Theme Song: "Portlandia Opening Sequence"

Grounding the slapstick, fast-cut realm and pinpoint exaggeration of the characters that inhabit Portlandia, the "Portlandia Opening Sequence" shows us the lifestyles that base the show's core truth is parodying.  The cinematic images, the real life alternative people shown living in the city of Portland,  and the pulsing electronic beats of "Feel It All Around" by Washed Out works as the most serious 38 seconds of a wonderfully not serious show.

Traveling through Portland is seeing everything that exists that is not only ripe for parodying but helps punctuates the background of the Portlandia world. Vegetable Farms, Skate Parks, Doug Firs, bridges and suburbs, all things we relate with. An electronic instrumental act on Sub Pop Records plays in the background to invoke a time frame and a lived in vibe while saying that the people responsible for the silliness of this TV program are just smart, hip dudes (thus Washed Out now joins the ranks of Shadowy Men on A Shadowy Planet and Craig Wedren of Shudder to Think in the bands that have accomplished this for sketch shows).

The lasting image is of a draw bridge closing. Looking too much into this, we can see a metaphor that the real world of the "Portlandia Opening Sequence" is about to connect with the off-kilter world of Portlandia the show. Never seeing them connect shows that these two never fully connect and that Portlandia is a comedy not to be taken too seriously. However, that is looking too much into it. The smart, informed audience that Portlandia is targeted for are the audience who tend to look too much into things. Or is  the draw bridge closing nothing and the fact that they never connect is more of a fun little joke on people whose eyes are drawn to the image and anticipate the inevitable connection, an example of the humor and timely editing of the show itself? Is there even reason?