BC Living
Spreads – From Scratch
You’ve Gotta Try This In May
How to Support BC Wineries Now
4 Tips on Balancing a Nutritious Diet with a Side of Indulgence
Choosing Connection: A BC Family Day Pledge to Prioritize Presence Over Plans
Embracing Plant-Based Living this Veganuary and Beyond
Inviting the Steller’s Jay to Your Garden
6 Budget-friendly Holiday Decor Pieces
Dream Home: $8 Million for a Modern Surprise
Local Getaway: A Mini Cozy Sanctuary in Nelson
B.C. Adventures: Our picks for May
Spring into Fun in Kamloops: The Best Events in the City
BC Distilled
Melodies and Museums: Solo-Friendly Entertainment for the Independent Traveller
Arts Club Theatre Company Celebrates 60 Years
Pyrrha Connects People With Pieces That Speak To Them
BC-Based Gifts Perfect for Mom
SOLO CHIC: 5 Essential Pieces for the Stylish Solo Traveller
Illeana Douglas gives up the glamour of Hollywood to work at IKEA in this hilarious web series
Illeana Douglas and Justine Bateman hard at work
When actress Illeana Douglas launched Easy to Assemble in 2008, it’s unlikely that anyone – including Douglas herself – expected it would still be thriving in 2012. After all, the premise seemed so utterly out there, with Douglas ostensibly giving up Hollywood in favour of a career as an IKEA employee.
Nonetheless, Easy to Assemble not only continues to bring the laughs but, amazingly enough, it does so with financial support from the company that it’s poking fun at.
Throughout the series, Douglas tries — and fails — to escape from the trappings of Hollywood, which isn’t easy when her famous friends perpetually show up at IKEA and stop by for a visit (including fellow actress Justine Bateman, who decides that the store is the perfect place to host her new talk show). In addition, Easy to Assemble also has fun parodying the uniquely Swedish mindset of IKEA, from the company’s oddly named products to its employee training videos.
Douglas has clearly enjoyed the opportunity to indulge her indie sensibilities on the web, which means that the proceedings tend to be more than a little bit eccentric at times, but the familiar faces make it easy to be drawn in. In addition to the aforementioned Ms. Bateman, others who’ve turned up during the course of the series’ run include such stars as Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Cheri Oteri, Tim Meadows, Ricki Lake, Patricia Heaton and Ed Begley Jr.
“I’d love to get to a point where this becomes a series that starts to reference IKEA less and less but is bridged by an IKEA commercial in between,” Douglas told Advertising Age in 2010. “Eventually all entertainment will just be one big box, and all your entertainment will be taken off that box. But advertisers will still want to come to the best entertainment-providers, and I want us to be one of the best content-providers out there.”
Originally published in TVW. For daily programming updates and on-screen Entertainment news, subscribe to the free TVW e-newsletters, or purchase a subscription to the weekly magazine.