deathofcool - Gawker

posts about #deathofcool more →
Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

jrhys
09/22/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
I think this skews older than 'Conchords' - more like Gilmore Girls meets Columbo. In an age where swifter uses Devo songs, I think it's not a 'hipster' show,
( poor or slumming, lazy, partiers, Saturday nights at Union Pool) but rather a cultural creatives and cultural creatives wannabe show show ( responsible, tidy, dooce readers, employed, Saturday nights in loft condos in Kansas City). In short, the audience is the sensitive stroller moms ( and dads), not the loser dudes. Don't forget that outside of NYC the average age for marriage is 25-26, and these young responsible clean living married folks are watching whilst home with kids or babies . As for hipsters not being sincere, tell that to etsy, whatever twee band is flavor of the month and those handicraft chicks and beard farmer dudes I see everywhere. Speaking as an Old, I must say that people under 30ish are the most sincere frikkin crowd I've ever met.
Reply

jrhys was starred jrhys was unstarred

ChicagoSaphique
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
What are these "hepsters" you speak of? Are they like "hep cats?"
Reply

snugbug promoted this comment ChicagoSaphique was starred ChicagoSaphique was unstarred

Id_Molotov
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
Anyone else think that clip was pretty damn funny?

Haven't seen the show, but if you're gonna take it down, try and find a shitty clip.

As far as hipster drivel... everybody raves about Flight of the Concords and that is about the biggest hipster show on the market. While I love the songs, I can't stand the characters: they're the guys on Bedford I want to stuff bodily into their clever hats and down the f*ckin' toilet.
Reply

thatgirlinnewyork promoted this comment Edited by Id_Molotov at 09/21/09 4:58 PM Id_Molotov was starred Id_Molotov was unstarred

thatgirlinnewyork
09/21/09

@Id_Molotov: really? you think of those characters as the no-talent trustafarians that take up space on bedford? not buying that.
Reply

thatgirlinnewyork was starred

AndPreciousLittleofThat
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
Christ. If Raymond Chandler was still around, he'd have flown to NYC, taken the script and shot it in the gut, and then proceeded to get drunk on gimlets with a Schwartzman twist.
Reply

snugbug promoted this comment

RonMwangaguhunga
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
The annoying baby carriages cluttering the Brooklyn street. Nice touch. A good beginning.
Reply

RonMwangaguhunga was starred RonMwangaguhunga was unstarred

Rozelle’s Bagman
09/21/09

@RonMwangaguhunga: Or bad leitmotif. I'm guessing the latter.
Reply

Rozelle’s Bagman was starred

TheologicalSong
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
sure, y'all, throw your reductive labels around, attempt to pigeonhole all heart and soul out of somebody's sincerely personal vision,'cause, clearly, that sort of thing makes you uneasy, it being so much more comfortingly familiar to stay detached, but I'd have to disagree. this was a profoundly enjoyable, irrepressibly sweet, keenly observed, rousingly cast, redemptive and refreshingly distinctive vision of early millennial New York, an understated, unassuming, unforced, breezily, unpretentiously, whimsically self assured pilot (Jonathan is a colleague. but I speak from the heart).
Reply

TheologicalSong was starred TheologicalSong was unstarred

Cheney Guevara
09/21/09

@TheologicalSong:

if all you had to say was 'don't take the show so seriously, it's meant to be funny', that might be acceptable.

but unless your comment was too ironic for me to get, i think maybe you were watching some other show.
Reply

TheologicalSong promoted this comment Cheney Guevara was starred Cheney Guevara was unstarred

TheologicalSong
09/21/09

@Cheney Guevara: we'll respectfully agree to disagree on this one, CG.
Reply

TheologicalSong was starred TheologicalSong was unstarred

Spirit Fingers
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
Firstly, the hell is a PBR? Peanut Butter Reeses Pieces? Poor Broke Republicans? Panko Breaded Rib eye? Too insidery.

This show didn't interest me in the slightest. Schwartzman is too cerebral to be effortlessly funny. Too awkward to be intriguing. And easily labeled a whiny ninny, as he's played in several movies. Also, there are just too many detective shows about non-detectives on television right now. That genre is hemorrhaging from unoriginality overload. From the quirky Psych, to the typical CSINCIS, Law, Order, and Mentalling, Monking, Boneses, Castle -- Nathan Filion, get back on a space ship offerings to really stand out for real.
Reply

Spirit Fingers was starred Spirit Fingers was unstarred

gabrielsong
09/21/09

@Spirit Fingers: Pabst Blue Ribbon...quite so hip-not-eek.
Reply

Spirit Fingers promoted this comment gabrielsong was starred gabrielsong was unstarred

Spirit Fingers
09/21/09

@gabrielsong: I can't even imagine going to a bar and ordering a Pabst Blue Ribbon with a straight face. Isn't that like asking for a O'Douls or a Canada Dry Ginger Ale?
Reply

Spirit Fingers was starred Spirit Fingers was unstarred

RunawayPancake
09/21/09

@Spirit Fingers:
apparently you've never been to Wisconsin
Reply

Spirit Fingers promoted this comment RunawayPancake was starred RunawayPancake was unstarred

Spirit Fingers
09/21/09

@RunawayPancake: And I pride myself on that fact every day.
Reply

Spirit Fingers was starred Spirit Fingers was unstarred

RunawayPancake
09/21/09

@Spirit Fingers:
really? badgers are people, too
Reply

RunawayPancake was starred RunawayPancake was unstarred

Rhymenocerous
09/21/09

@Spirit Fingers: No one orders a Pabst Blue Ribbon. It's a PBR. And it's not a hipster trend, it's usually just really, really cheap. The hipsters cannot have PBR. It is not cool, it is economical.
Reply

