I WATCHED "PRETEND IT'S A CITY" THREE TIMES

by Emily Blake

If you watch anything on Netflix right now, make it Pretend it’s a City. With narration and creative direction from her longtime friend Martin Scorsese, Fran Lebowitz discusses everything New York City in a way that is distinct to what made us obsessed with her writing and cultural commentary in the first place. She briefly discusses her column in Interview and her books Social Studies, and On Metropolitan Life, but it’s so much more about what clearly the world wants to hear: what does Fran Lebowitz think about everything?

The series is themed by each episode having a different, niche and hilariously worded topic- “Cultural Affairs,” “Metropolitan Transit,” etc. The title comes from Fran’s commentary on how no one in NYC pays attention to where they are going, and how she just would love if people could “pretend it’s a city.” Unbelievably funny one-liners like those come up throughout the show, where if you weren’t intently listening you might just miss it. The result of the unique interview + following Lebowitz around NYC format is a delightful combustion of humor and unpacking the everyday, mundane, and cultural significant elements of New York City and popular culture at large. I’m not sure if I would want to watch another show that just follows around someone and asks questions, but with Fran Lebowitz, it works.

One thing that stood out was the fact Lebowitz is 70 years old, of a totally different generation (which she verbally expresses), yet is always asked questions by young people at the filmed Q&A’s with Martin Scorsese. A few weeks ago, I saw she was interviewed by Ziwe, and yesterday, Fox News published a screengrab of Lebowitz with the headline “SHOWTIME SERIES MOCKS WOMEN NAMED ‘KAREN’.” Lebowitz’s commentary is the most perfect balance of something incredibly of the times, yet timeless. She stated in the show she does not have a cell phone nor a computer. No social media, yet a perspective and politics that everyone desperately needs. In a way an anthropology major like myself loves to do, I asked my friends if they also were watching Pretend it’s a City. Wednesday Zine’s wellness columnist, Stella Brown, emphatically replied she watched it all in a day. Two 21 year olds discussing how she is our writing inspiration and the particularly spectacular cowboy boots she wore in every episode of the series. She’s a cultural icon in every sense of the word, leading her to be one of the few people where a single-camera interview format could produce a TV show that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. See: Vogue’s article “15 Times Fran Lebowitz Was the Most Interesting Woman in the Room”