DVD reviews: Bored to Death - Season 1 | Eastbound and Down - Seasons 1 & 2
Bored to Death – Season 1: HBO, £26.99
DESPITE the fact that its title would appear to provide ammunition for anyone who doesn’t find themselves immediately attuned to Bored to Death’s off-kilter style, this latest HBO sitcom is one of the more pleasurable American imports of late. Starring Jason Schwartzman as a recently dumped, moderately successful novelist who attempts to get over his heartbreak by rashly becoming an unlicensed private detective, the show puts a hipster riff on Raymond Chandler without being so arch as to be alienating. Self-medicating with white wine and weed, Schwartzman’s Jonathan Ames – the fictional alter-ego of the show’s creator – may be in a semi-permanent fog, but he’s lucid enough to solve menial mysteries like, ahem, tracking down a stolen skate-board, tracing a black-market sperm donor or reuniting an ex-con with the long-lost love of his life. Part of the gag is how Jonathan starts to find new purpose in such triviality and Schwartzman plays him with just the right level of self-awareness, ensuring Jonathan is funny without ever winking at the audience. Bored to Death has assembled a brilliant supporting cast in the form of Zack Galafianakis as his best friend Ray, and Ted Danson as his sometime boss, George. Their myriad misadventures over the course of season one gradually lead to small moments of enlightenment, but not at the expense of the barrage of wry, sly, literary jokes that accompany each episode.
Eastbound and Down – Season 1 & 2: HBO, £29.99
WRY, sly humour isn’t something one might associate with HBO’s other recent cult hit. Eastbound and Down prefers to wallow in the knuckle-gnawing discomfort pioneered by The Office. That the show, the first two seasons of which are collected together here, manages to take this to new extremes ensures that it’s not the easiest comedy to embrace. It is very funny, though, and Danny McBride’s delusional baseball star Kenny Powers is a monstrous creation. The first season is the more accessible of the two, focusing on Powers after he’s kicked out of the Major Leagues and forced to earn a living teaching PE. Things take an nastier turn in season two as his non-inspirational teaching exploits the previous year lead him to relocate to Mexico in an attempt to quiet the regret-tinged voices in his head. Comedy doesn’t come much darker.
• To order these DVDs, call The Scotsman on 01634 832789