New Seasons

I woke up Monday morning, clinching my big chair-arm shaped pillow* like it were a person, and not wanting to go to work. Of course, I had to, but not before I realized my keys was misplaced. So I pitched a fit, stole my neighbor’s Land Rover, and drove it off the side of 75/85, just a mere 1 exit before 10^th street.

*2 different people told me that thosethings are called “husbands” or “boyfriends” respectively. I have mixed (BUT NOT INTOLERANT) feelings.

I didn’t do that. I asked a roommate to drop me off. This kind of thing is all too common on Monday mornings. I blame it on Breaking Bad and HBO. Never have I been so engrossed in several hours of TV in my life, exceptfor the first few seasons of Lost, to whichI look back on enormous distain, like I would of a bad sexual decision.

Last Sunday’s Breaking Bad was incredible. I’ve had many conversations with my Dad about how this show has been built so that you expect ANYTHING. At one point I would have put a couple twenties on the idea of Walt leaving the show for the last of this season and most of next, only to return as a badass head of a cartel. Then at one point I felt Hank’s death was due very, very soon. That’s not entirely out of the question right now, but I was more confident a few episodes ago. Nevertheless, that showdown between Walt and Jesse in Walt’s house was so aesthetically stressful for me; I had a hard time watching. Well done.

There is nothing more to say about Breaking Bad that Alan Sepinwall doesn’t say every week on his genius BB column over at Hit Fix. Check it out.

Sunday night was also the premier of HBO’s How to Make it in America and Hung. Hung is an interesting show. The first couple of season have been mildly amusing, in that HBCO way. You know, that hmm-that’s-clever and oh-there-are-the-boobs HBO thing. Entourage is the best example. Total fratboy humor, using f-bombs and off-the-cuff insults to create the illusion of comedy. And Hung was different, in the sense that it deals with older characters. But unlike Entourage where the promise of nudity was coveted, it’s in the premise of Hung to deliver it every episode. And it does, I suppose, but I mean, that makes it all the more fleeting. Hung had a chance to be a genuine character piece, but now that Ray (Tom Jane) has accepted that yes, he is a prostitute and that’s what he does, I feel like the show has lost a tad bit of steam. The season 3 premiere was a little desperate – but perhaps that’s its aim. Tanya is incredibly annoying, she always has been. But there is a loveable aspect to her bipolar insecurities, and that makes her presence forgivable. Not entirely on the other h

and, Lenore continues to be a purposely self-serving bitch, one who’s motives are clearly only geared to draw the viewer’s hatred. The entire 2^nd season painted her as being completely, enthusiastically evil. The back and forth chemistry of her and Tanya torturing one another is absolutely the best part of the show, and as of the premiere’s conclusion, it only makes sense of the direction this season is going to go: Lenore brings competition male hooker competition.

Hands down, I’ve always felt Hung would benefit from being an hour-long show, not a quick 30 minute attention grabber like Entourage or Showtime’s soul-sucking Californication. For a show that is not entirely a comedy, the dimensions that an extra half hour a week could bring would be welcome.

How to Make it in America, on the other hand, shouldn’t be taken as anything more than entertainment in the most Entourage way possible. The first season was short and sweet, leaning heavily on the buddies-forever chemistry of the two leads. And that’s it. Louis Gusman is always a badass, and his role as Rene really seems like one he’s having fun with. But that’s it. The cliffhangers of each episode in season one were cheap but fun enough to bring you back. But then suddenly they became what my roommate calls an “aww, shucks” ending. Those guys! Those craaazy guys! They sure were in a mess, huh? Everything’s cool. That’s it. The premiere of season 2 was in the same vein, and frankly after the Entourage series ending, I’m sick of that. So much has been blogged about the end of Vince and the guys, and how it sucked or was allowed to suck, but from someone who followed Entourage since high school, it was tough to see how the show didn’t mature along with my friends and I.