TV Spotlight -- How To Make It In America (HBO)

If you follow this blog at all - you know it is no secret that I have a long love for HBO Dramas and Comedies. I have accepted the twists and turns of Entourage, followed the struggle of Big Love and even tolerated the somewhat lackluster Hung. But How To Make It In America has taken it one step too far. With practically the entire production staff of Entourage, HTMIIA (yup.) seemed like a New York City counterpart to the life and times of Vincent Chase. However, creator/writer Ian Edelman has taken the production quality we have come to expect from an HBO series and has created a pile of garbage.

HTMIIA follows the rise(?) of New York City twenty-somethings Ben Epstein (Bryan Greenberg) and Cameron Calderon (Victor Rasuk) as young clothing designer/hustlers. Yes. They design denim jeans. To all the young children out there in the world take it from me - how to NOT make it in America is to become a designer of denim jeans in the world's most expensive city. This lame career path was probably chosen to show off how cool and trendy NYC is and also give the kids an occupation or path that would relate to people my age trying to make it. And in the end - it literally just looks like people my age trying to make it. The drama is far from deep and the consequences far from dire. What you are left with is one of the blandest shows on television with A stories barely ever matching B stories and random C stories never weaving into a real solid episode.

The one thing that HTMIIA does a good job at doing (and I can say with my head raised high that this is the only thing it does well), is that it makes me want to visit NYC and hang out with the 50 some odd friends I have who live there and live the life of Ben and Cameron. If this show lasts more than a season, I would be blown away. The only hope it has is to be a counterbalance for HBO's most recent feat - The Pacific. But even that miniseries is just for a single season. Goodbye How To Make It In America - stop polluting my DVR.