Bored to Death: The Complete First Season (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman) is a freelance writer with one novel under his belt, a 447,000 rating on Amazon, and serious writers' block. He writes the occasional article for his friend George Christopher (Ted Danson, in a hilarious role), the bored-to-death editor of an Esquire-type magazine. Meanwhile, his buddy Ray (Zak Galifianakis)is a frustrated graphic novelist, comic-strip artist trying to hawk his work, with meager results. Zak's girlfriend Leah controls his every move, while Jonathan's girlfriend Suzanne moves out after Jonathan refuses to clean up his act according to her straight-edge wishes, i.e., no drinking, no pot smoking.
After losing his roommate/lover, Jonathan is unable to write, and suffers from a serious case of the doldrums. He mopes around his apartment, doing very little but reading Raymond Chandler novels and getting smoked up. Schwartzman is very good at conveying this bright-guy-turning-into-a-loser character. Apparently inspired by the Chandler novels, he decides to try his hand at being a private eye himself. Despite having no background whatsoever in police work, he figures he has nothing to lose and advertises on craigslist as an "unlicensed" private detective. He hopes that by doing this he will pad his bank account, as well as find inspiration for his writing. Thus, the hilarity ensues.
The series is stylish, with lots of allusions to Raymond Chandler potboilers, complete with gorgeous, troubled dames, topcoats, hats, and all the Chandler-esque parafernalia. Jonathan hasn't a clue as to what he's doing, but somehow his escapades all work out, with George and Ray as his Keystone cops sidekicks. Each episode is done tongue-in-cheek, requiring a large dose of literary license from the viewer. If the viewer has a sense of fun and enjoys a well-crafted farce, this isn't hard to do. I hope this series catches on, because in my household, this is half an hour of very entertaining television. All the actors do a fine job, my favorite being Ted Danson, who seems to thoroughly enjoy acting a fool and probably getting paid enormous amounts of money to do so. Some of the scenes are sidesplittingly funny; others have a Woody Allen-ish charm, as Schwartzman is exactly the kind of appealing nebbish that Allen always played. I hope for more "Bored to Death" episodes of this caliber in Season 2.

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Meet Jonathan Ames: writer, romantic, unlicensed private detective. Moonlighting from his job as a novelist and writer for a New York magazine, Jonathan is looking to jettison some heavy emotional baggage (his girlfriend just dumped him, okay?) through an unusual second careerof cracking cases of missing persons, espionage and infidelity in the Big Apple.
DVD Features:Audio CommentaryBEHIND THE SCENES

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