubt that’s unsettlingly close to home.

Much like the world outside television, things don’t feel as blissful as they once did. In fact, there’s a little anxiety to it, a feeling “Broad City” manages to capture in its two leading ladies. Suddenly our characters have honest-to-God priorities, even if they are as minute as buying a space heater just because it was endorsed by Drew Barrymore. No longer is Wexler taking totally un-deserved work naps at a startup job; she’s waiting tables and apparently making a good living on tips while doing it — at least, if her nail salon habits are anything to go by. Meanwhile, Abrams is peddling her art instead of cleaning up after gym rats, but she’s really hungry for that next job. Are characters also have a more responsible air to them. Wexler’s still going to parties and letting people do cocaine off her nails; she’s just doing it responsibly now.

“Broad City” may have touched on political territory when Hillary Clinton guest-starred last season, but with politics central to today’s social climate, the show goes all-out this time around. From the small albeit hilarious gimmick of bleeping Trump’s name to the duo actually getting fatally struck by a bus bearing a Trump advertisement in an alternate reality, the show is clearly hell-bent on engaging with the tumultuous political scene more than it ever has before. Ilana hasn’t even been able to have a proper orgasm since the election, a problem that drives the self-proclaimed “cum queen” to a breaking point. This story in particular really showcases Glazer’s brilliant comedic chops and really makes one hope that “Rough Night” was just a rough outing and more high profile acting gigs come her way.

One theme rings throughout “Broad City’s” fourth season, and that’s the necessity of moving forward. Whether it’s Ilana slowly (and messily) coming to terms with the dissolution of her FWB relationship with Lincoln (Hannibal Buress), or Abbi starting and breaking off a relationship in under a week, our pot-smoking, potty mouthed party-girls from The Big Apple are definitely making strides. Thankfully, they’re as hilarious as ever while they do it.

Broad City” season 4 premieres Sept. 13 and airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.