Ive quite a few friends who LOVE the L.A. of the brochures - The Standard Hotel, the Chateau Marmont, shopping along Beverly Hills, eating and clubbing along that strip of Sunset, the glam touristy stuff. I never got the appeal. Considering Ive never lived there Ive spent a surprising amount of time in that city, probably close to eighteen months of my life all up, and in that time Ive seen plenty of both the light and dark side of the industry - dealt with good and bad people at all levels of success. Ive had some of the best times of my life there, but Ive also been down some dark paths Id rather not revisit. Consequently one quickly sees past the mystique places like those peddle in and see them for the aging, unexpectedly rundown and even tacky places they are. If you want to find both the real power brokers and genuine cool people of L.A., you have to go outside that insular little strip and find them in pockets spread out all over the city. Maybe that is why I never got the appeal of this show. Piven was fun, but it always seemed painfully predictable and went for the easy laugh, never having any real teeth or frankly any realism at all about the very field it sends up. I know this sounds deeply cynical, but I genuinely want to understand why this show works for some and not others. Ive also heard the first season or two were by far the strongest and then it sank quickly from there (most of the stuff Ive seen from it has been from the mid to later seasons), are those early years worth another look?
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 20:10:24 +0000
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