HBO Does Fort Greene
Did anyone watch “Bored to Death” last night? The Local’s Andy Newman ran an interview with the show’s writer and main character, Jonathan Ames, last week about the process of representing/misrepresenting Brooklyn on international television. Newman and Ames, who live in Park Slope and Boerum Hill respectively, talk about how the show takes place in…
Did anyone watch “Bored to Death” last night? The Local‘s Andy Newman ran an interview with the show’s writer and main character, Jonathan Ames, last week about the process of representing/misrepresenting Brooklyn on international television. Newman and Ames, who live in Park Slope and Boerum Hill respectively, talk about how the show takes place in Fort Greene even though Ames never lived there (the central character lives on South Portland), how the trailer showed only white people despite Fort Greene’s diversity, and Ames’ predilection for the ladies who frequent Smooch Cafe. The interview was light-hearted and full of banter, but some of the topics covered are hot-button issues for Brooklynites. Did anyone see the first episode? How did HBO’s Fort Greene compare to the real thing?
Bored to Death [Official site]
A Sense of (Semi-fictionalized) Place [The Local, NYT]
i enjoyed it.
also why is no one peeved at the fact that hourly hotel rooms dont really exist anywhere downtown.
also why were there no Asians and Hispanics? bla bla bla.
whaaaaaaaatever. F / G / Q…who the fuck cares.
the show was OK…nothing great. but i guess this was the first episode? if so, give’em a sec to warm up. and two blocks from my place! weeeeee.
galifianakis is amazing. if you haven’t seen him to acting training for children…or the infamous “vodka ad”…then do yourself a favor and watch.
and to all you people with no tv (i’m included). if you have more than 5 friends…you have access to a tv and a time/place to watch it. quit your whining.
cheers
@Park Sloper
I actually work in “The Business” and I’m also from LA originally, and I can guarantee you that this kind of continuity issue is even MORE common in LA. It’s totally normal to see someone walking down the street in Vancouver, then turning the corner into downtown LA, then entering a store on the Paramount lot.
@WineLover. Right on sister! (Brother?) This is the golden age of TV – don’t let anyone else tell you differently. I challenge anyone to go back and show me a year where more fantastic television was produced than any of the last five.
You Kids are apparently watching A LOT of TV! Ever heard of a book?
Oh and Freaks and Geeks. How could I forget that one. Loved it.
I give them a pass on the location inconsistencies. I think TV/films create their own realities. If it’s loosely based on a location and isn’t entirely true, who cares? Cher’s apartment in Moonstruck being that close to the Promenade had a charming effect.
The show doesn’t really represent any neighborhoods, just an amorphous Brooklyn.
Dirty,
In terms of other shows with that type of humor, I guess I’d be hard pressed to find close matches, but I do like Curb Your Enthusiasm for laughs and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though not laugh out loud funny). I guess Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls are similar to Bored to Death in terms of offbeat comedy. I enjoyed both of those.
“Surely no one in Hollywood would put a driver on the 101 going north from Los Angeles and ending up in San Diego, would they?”
I always wondered where the creative line was for stuff like that. How local should you get, versus how to maintain the real appeal? It is very, very hard to recall how New york seemed to you once you’ve been living here for a while. for natives, they have no idea how the rest of the country views them.
I will venture to guess that most Austin or Portlandites who are indie-leaning or slightly boho in that old familiar way don’t know much of the vagaries of where the F train runs through Fort Greene or not.
I get not wanting to be rigid about neighborhoods, but having a character get off the F train and be in Fort Greene is just sloppy; it’s not as if millions of people won’t notice, right? It’s like Cher walking around the corner from her Cobble Hill apartment in “Moonstruck” and ending up next to the Promenade. Surely no one in Hollywood would put a driver on the 101 going north from Los Angeles and ending up in San Diego, would they?
“By the way, I didn’t watch it. I am concerned about the representations of the neighborhood I’m reading in people’s comments above. H’mm…”
There’s no representation of any neighborhoods. They don’t mention any by name – even if they are shot in a particular locale.