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Sunday, October 17, 2010

"I'm committing mentacide. My brain is attacking itself."


Bored To Death is a comedy about three men living in New York City. They smoke a lot of pot, which I like, and are unapologetically homoerotic, which I also like. There's something to do with failing at being a writer and a fake private detective agency. It takes place mostly in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and I'm sure is exploiting the area's hipster popularity as well as its opportunities for comedy. Bored To Death is like a well-regarded novel that centers entirely on masturbation: it's self-aware, mildly pretentious, and overall it is very, very funny.

A shame then that its cast of characters is the opposite of diverse. Although I really like the women on the show, it is yet again a comedy that is written by white dudes, presumably for white dudes. This morning I was listening to the commentary on a episode of HIMYM entitled “Perfect Week”. In it, there's a joke that I find not only unfunny but also anti-progressive and slightly offensive (“Barney has scored 236 times – and not a single fatty!”), touching on the one aspect of HIMYM that I really can't get behind. In the writers' commentary they discussed how much they liked that joke, and a little bit of me died. There are clearly no women writers in that room, or else somebody would have pointed out that the joke is neither funny nor cool nor original. And it really made me sad to realize that even the shows I really like are almost completely dominated by (straight, white) men who are threatened by non-conforming displays of sexuality.

Bored To Death definitely doesn't take the lady-bashing to the same level that HIMYM does, but it does struggle with multidimensionality. Thank god for the actors, because the trio of Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, and Ted Danson is dynamite. Jason brings the insecure irreverence; Zach brings the comedic pathos, and Ted is like a giant stoned child with a huge bank account and a serious case of the crazyeyes. They go on incredible and hilarious drug-fueled adventures, sometimes solving a private detective mystery and sometimes meeting hot chicks and sometimes just hanging out and being hella gay. Sometimes all three at once. The main characters are all quite clearly flawed in one way or another, at these promo shots helpfully illustrate, and their flaws are always front-and-center of the episode, mucking up whatever strange situation they happen to find themselves in.


The guest stars have been quite awesome and generally noteworthy. Jim Jarmusch and Sarah Vowell appeared as themselves, and Patton Oswalt, Oliver Platt, John Hodgeman, Kristen Wiig, Josh Gad, Jenny Slate, and a bunch of other New York actors have showed up to drop some funny. But I'm always left wanting a little bit more, as if there's a missing piece that's keeping something good from becoming something incredible...
This is the type of show that, if any conservative Midwesterners knew it existed, would be labeled elitist liberal media "Fake America" propaganda. For me, that's incentive to watch it - but the world that Jonathan Ames has created does often feel very limited and lacking in perspective. There are, believe it or not, places and people in this country far removed from hipster Brooklyn, but in Bored To Death the outside world is not really ever addressed. I love the actors and their respective gifts of eye-yumminess (excepting Ted Danson - I am not Jack McPhee) and hilarity, but there is something palpably missing from the show. Whatever that something is (coughwomenwriterscough), it's keeping Bored To Death from being truly brilliant and I'm sure keeping it from the cultural popularity that HBO has been hoping for. Oh well...it's still funny, and now that Mad Men's ending I've got to have something to watch on Sundays since Boardwalk Empire is continuing to be an utter disappointment.
PS: If you're going to watch just one episode, I would recommend "The Case Of The Beautiful Blackmailer", because Karen is in it and she's awesome.
PPS: I am worried that Zach Galifianakis may be getting dangerously close to overexposure. Take a few months off, dude, so that I don't get tired of seeing your hauntingly beautiful face on my screen. Also, bring back the beard.
Bored To Death airs on HBO, Sundays at 10 pm.

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