THE PLOT THUS FAR
Writer turned private-eye Jonathan Ames was last spotted duking it out in a dean’s office, (almost) saving Super Ray from a stalker, and endorsing George’s decision to resign from his glossy magazine gig. This season Jonathan will come face-to-face with “furries,” hang with Dick Cavett, and go on the ultimate oedipal investigation.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
After losing his roommate/lover, Jonathan is unable to write, and suffers from a serious case of the doldrums. He mopes around his apartment, doing very little but reading Raymond Chandler novels and getting smoked up. Schwartzman is very good at conveying this bright-guy-turning-into-a-loser character. Apparently inspired by the Chandler novels, he decides to try his hand at being a private eye himself. Despite having no background whatsoever in police work, he figures he has nothing to lose and advertises on Craigslist as an “unlicensed” private detective. He hopes that by doing this he will pad his bank account, as well as find inspiration for his writing.
The third season continues in the same vein as the prior adventures. However, Jonathan’s supporting cast is getting more time to develop. Ted Danson steals the show whenever they don’t encounter the odder elements such as Furries. What still gets to me is that they’ve got Zach Galifianakis on the show and they can’t figure out how to use him. The show never suffered from a lack of anything, it just missed direction and a point.
The Blu-Ray comes with deleted scenes, outtakes, featurettes and commentaries. The A/V Quality is pretty sharp with a 1080p transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track. While this looks like to be the last season ever, I can’t say that it ended badly. It’s just that the show never got past those first season ideas. Oh well, what can you do?
RELEASE DATE: 09/04/2012
