HBO Is Must See TV

So, the Sopranos season is over (for the year). It would be nice if I could sit here and say I'm upset there aren't any new episodes this year, but I can't. This season was horrible. I have no other way to explain it. From my point of view, it looked like this season was just a string of pointless, uninteresting, zero plot driven, refusal to close open-ended storylines, failure to develop new twist episodes. I already had a disgust for Sundays since I have to go to work on Monday, but the past 2 months I've been down right miserable.

Well thank god Sopranos is over and the real shows can start playing. Thanks to HBO On Demand, I have just finished the second season for both Deadwood and Entourage. Now, when Deadwood first came out I loved it, but since I didn't have HBO for a while, I missed out on the second season. Watching 3-4 episodes a night the past week I've realized that Deadwood is now the best show on HBO. Sopranos is now second, and third overall for all HBO series (Oz is #2 all time). Deadwood is an award winning drama about an outlaw camp during the western expansion of the US. This show is filled with cussing, murder, cussing, whores, cussing, deception, cussing, bribery, cussing, greed, and just a little bit of cussing. Needless to say, I love this show.

Entourage is a great show that revolves around an actor (fictious) and his day to day life in Hollywood. He is surrounded by his "entourage," including an older actor brother (Kevin Dillon), his best friend (and manager), and another friend, all from Queens, New York. This show is very similiar to another HBO hit of long ago, Arliss. Entourage is full of guest appearances from several actors and sports stars and does an excellent job of mixing real life with fiction. The best character has to be Ari, Vince's agent played by Jeremy Piven. Jeremy plays a great asshole, and his character really sells Hollywood and the industry. The writers do an amazing job of really selling the character of Vince and the others, making you feel like you are watching a behind the scenes "Truman Show."

There are some other shows on HBO that are just starting or I haven't had a chance to watch. The Wire is an undercover drama that is going into it's 4th season. Lucky Louie is a new sitcom written by and starring the sometimes humorous Louis C.K. Another show I'm looking forward to is Tourgasm, a behind the scenes look at a 30 day comedy tour featuring the best young comic out there today Dane Cook, as well as Jay Davis, Robert "Bobby" Kelly and Gary Gulman.

With all these shows appearing back to back to back to back to back on Sunday nights, my hitless streak on Sundays is going to end starting in 50 minutes. Maybe I'll actually be able to go into work Monday with a smile!