Episode Commentary: The Case of the Missing Screenplay

“Bored to Death” has become a perplexing anomaly over the past three episodes. The pilot showed potential with some laughs and the second episode proved to be an abysmal waste of time, and one would assume that the show would plummet even further by the third episode.

However, that assumption would be wrong, because the third episode “The Case of the Missing Screenplay” was the best episode of the season.

Now, given the other two episodes, that is not saying much, but this episode provided a few snippets of laughter, and there may be some hope for this show.

Jim Jarmusch (director of “Coffee and Cigarettes,” “Broken Flowers”) wants Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman) to revise his screenplay for his latest film, and that happens to be a chance of a lifetime for Ames. At a party, Jarmusch hands Ames the coveted script, and asks him to call him the next day and tell him his opinion.

However, the next day Ames is unable to call him because he lost the script. Well, technically, he knows exactly where he left the script, but he is unable to get to it. He met a girl at the party that claimed to be 21 years old, and upon arriving to her house discovered she was 16. It just so happens that the script fell behind her couch shortly before her psychiatrist father caught the two together. After bailing out the bathroom window, he needs to figure out a way to get back into the apartment.

He cooks up a clever scheme to have his friend, Ray Hueston (Zach Galifianakis), become a patient and get the script back. The scheme goes wrong when the psychiatrist ends up making Hueston so depressed that he can’t even think about anything else and he just wants to cry.

Galifianakis is finally given a chance to shine on this series, and the results are hysterical. It may have taken two episodes to allow this character time to develop, but he may be one of the saving graces for the show. However, it is to soon to tell from this one episode.

What is confusing is that the best episode so far had nothing to do with the premise, because there is no mystery to solve. This proves maybe the initial concept is part of the problem with the series. Some of the best laughs come from Ames and his personal conflict with getting the script back and almost sleeping with a 16-year-old.

“Bored to Death” has a lot of work to do before it becomes a winning series, but at least it’s out of the woods and on the right track, even if it’s still miles away from its destination.

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