The new TV season is just around the corner. New shows have the ability to go very far, winning legions upon legions of loyal fans, or they splutter and fail, sinking like a lead brick in the middle of a very deep ocean. The networks, both the regulars and cable/satellite TV hope that their shows will be the next big thing. So now we have the debut of the new HBO show ‘Bored to Death’ which is making its entrance alongside critical and popular favorite Curb Your Enthusiasm.
So what is Bored to Death about, and why should anyone watch it? For one thing, it is on a cable/ satellite TV channel—HBO to be exact, which has dished up some of the most arresting, scintillating and all around fascinating programming in the last decade. They don’t do simple sports reality shows or gross out makeover affairs in HD. HBO is known for its cutting edge stories which never fail to entertain.
Bored to Death is a take on the New York creative scene. Editors,
book writers, filmmakers and trust fund poets who wax lyrical about the details of their mundane existences over lattes and pita bread make up the targets of this show. Jason Schwarztman (Rushmore, Darjeeling Express) plays Jonathan Ames, a writer, who has recently broken up with his girlfriend; following the separation, Ames decides to become a private gumshoe, an amateur detective to get the girl out of his head. It’s an absurd premise, but it works. This is a comedy after all, and what we get are little bits of charming, and witty snippets of dialogue reminiscent of Charlie Kaufman and Woody Allen.
As a private eye, Ames, isn’t very good. He spends half his time openly following his targets; the other half of his time he spends with his editor, played by a white haired Ted Danson. Ames has another friend, a cartoonist called Ray, played by Zach Galifianakis, from the Hangover. Ray is keen to explore his artistic side, which to him means waking up after 10 and wandering around the streets of New York in search of meaning or truth.
The series is peppered with odd encounters which yield great bits of dialogue. Ames runs into indie director Jim Jarmusch, for instance, and the two discuss the poet Frank O’Hara and his boxer’s nose. Later on, Jonathan has Ray visit a psychotherapist’s office, posing as a patient in order to retrieve the Jarmusch script that Ames inadvertently left there earlier. Ray ends up getting analyzed and the experience leaves him feeling gutted. Hilarity ensues.
Bored to Death is a series that definitely won’t leave you bored. The real life Jonathan Ames, whose life and work it’s loosely based on, has made sure that this series is filled with his real friends, like Sara Vowell, TV on the Radio, and Parker Posey.
You won’t be disappointed. This genre crossing, self indulgent dramady is just the thing you need to watch on Sunday night to unwind.
