Sunday’s episode of “Bored to Death,” entitled “Take a Dive,” wrapped up the first season for a series that was full of surprises. It started out promising before taking a nose dive, but then something amazing happened around the fifth episode: the writing got tighter and the characters became more interesting.
Sadly, the potential only fully becomes utilized as we say goodbye to the first season at its creative height and can only wonder what season two will bring.
Were the last couple of episodes a fluke, or a sneak peek of what is to come? The answer to that question has yet to be filmed.
The last two episodes seemed to take some of the detective element out, which is fine and allowed for the characters to become fleshed out. The three main characters all have one thing in common and that is that they are slackers – slackers that range from successful to unemployed – and they all love pot.
George Christopher (Ted Danson) is training for his boxing match with his nemesis (Oliver Platt) and working on rekindling a romance with his ex-wife. She seems to still be interested in him, but in love with her impotent husband (Platt), and asks Christopher to take a dive to save a man with a bad heart.
This is the type of story that Danson’s character desperately needed all season to add a bit of depth to his initial strangeness. The writers finally made his screen persona interesting and set him up to be an important character on season two.
As for the show’s hero, Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman) is set to box a critic (John Hodgman) that gave him a lousy review. Now if Hodgman looks familiar, that is because he is also Justin Long’s nemesis, the “Mac,” in those amusing PC commercials.
Ames is also having a blossoming love affair with a woman he met on a case, named Stella (Jenny Slate). She seems to love smoking weed almost as much as Ames and are portrayed as a cute and realistic match for each other.
Now, Ray Hueston (Zach Galifianakis) has managed to find a cartoonist that wants to experiment with S &M to fight in the match. While this may sound bizarre (which it is), it is hysterical to watch. This conflict somehow brings him closer to his wife and leaves the character with more of arc for season two.
This is exactly what a series finale should be: no cliffhangers, but rather letting the character development draw you into the next season.
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