Seven years ago, UCB alums Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, like many creatives coming of age during the internet boom, started a web series. Broad City, a short-form, stoner slanted series that they wrote and starred in (as heightened versions of themselves), explored everything from yoga classes to waxing sessions against the ever-changing backdrop of New York City. In early 2014, the pair made the jump to Comedy Central, where they officially caught the eyes of the waiting mainstream with their mix of casual forward-thinking, female-driven comedy, and off-color sensibility.

The concept of Broad City is simple: in fact, it boasts what is arguably one of the most tired loglines in the book, following “two young people in New York City,” but there’s something about the show’s fully realized configuration. Whether it’s the believability of Abbi and Ilana’s friendship (who are not only the show’s co-writers but close friends in real life) or the accurate representation of the pandemonium of city life and social interaction, the humor is some of the freshest and blindingly hilarious on television today.

The series is currently entering its third season, teasing even more lovable mayhem than it’s already delivered, and if you’re not already watching, here are eight serious reasons to jump on the Broad City train right away.

It’s the Stoner Comedy We Didn't Know We Needed

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Image via Comedy Central

The stoner female, at least in popular culture, is largely a rare and mythical creature, often cobbled together with a few stereotypes and a healthy dose of sex appeal. So when Abbi and Ilana take stealthy hits on the streets of New York or talk smoking techniques over Skype, it’s hard to ignore the casual validation of the practice, and by extension, girls who smoke. And though their lives don’t revolve around weed, that doesn’t stop them from smoking up a room full of college students to secure an in-demand air conditioner, or devoting an entire episode to Ilana’s predilection for storing weed in her vagina (“it’s nature’s pocket,” duh).

It Does BFF Dating Right

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Image via Comedy Central

Hand-in-hand with the “young urban dweller” subgenre to which the series belongs is the cresting drama of relationships, and Broad City is no exception. Abbi and Ilana are dating, hooking up and otherwise slogging through the city’s slate of potential mates, though the two are self-assured enough that the stakes never feel too high. And, like the best of best friends, the girls tastes never overlap. Abbi spends much of the series lusting after Jeremy (Stephen Schneider), a Brawny Man lookalike that lives in her building, and relies on Ilana’s often salient and always encouraging advice to navigate the murky waters of grown-up crushes. But like most of Broad City’s wacky cast of characters, her seemingly traditional neighbor is not quite as vanilla he seems. (No spoilers here, but if you haven’t caught Season 2’s ‘Knockoffs’ yet, you’re in for a surprise).

Ilana is a little more self open-minded, often leaving behind her kind-of boyfriend Lincoln for some of the city’s beautiful people, like her own female freckled doppelganger (the brilliantly cast Alia Shawkat) and a veritable sculpture of a man whose sexual proclivities make Ilana briefly believe that she’s found uncovered her ideal sexual partner. But the beau of the week rarely ever becomes the story, because of course, the two are each other’s most reliable wingwomen, and more importantly, their own respective soulmates. “Love ya, bitch!”

It's a Realistic Portrayal of Living in New York

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Image via Comedy Central

While the series’ spiritual sister 30 Rock devotes an entire arc to Liz Lemon’s scheme of purchasing two apartments in her midtown complex and Lena Dunham’s Girls predicates its aesthetic on performative (but ultimately unconvincing) Brooklyn penny pinching, Broad City is one of the most accurate depictions of modern life NYC we’ve seen on television yet. Few New York series have spent this much time on the subway, in public parks, or carefully choosing an affordable yet appropriately classy BYOB restaurant. There are roommates from hell (Bevers!), eight-floor walk-ups, and harrowing trips up and down St. Marks, allowing the girls to bust city cliches and deliver street-wise truths in spades. Dispensing with hipper boroughs like Williamsburg or Bushwick in favor of Astoria and Gowanus, Abbi and Ilana take crowded (and suspiciously empty) train cars in stride, and spit subway routes with the specificity of a coast-swapped Californians sketch.

