Ted Danson has a knack for enlivening a television series, enough to forgive him the one-note sitcom Becker. He worked his magic with Cheers, triumphed when he parachuted into Damages, and is breathing new life into CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, lending a lighter touch to the role of team leader after the departure of Laurence Fishburne.
He is particularly fine in the second season of Bored to Death (2010), released this week on DVD. As George Christopher, a devil-may-care magazine editor in New York, he smokes marijuana, drinks martinis and is loyal to his friends – which is a good thing, since his friends frequently need rescuing.
And, like the others in the cast, he does justice to the offhand remarks that define this show. George complains at one point that nobody reads any more. "Even I'm not reading. I got a Kindle, but I dropped it in the tub."
The show's focus is on Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman), which is not surprising, since the show's creator is also named Jonathan Ames. Schwartzman's Jonathan is a guy trying to make ends meet while enjoying a semblance of a love life. His first novel was published; his second was rejected. He sells pieces to George's magazine, teaches creative writing and works as an unlicensed private eye.
The tone is set at season's start as Jonathan clambers down a fire escape while a cheating husband throws flower pots at him. Even the dangerous scenes have a loopy sensibility. When abductors threaten Jonathan's life, one of them keeps interrupting the plans to discuss the brilliance of Oscar Wilde.
The third main character is Ray (Zach Galifianakis), a cartoonist, coffee-shop confidant and id of the group. Where George sips martinis and Jonathan drinks wine, Ray guzzles beer. He, too, is fluent in Ames's dialogue. "I still don't understand why he's having an affair with his ex-wife," Ray says about George. "It's like a waste of a divorce."
Guest stars show up, including Mary Kay Place, Oliver Platt and Kristen Wiig, who winds up in bed with Galifianakis – Bridesmaids meets The Hangover Part II. But the magic is in the easy relationship between the three leads, each of them ready to mess up the others' best-laid plans.
"We are the oddest three people," Danson says in an episode commentary, with a tone of wonder in his voice. Amen.
ALSO NEW THIS WEEK
Visioneers (2008) Before he hit it big with The Hangover, Zach Galifianakis played the lead in this low-key indie dystopic satire, now out on DVD (xenonpictures.com). Borrowing from Nineteen Eighty-Four and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the film assumes a deadpan tone for its tale of George (Galifianakis), an office worker spooked when people around him spontaneously explode. The script isn't entirely satisfying – it's not always clear why George, who rarely speaks, behaves as he does – but the creepy-comic fable has its charms.
Oz & James Drink to Britain (2009) The pretext for this eight-episode series, made for the BBC and now on DVD (bfsent.com), is that two guys drive around Britain to find "the drink that speaks for modern Britain." (The answer is at once out of left field and obvious.) But the fun is in the mock-quarrelsome byplay between wine expert Oz Clarke and Top Gear presenter James May, who has a touch of Stephen Fry in his delivery.
The Lion King (1994) The $10-million 3-D conversion of Disney's animated classic raked in $30-million in the first weekend of last month's theatrical release. Jaws dropped, including Disney's. Now the film is out on a 3-D "Diamond Edition" Blu-ray (for those with the right equipment) as well as a 2-D Blu-ray and DVD. Also out: a 3-D Beauty and the Beast (1991).
Perry Mason Season 6 Volume 1 (1962-63) If the plotting in this mystery series is often formulaic, it remains a treat to watch Raymond Burr and the other regulars go through their paces – and to spot familiar guest stars: Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy, Batman's (and Family Guy's) Adam West, and Ellen Burstyn, back when she was still Ellen McRae. In the next half-season, slated for a Nov. 22 release, Mason loses a case!