Bored to Death - That Film Spot

IMDb 7.8/10 (36,299 votes) | 2009–2011 | USA | Comedy, Crime, Drama | 28 min | English

Bored to Death (2009–2011) is an American comedy series created by writer Jonathan Ames and starring Jason Schwartzman as a fictionalised version of Ames himself. Jonathan is a struggling Brooklyn novelist whose girlfriend has recently left him and whose second book is going nowhere. After spending an evening drinking white wine, smoking marijuana and reading Raymond Chandler, he impulsively advertises himself on Craigslist as an unlicensed private detective. The decision leads him into a steady stream of increasingly strange cases, usually tackled with considerably more enthusiasm than competence. Zach Galifianakis plays Jonathan’s best friend Ray Hueston, a frustrated comic-book artist, while Ted Danson steals many of the show’s best moments as George Christopher, Jonathan’s wealthy, ageing and frequently intoxicated magazine-editor employer. Across three seasons, the series mixes detective stories, literary jokes, friendship and romantic disasters with a slightly dreamy version of New York life, particularly the brownstone neighbourhoods of Brooklyn.

Bored to Death (2009–2011) was filmed extensively on location in New York City, with Brooklyn forming the heart of the series and Fort Greene used particularly heavily as Jonathan’s neighbourhood. Fort Greene Park appears several times, including the first-season episode “The Case of the Lonely White Dove”, when Jonathan meets a Russian client near the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument before setting off to find the mysterious singer Irina. Nearby Smooch became one of the cafés regularly used by Jonathan and Ray, while the streets and brownstones around Fort Greene, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope appear throughout the series. Brighton Beach and Coney Island are especially prominent whenever the story ventures into Brooklyn’s Russian community. Tatiana Restaurant is used when Jonathan searches for Irina, while the Riegelmann Boardwalk and surrounding Brighton Beach streets feature throughout the same storyline. Coney Island returns on a much larger scale in the third season, with scenes at the Wonder Wheel, the New York Aquarium and MCU Park. The series also makes regular use of real Manhattan locations. Old Town Bar is where George and Jonathan encounter rival magazine editors Richard Antrem and Louis Greene, leading to the boxing challenge that drives the first-season finale, while Jonathan’s first detective case takes him to Parkside Lounge on the Lower East Side. The resulting boxing match is staged at Brooklyn Masonic Temple, which is also used for the characters’ training scenes. Grand Central Terminal and the Grand Central Oyster Bar appear in season three, where Jonathan and George eat oysters while Jonathan waits to follow a woman arriving by train. Other identifiable locations include Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Angel Orensanz Foundation, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, BookCourt in Carroll Gardens and Bergen Street Comics in Park Slope. The production also used Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for sets that could not conveniently be filmed on location, including George’s apartment. What gives Bored to Death much of its character, however, is how often it leaves the studio behind: creator Jonathan Ames deliberately wrote real cafés, bars, parks, restaurants and streets into the scripts, allowing the series to preserve a very particular version of Brooklyn and Manhattan at the end of the 2000s.

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