Bored to Death

Sunday's premiere is a little dull, but future episodes have more entertainment value. Still, you have to be a fan of neuroses humor for Bored to have much comedic impact.

The result is a mildly alluring dark comedy. Schwartzman is difficult to like, but he always has been. The show is lifted greatly by "The Hangover's" Zach Galifianakis as Jonathan's strange friend, Ray, a comic-book artist with a complementary set of his own strange-but-cute neuroses.

At various points, Bored to Death seems nicely restrained, curiously deadpan, and just flat. It is moderate, and it is middling.

Danson is so typically deft that he makes Christopher's raging egotism and arrested development engaging. Zach Galifianakis gives a similarly nuanced performance as the put-upon best friend of magazine writer and would-be detective Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwatzman). Danson and Galifianakis, however, can't quite make up for the fact that Ames and his various pursuits are juvenile and predictable.

I’d like to say the self-consciously literary Bored to Death lives up (or down) to its title, but it really doesn’t even leave that much of an impression.

In its current attempt to capture the meandering lifestyle and mindset of thirtysomething losers, Bored squanders its noir framework and aesthetic prospects, consequently inducing yawns.

Bored prefers droll to funny. Almost implicit in its tone is the attitude that viewers should be satisfied merely hanging out with the literati of New York, flawed though they might be, and not hope for compelling stories and charismatic characters, as well.