Thanks to HBO putting it On Demand early (and thanks to my being home for Rosh Hashanah where I have access to it), I already got a chance to see the pilot to Bored to Death, which premieres on HBO tonight. Heading into premiere week, I had a feeling this one might get lost in the shuffle. And with far too many shows on my schedule, here's one I can count out.
I wanted to like Bored to Death. Really, I did. But it just wasn't happening. The show stars Jason Schwartzman as novelist Jonathan Ames (who's real, and produces the show). We first see him as his girlfriend leaves him because he "smokes too much pot and drinks too much white wine." Laughing yet? What about the twentieth time he says it? Unsure how to crack his second novel, Ames posts an ad on Craiglist offering himself as a private eye, and soon enough he's got a case.
A noir comedy is definitely my style, but there's no comedy to be found here. Maybe I laughed once. Probably not. And this isn't one of those fake comedies like Hung, that's a half hour long but doesn't even try to make you laugh. No, this one tries, it just doesn't succeed. Which is all the more impressive seeing as the rest of the cast features Zach Galifianakis, fresh off his Hangover hilarity, and Ted Danson, making a return to comedy after his brilliantly creepy turn on Damages.
It's not all in the writing either. There's something about the tone of the show that just doesn't work. Each scene is scored to downbeat indie music that may fit a Wes Anderson movie, but doesn't quite belong here. And sometimes the production values seem more like a student film than "it's not TV it's HBO." However, Bored to Death does have one thing going for it: it has a great theme song. If only the rest of the show matched it.
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