Ode to Jason Schwartzman

"Bored to Death is an almost too-perfect storm of literary and precious elements: It was created, executive-produced and written by Brooklyn author Jonathan Ames (Wake up, Sir!, What’s Not to Love?, I Love You More Than You Know), and is about a young Brooklyn writer named—yes!—Jonathan Ames, who is feeling lost thanks to a recent breakup and the looming pressure to deliver his second novel. He has a needy, pot-smoking magazine editor boss (a white-haired Ted Danson); a wacky graphic-artist best friend (a hot–off–The Hangover Zach Galifianakis); and, after an impulsive posting on Craigslist, a blooming side career as a private detective. Mr. Schwartzman plays Jonathan Ames as a white-wine–swilling, dreamy and deadpan neurotic, walking immaculate brownstone Brooklyn streets and having coffee with his buddy (where, appropriately enough, the sidewalk is crowded with Bugaboo strollers, though the F train he is often seen on is suspiciously spacious and shiny, and apparently timely). The writing is witty and deliberately offbeat, the situations quirky. Guest stars include Jim Jarmusch, Kirsten Wiig, Parker Posey, Oliver Platt, Denis O’Hare and Patton Oswalt. Jaded New Yorkers might find themselves fighting a reflexive eye roll—after all, isn’t it all just too-too? Too literary, too consciously cute, too meta, too hip, etc.?

>>READ 'JASON SCHWARTZMAN GOES TO THE EYE DOCTOR'

The answer (as it is with most things) is yes and no and well-wait-a-minute-not-so-fast. By its third episode, Bored to Death settles into itself—which is pretty quick if you think about the history of good television—and becomes the thing it’s straining so hard to be: charming. Mr. Schwartzman can take a lion’s share of credit— and isn’t this an actor who could be charged with carrying the same heavy load of too-too-ness himself? After all, this is the 29-year-old who started his career playing Max Fisher in Wes Anderson’s breakthrough, Rushmore. He would go on to collaborate with the ultimate-in-twee director again on The Darjeeling Limited—which he co-wrote—and to lend his voice on Mr. Anderson’s upcoming animated The Fantastic Mr. Fox, too. He’s also popped up repeatedly in the Judd Apatow universe (appearances in Freaks and Geeks, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Funny People); survived David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees; and played Louis XVI in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. He used to be in a band (he released a single with Evan Dando and Ben Lee in 2002) and composed music for Funny People, Cloverfield and The O.C., and even helped perform Bored to Death’s opening theme, which he co-wrote with Mr. Ames (the writer, not the character). And did we mention that he’s a Coppola, too (Mom is Talia Shire, sister to Francis Ford)? ..."