TV

Is it just me or has the world entered an entirely new phase of serialized TV. Be it quality, distribution, attention and all of the above, it's unavoidable to me. I've discovered that my favored (and many times required) version of "winding down" after a long day or before going to bed involves watching at least one show on hulu, hbo on demand (which i JUST discovered i have...hallelulah) or catching up on downloaded episodes of entourage.
It's pretty amazing to me seeing as how I've never been a fan of TV. the virtual deletion of ads really does it for me. The crappy/sappy music, painstaking graphics and see-through message (e.g. It's so much better in the bahamas, everyone loves chef boyardee) used to (and still) drives me so nuts I can't sit through 'em.
So what's the deal? Are we gonna have to start paying for this hulu business or will commercials get longer and longer? I noticed they occassionally pop up on youtube now...weird.

If you haven't heard of or seen my latest fascination, "how to make it in america", you ought to give it a try. It helps if your as crazy about NYC as I am, but that's hard. When I realized my new episode has HBO, I caught a mid-season episode and got into it. I watched the first two episodes the next day and the day after that I got invited to a screening at the HBO building with a Q+A w/the actors and creator. I burned through the rest of the series and you can now consider my hooked.

lemme lay this shit out for you:
late 20-somethings are trying to make it in NYC. Fashionistas, hustlers, players, Ben and Cam try to keep honest schemes together in the garment trade and the night life scene while Cam's ex-con cousin, Rene (Luis Gusman) tries to run a legit business making Rasta Mansta (the Caribbean Red Bull) a successful product. First the Lower East Side, then the world.
I love this show for a number of reasons, but #1 would have to be the role that NYC plays. This show does such an incredible job of making the city a living, breathing, throbbing, damning, teasing beautiful bastard that it is. They do SO much shooting on location and each neighborhood and locale comes off as such an integral part of each episode.
#2 is the dynamic between the two main characters. Ben, the Jew, and Cam, the Dominican are a perfect yin-yang: grumpy and excitable, stable and wild, driven and spontaneous, they gave each other a leg-up when the other is tapped out and love each other to the core. Rene's stories are terrific as well, showing a powerful but reproachful man trying to lead an honest and benevolent life. His criminal instincts and desires to rise back to the top get in the way of his penitence, but his love for his community and the need to take the righteous path is very compelling. Plus the way he pronounces Rasta Mansta with that lisp is fucking hilarious.
#3 the show is fucking funny. The ups and downs, wise-cracking side characters (Eddie Kaye Thomas plays the super-Jewy hedge-fund manager), and constant chatter between Ben and Cam is very entertaining.
#4 it looks beautiful. Again, this show has a great eye for NYC. Architecture, streetscapes, the vibrancy of new yorkers and the eye-catching interplay of party scenes keep this show in my minds' eye. It's all in the opening credits, which play over a crazy-hot photo montage with a sick soul song.
What the show fails at however, is the side story of Ben's ex-girlfriend Rachel, who is boring, whiny and doesn't know what she wants. Her boyfriend Darren is rich, beautiful and soulless and it's so obvious that we're supposed to hate him that this story line gets old fast. The one thing that keeps it going is her sex-crazed stoner boss, Edie, who keeps the dumb girl in check.
I also don't like how all these hipster fashionistas can afford to party every night in lavishly decorated and gi-fucking-normous downtown lofts.
But hey, that's TV