A Man. And His Blog.

Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman), a struggling Brooklyn writer with a small drinking problem, tries to cope with his recent breakup with his girlfriend by reinventing his life. On a whim, Ames decides to emulate his idol novelists Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler by posing as a private detective and offering his services through an online ad. Soon enough, he takes on various cases of unwitting clients, satisfying some while failing others.

Episode 01: Stockholm Syndrome
I already watched the first episode during my pilot reviews. Catch up here. 6/10

Episode 02: The Alanon Case
This episode was slightly better than the pilot, even though the writers watched too much other HBO shows. After Hung this is another one with a story, which isn’t developing really fast. Though it is nice that the writers take seriousness into their characters, but without a real and interesting story, the characters can bite my ass and the series gets boring. And I don’t really see an improvement here.
So, Jonathan is now in the private detective business, after his girlfriend broke up with her. But why? Why is it of all things this business? Why isn’t he sitting in front of his laptop and writing on his novel? Why is he trying to be a hero in the business he has no knowledge of (detective novels don’t count)? This story is just too unreliable for me and I can’t buy it. But Kristen Wiig‘s guest appearance was nice. She should quit Saturday Night Live and have her own show, like Amy Poehler.
The episode story about the boyfriend probably a cheater was not that interesting, and Jonathan’s spy methods are just stupid. I know it is supposed to be funny, but I couldn’t laugh at this, it was more awkward than funny. Again, Schwartzman’s acting skills are not really explicit here. I think I saw like two or three different countenances, and I don’t know if he is still struggling with the break-up or if he is actually trying to have fun with his new life – there are no expressions in his acting.
The side plots with George (Ted Danson) herpes and Ray’s (Zach Galifianakis) efforts to bring Jonathan into his life for more moral support were nice, but just a way to get their characters into the main character’s story – don’t they have their own stories?
An improvement compared to the first episode, but still not a must-see. I hope the series will improve like Hung and I will be exciting to watch a new episode after the sixth one. 6,5/10

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Hm, I don’t know. HBO has kind of awkward TV series out there with different stories and a difficult way to like them. I needed a few episodes to get into Hung, I still can’t watch True Blood, I don’t know what’s the fuzz about The Sopranos (I tried the first season three times and I never finished it) and Six Feet Under might be good, but I never watched more than the first season. And I don’t think that I will love Bored to Death until I am dead (muhaha), for that the pilot wasn’t really that interesting and had some awkward moments in things regarding to the acting skills of Jason Schwartzman.

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