Cable’s fall season includes quality comedies

You sometimes get the feeling NBC couldn't catch a break in a bucket lined with Krazy Glue.

After last year's miserable group of new shows -- "Knight Rider" anyone? -- the network marshaled all its resources and developed three quality fall series: "Community," "Trauma" and "Mercy." Then HBO trumped all that by going out and reviving "Seinfeld."

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" (9 p.m. today, HBO) always has seemed like an extension of the classic NBC sitcom, with Larry David, who created both, being equal parts Jerry and George. But an actual "Seinfeld" reunion is the major story arc for this season, which is paired with the sublime new detective comedy "Bored to Death" (9:30 p.m. today).

They're just two examples of cable's saving some of its best series for fall, a list that also includes:

• the hell-on-wheels "Sons of Anarchy" (already airing at 10 p.m. Tuesdays, FX).

• the scruffy degenerates of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (already airing at 10 p.m. Thursdays, FX).

• another killer season of "Dexter" (9 p.m. Sept. 27, Showtime).

• and the sun-drenched debauchery of "Californication" (10 p.m. Sept. 27, Showtime).

But back to HBO.

On the new season of "Curb," TV's greatest curmudgeon continues to grouse about life's minor annoyances: the low percentage of good apricots, the responsibilities of fish ownership and the sanctity of a man's refrigerator.

And Larry's at his antisocial best when a former neighbor says he'll send him a bill for the eyeglasses broken during a hug Larry wanted no part of. "You send me the invoice. I'm going to rip it up into tiny little pieces," he scowls. "And I might even pee on it."

But things really take off in episode three, when Larry, going against everything he's ever believed in -- "You know those reunion shows, they're so lame, really," he says. "They never work. The actors are 10 years older. Just, it doesn't look right." -- agrees to make a "Seinfeld" reunion as part of a half-baked scheme to win back his ex-wife, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines).

Larry soon pitches the idea to each of the "Seinfeld" cast members, most of whom are skeptical. But it's Jason Alexander who really shines. When he isn't telling Larry how utterly unlikable George is -- Larry famously having based Alexander's character on himself -- he's belittling the comedy's legendarily disappointing last episode.

"It could make up for the finale, that's for sure," Alexander says over Larry's protestations that the episode was fine. "It really lets us end 'Seinfeld' on a good note. It could be a, you know, 'We know, we know. We're sorry.' "

The "Seinfeld" alums will appear in half of the season's 10 episodes, and so far, they're near-perfect as they reunite to slam reunion shows. It's an anti-reunion reunion, and it goes so well you almost hope you never see any of the show-within-the-show they're working on over fears of more disappointment.

Meanwhile, much as Larry created a fictionalized version of himself for "Curb," novelist Jonathan Ames did the same for "Bored to Death." Only instead of playing himself, he enlisted Jason Schwartzman to do it.

Fueled by a recent breakup -- not to mention his addictions to pot, white wine and Raymond Chandler novels -- Jonathan places an ad on Craigslist offering affordable rates for his services as an unlicensed private detective. "I say that I'm not licensed," he tells his disapproving friends, "and that makes it more legal ... ish."

In the hands of Schwartzman -- who comes off like Luke Wilson playing Steve Carell by way of Demetri Martin -- Jonathan creates a new genre, nerd noir, as he throws himself headfirst into such minor investigations as The Case of the Stolen Skateboard like a 30-year-old Encyclopedia Brown.

Jonathan's cleverly lowbrow best friend, Ray ("The Hangover's" Zach Galifianakis), eventually is drawn into his sleuthing, as is his emotionally needy millionaire boss, magazine publisher George ("Curb" veteran Ted Danson), who becomes more of a hoot as the episodes progress.

Along the way, "Bored" somehow manages to name check Carl Jung, Klaus Kinski, Marcel Proust, Gay Talese and the Raid on Entebbe. It's surely the only comedy ever to make a punch line out of the phrase "Thank you, Boo Radley." And it doesn't seem at all out of place when Jonathan ends up in an empty loft while filmmaker Jim Jarmusch circles him on a bicycle.

But "Bored" also throws in jokes about colonics and sperm donation -- though, thankfully, not at the same time -- to balance things out.

It's delightful and refreshingly offbeat, although in my wildest dreams I can't imagine it becoming a mainstream hit.

But, then, I once thought the same of "Seinfeld."

Christopher Lawrence's Life on the Couch column appears on Sundays. E-mail him at clawrence@reviewjournal.com.