What I'm Watching: Bored to Death

Bored to Death: Season 2, Episode 5 “Forty-Town Down!” (B+)

What brilliant writing there is on this show. I was particularly impressed with the editing in this episode, which made the already rhythmic dialogue and pacing work even better than usual. George hanging up the wrong phone when he got a call while he was talking to Jonathan was great, as was Ray spilling coffee on a baby. I love that Jonathan was so taken by the fact that his client's husband was a limo driver and a poet, and it was just as funny when she said that she didn't care, cutting right away to Jonathan following the bald guy. I'm intrigued by the appearance of Zoe Kazan, who I interviewed last year when her film “The Exploding Girl” was released, as Jonathan's student, Nina. Hopefully George's demoralizing speech about print being dead won't ruin the chances of a love affair between them happening. Ray's breakup couldn't have gone much worse, thanks to his mixed-up expression of “it's not me, it's you” and his quoting of Bob Dylan, resulting in Jennifer taking a beer bottle to his crotch. Kevin Bacon portraying a bizarro version of himself was entertaining, and it wasn't too distracting to the rest of the episode ,which was good. George explaining the reasons that he'd prefer to stand during the holdup was hilarious, and I like how both he and Jonathan talked the limo driver out of his holdup before accidentally shooting off the gun. And, marvelously, it all worked out! The poet limo driver can be George's chauffeur. Isn't that wonderful?