Movie Box Review

You couldn't ask for a better example of the way in which HBO is different from all other networks--even other pay-cable networks--than its decision today to cancel BORED TO DEATH, HUNG and HOW TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA, while renewing ENLIGHTENED.  While none of the shows were hits, even by pay-cable standards, all 3 of the cancelled series had higher ratings than Enlightened, which in the target 18-49 demographic on its initial telecasts has literally hovered between a 0.1 and a rating too low to be measured.

But HBO is all about buzz, because buzz is what makes subscribers feel like their extra monthly payments are well spent.  And while some of us find Enlightened unwatchably smug and a manipulative exercise in monstrous self-indulgence masquerading as idealism, the show has its partisans, and they are passionate:  The Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Weekly are among those featuring the dramedy in their Top 10 Lists for the year. (Undoubtedly the Golden Globe nominations for the show and star Laura Dern this week didn't hurt either.)

So RIP to the too-hip-for-its-own-good but fabulously cast Bored to Death (Ted Danson is a fine addition to CSI, but he was Emmy-worthy in Bored), and to How To Make It In America, a show with more substance than its forebear Entourage that could never quite find its tone.  And a little less of a fond farewell to Hung, well-acted but probably ready for that bordello in the sky.

The good news is that part of the reason for the cancellations is that HBO has a number of new and promising series on the way:  half-hours from the creators of In the Loop (VEEP, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the VP of the United States), Tiny Furniture (GIRLS, co produced by Judd Apatow), and Extras  (the latest Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant project LIFE'S TOO SHORT).  Not to mention, on the one-hour side, the new Aaron Sorkin series.  So fear not... it continues not to be TV at HBO.

While Showtime's had success with original Monday night programming like Weeds and Nurse Jackie, HBO has had a harder time when it strays from its Sunday base. (Remember when they tried moving the final season of Six Feet Under to Mondays, and then had to move it back a few weeks later?)  Last night, the network tried to launch the night again, with the return of BORED TO DEATH and the debut of  ENLIGHTENED.  The results weren't pretty.

Vulture reports that Bored was watched by a mere 240,000 people in its initial airing on Monday (by way of comparison, Boardwalk Empire had a viewership of almost 3 million people the night before, and even Hung, which is far from being one of the network's signature hits, was watched by about 1 million people).  With that lead-in, Enlightened fared even worse, with only 210,000 viewers.  HBO, of course is in the "buzz" business and that's not necessarily the same as the "ratings" business, as celebrated shows like The Wire and Treme have been happy to find.  But even by HBO's standards, if a show airs in the forest and no one there is watching TV, that's not going to make much of a buzz.  Neither show has to worry about being yanked from the schedule, even if they decline next week (which, absent the premiere marketing campaign, they probably will)--that's not the HBO way.  But the prospect of additional orders seems dim at this point.