It Understands How Hard Being an Adult Is

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Image via Comedy Central

Rather than avoid the often dull complications of everyday life, Broad City builds much of its narrative time around the hardest parts of adulting. Whether it’s dentist appointments, tax filing or grocery shopping, the show spins comedy gold out of simple, mundane straw. In one of the series’ most memorable episodes, Abbi misses a chance to sign for a package meant for her Jeremy and ventures out to a shadowy postal service location on (the very real) “North Brother Island,” only to meet a character so weird only Glazer and Jacobson could have conceived her: a yogurt-noshing postal service employee named Garol. Though neither of the girls are what you would call burnouts, they also aren’t particularly career minded, opening the door to the small joys of wisdom tooth removals and pube-cleaning duties, lock-outs and copy-making. But the show is never boring, reviving the Seinfeld-ian “show about nothing” trope in a way that has never seemed so purposeful.

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Hannibal. Buress.

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Image via Comedy Central

The alt-comic Hannibal Buress has been around for ages, but it was his role as Ilana’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Lincoln that helped cement Hannibal as a key comic voice, mixing his casual demeanor with his “Weird Twitter” sensibility to form a persona based on non sequiturs and casually spoken punches of comedy. Introduced in the first episode as Ilana’s overly devoted go-to hook-up, the dog-loving dentist accompanies the girls on chaotic Connecticut journeys and important business parties, all the while waiting for Ilana to finally appreciate him for the stable partner he is. In case you weren’t sold yet, Lincoln also lovingly runs a blog known as the “Al Dente Dentist,” where he documents his pasta cooking adventures. (Which, for the record, really exists. Thanks, Internet gods!)

It Understands How We Use Technology

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Image via Comedy Central

For a show that devoted its first cold open to Abbi Skyping Ilana mid-coitus (a wink to some of the strongest episodes of the original web series), it’s appropriate that the series has consistently had deep roots in the omnipresent technology of our time. But whether it’s deciphering what exactly a “thumbs up, question mark” text message means or the repercussions of suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a Buzzfeed quiz to determine what dead child star you are (who hasn’t been there, right?), the girls understand just how complicated a simple text or Facebook message can be. They’ve got fierce opinions on Instagram (the Kelvin filter is out), and are unafraid to hit up old flames on Facebook, but at the end of the day, the girls are just as uncomfortable as you are about always being plugged into the “World Wide Bloodstream.”

The Guest Stars

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Image via Comedy Central

Beginning with the always brilliant Fred Armisen as the diaper-toting adult baby, Broad City has an impressive history of celebrity guest stars and cameos, from the famously sharp-tongued Susie Essman appearing as Ilana’s eccentric mother, to Seth Rogen as Abbi’s hot and sweaty love interest “male Stacy.” Last season, Kelly Ripa brought the house down as a boozing, toking version of herself, finally intimating the kind of snide sarcasm you could otherwise only suspect from the sunny morning anchor. In case you were worried Glazer and Jacobson couldn’t top themselves this time around, Presidential hopeful (and Abbi and Ilana’s “Kween”) Hillary Clinton is already on the docket, and we can’t wait to see who else is up their sleeve.

Abbi and Ilana Set a New Gold Standard of Friendship

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Image via Comedy Central

Sure, Broad City is a comedy, but we’re pretty sure it could also qualify as some serious friendship porn. Not only does the series pass the Bechdel test with flying colors, the duo have the best friendship in the biz: even after they’ve both been, you know, maced in the face. When Ilana ignores her seafood allergy in order to enjoy a birthday dinner, Abbi is there to carry her out of the restaurant (yelling loudly, of course). And when Abbi falls into a hole in Prospect Park, Ilana is right there to supply her with a few joints before taking off for more serious help. These two ride-or-dies always have each other’s back, and who doesn’t need that kind of positivity in their life? And while we can’t be sure Abbi will ever acquiesce to making out with Ilana, we can’t wait to see their friendship progress in Season 3 (and four, and five).

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