Rhymenocerous was starred Rhymenocerous was unstarred

Excusado
09/21/09

@Spirit Fingers: Don't hate on Canada Dry Ginger Ale.
Reply

Excusado was starred Excusado was unstarred

Awesome X
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
I had the choice of watching this show or picking up the mess my dog and child made with tissue paper yesterday afternoon. I watched 10 minutes and started picking up the mess. That bad.
Reply

Awesome X was starred Awesome X was unstarred

xuatastic
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
arcade fire meets miss marple sounds like perfection to me.
Reply

happymisanthrope promoted this comment xuatastic was starred xuatastic was unstarred

happymisanthrope
09/21/09

@xuatastic: I love Arcade Fire! I love Miss Marple! This can only result in excellence.
Reply

happymisanthrope was starred happymisanthrope was unstarred

Glanton
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
Beyond the fact that all of the twentysomething indie cultural signifiers were really condescending and hamfisted, this show just isn't well-written. Having a thin premise is fine if you're an able enough screenwriter to sell it, but Ames absolutely isn't, and Schwartzman is too much of a lightweight to help him do the heavy lifting. Ames sets up the entire series in the span of about 150 seconds: guy loses girlfriend, reads Raymond Chandler book, decides to become private detective--through a craigslist ad! How offbeat!--but it isn't believable in the context of the show because...we don't have any context. The dialogue isn't as sharp or smart as its creators obviously imagine it to be, and exchanges that might otherwise crackle just lay there on the screen because no one (Schwartzman, Galifianakis, Thirlby) except Danson has any sense of timing. There were definitely moments that had me chuckling, and I did get out of the show what I really wanted going in: shots of familiar neighborhoods around Brooklyn. I think I'll continue to watch at least through the third or fourth episode cuz if I've learned anything from the Wire, 30 Rock &c, it's to not give up on a show due to a shitty pilot. But overall I'd give it maybe a C- at this point.
Reply

MyNameIsChris promoted this comment Glanton was starred Glanton was unstarred

MyNameIsChris
09/21/09

@Glanton: You pretty much sum it up at the end. It's a pilot. They are invariably mediocre at best. Setting up the entire series in 150 seconds is pretty much how it goes. I have no idea whether this show will pan out or not, but it's certainly impossible to tell at the moment. They also need to just let ZG off the script and do what he does. Otherwise there really isn't any reason to have him around.
Reply

MyNameIsChris was starred MyNameIsChris was unstarred

Glanton
09/21/09

@MyNameIsChris: Agreed, to an extent. The best shows (the Wire, 30 Rock, Breaking Bad, &c) have a premise that can be explained in a sentence or two but take hours of hard work to flesh out. Here, Ames basically just filmed the two sentences. It felt weak, rushed, and sloppy.
Reply

Glanton was starred Glanton was unstarred

bytememehard
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
Good title, because it put me to sleep.
Reply

bytememehard was starred bytememehard was unstarred

yourfriendandneighbor
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
Zach Galifianakis is God.
Reply

Banjo-Sea Kitten
09/21/09

@yourfriendandneighbor: for some inexplicable reason his beard gives me a *rainforest*. I love it.
Reply

Banjo-Sea Kitten was starred Banjo-Sea Kitten was unstarred

Cheap Shot
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
If you want to turn a hipster into a detective, you just hide his drug stash.
Reply

Cheap Shot was starred Cheap Shot was unstarred

She_of_the_Socks
09/21/09

@Cheap Shot: Baroom-ching!
Reply

She_of_the_Socks was starred She_of_the_Socks was unstarred

NigelAstydameia
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
Are they supposed to be hipsters? They're more like effeminate, underdeveloped nerds. Or maybe that's what hipsters are?
Reply

NigelAstydameia was starred NigelAstydameia was unstarred

hamburgerhotdog
09/21/09

@NigelAstydameia: Um, yes. Yes indeed. Have you seen some of those dudes? They'd get winded trying to lift a phone book.
Reply

hamburgerhotdog was starred hamburgerhotdog was unstarred

NigelAstydameia
09/21/09

@hamburgerhotdog: Got it. Then again, nobody uses phone books anymore, but a hipster might since it's ironically retro cool, right? Oh, the conundrum. Lift that phone book, hipster!
Reply

NigelAstydameia was starred NigelAstydameia was unstarred

She_of_the_Socks
09/21/09

@NigelAstydameia: I see these more as "huppies" or "yipsters." Hipsters don't, as far as I can tell, hang out in places where there are baby carriages unless it is to poo in an abandoned one in public.
Reply

She_of_the_Socks was starred She_of_the_Socks was unstarred

NigelAstydameia
09/21/09

@She_of_the_Socks: See, now I'd probably label that "homeless." Very confusing!
Reply

NigelAstydameia was starred NigelAstydameia was unstarred

SpyMagician
09/21/09

In reply to Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?
I don’t understand the analysis. This is basically a hipster-ish version of Monk, but tons more watchable and 1/2 shorter. Meaning, Bored to Death is a good show!
Reply

SpyMagician was starred SpyMagician was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#deathofcool

Gawker

SUBSCRIBE TO Gawker

Will Bored to Death Alienate Its Hipster Base?

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment