While we're generally fans of the kind of programming HBO tends to support, their decision to cancel "Bored To Death" at the end of last year was heartbreaking. While the show was not a huge hit, over three excellent seasons it developed a cult following and was one of the funniest, wittiest shows on television. And the show didn't go quietly into the night either — a minor online campaign started up to try and persuade HBO to keep the show going. And it looks like they've been listening.
Yesterday, at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, Ted Danson dropped the nugget that a 90-minute film was in the works, and Vulture worked their Rolodex and called HBO who confirmed that there have "been some conversations" but "it's at a very early stage." The fact that they're even considering the idea is frankly kind of awesome. If you didn't see the show, "Bored To Death" starred Jason Schwartzman as Jonathan Ames (modeled on the author and show's creator of the same name), a struggling writer who moonlights as an amateur private eye to get ideas for stories. Danson played his best friend George Christopher, an educated, pot smoking and usually horny editor of a New York magazine, with Zach Galifianakis as Jonathan's friend Ray Hueston, a neurotic cartoonist.
"Bored To Death" was wickedly sharp and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, but its very Brooklyn-based/New York-intellecutual humor probably limited its appeal and is perhaps why it never caught on in a major way. But that's also what made it so great, and it certainly didn't hurt that the show had some pretty ace cameos and guest appearances throughout (Zoe Kazan, Jim Jarmusch, Kristin Wiig, Patton Oswalt, Isla Fisher, Dick Cavett, Olivia Thirlby, Olympia Dukakis and more).
While the prospect of this happening we'd wager are pretty thin — the show was even less well known in the pop culture sphere than "Arrested Development" — we'll still keep hope alive that one more outing for "Bored To Death" is in the works. Until then, if you haven't watch the show, there is no better way to spend a lazy summer weekend that catching up with "Bored To Death" on DVD. We highly recommend it.
