an attempt at sounding intelligent

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tvhangover:

Bored to Death is back! Are you all excited? If not, you should watch the first two seasons and then get back to me. It’s been nearly a year since the second season ended and the first two episodes of the new season feel like coming home. An incredibly fucked up, always stoned, and slightly Oedipal home but home nevertheless. It’s sad that Bored to Death is often overlooked because it’s actually one of my favorites, a much needed break from the overly dramatic and repetitive sitcoms. It’s a little gem on HBO that started out rough but quickly proved to be one of the smartest written comedies on television. It helps, of course, that it’s penned by the extremely clever Jonathan Ames (the namesake of the main character), an author who won’t let any embarrassing penis story go untold. The show also has some seriously awesome directing, one of the best title sequences, and a parade of guest stars (mostly comedians) who never overstay their welcome.

The show has a fairly niche audience and seems to cater to artsy literary Brooklynites (the first shot of the season three premiere takes place in Brooklyn’s Book Court, where the real Jonathan Ames also screened the first two episodes last night). Ames name-drops Salman Rushdie, not The Strokes, yet it never really comes off as pretentious because the characters are essentially just bumbling idiots. It’s also occasionally a send-up of the literary world and of the death of books — at a book signing early in the episode, Jonathan offers to sign Kindles and iPads. In the next episode a character states that the universe doesn’t care about books.

Bored to Death’s basic premise — struggling novelist decides to become a private instigator — is often the least important part of the episodes. Instead the show is about a friendship between three men: Jonathan (perfectly cast Jason Schwartzman), Ray (a toned down Zach Galifianakis), and George (the always hilarious Ted Danson) and honestly, the show doesn’t even really need a plot because I’d watch a half hour of those three actors just hanging out with each other. It’s my favorite “adult” friendship on television, one that revolves around blunt honesty, comfort, and weed. It’s about being bored, obviously, and choosing to turn your life into a fantasy. It’s a show that’s a love letter to Brooklyn, an homage to great detective novels, and a straight slapstick comedy. It’s a show about growing up, about being deeply insecure in both your personal relationships and your chosen career, about failings and missteps and fucking yourself over more than any other person can fuck you over, and it’s about copious amounts of wine. And it’s funny! Really, really funny.

But there are still cases to be solved! One of the best parts of Bored to Death is the mixture of the realistic with the whimsical. The show often dips into fantastical situations, or at least fantastical for a bunch of artists living in Brooklyn, but it never seems too far off. There is no Breaking Bad-esque dramatic tension. When guns are being shot at the boys, we know that they’re not going to die but it doesn’t make it any less fun. The show also seems to be raising the stakes with the action sequences — the first episode (spoiler!) ends with the Jonathan Ames character dangling from the minute hand of the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower and waiting for SuperRay to come save his life. But because this is a show about characters, the personal stakes are also raised. This season will focus on the theme of fatherhood; Ray is suddenly a father after the lesbians who used his sperm (yep) split up and decided to allow him one day a week to see his son; George’s daughter is in town, in AA, and dating someone about her father’s age which is a perfect way to get his character to hash out some personal issues; and Jonathan finding out that his father isn’t actually his father and that was conceived with the help of a sperm bank in, ugh, New Jersey.

Bored to Death is never going to be a giant Modern Family or even Community comedy but that’s part of its charm. It’s comforting and refreshing. It’s an actual book in a world of Kindles.

yearslater:

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younghollywoodcelebs:

On MTV choosing to not air her show.

Ahahahahaha, awesome.