I know I am late to the game with show, and I know he is rude, insensitive, foul-mouthed, amoral, and, in general, an ass, but Ari Gold is my new personal hero.
Reader Interactions
9Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.
Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.
I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.
Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.
You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.
… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop
It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.
Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.
There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.
Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.
Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.
I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.
It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.
My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.
Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?
The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.
Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.
Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.
Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.
No Justins, No Peace
Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.
ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.
talboito
I’m personally a bit distressed how much the show is attempting to make Ari sympathetic.
He’s Ari Gold. He doesn’t need a family life, the approval of some senior partner and especially not his assistant.
He’s goddamned Ari Gold.
Nonetheless, the show is remains great.
Horshu
I hated the first ep, but it got really good starting with the Kimmel one. It’s like Arli$$ in that it’s an ensemble-style show that uses lots of cameos, but has characters that are actually sympathetic behind their narcissism. Ari’s hilarious with his wife; he gets 5 seconds of intense sarcasm, 5 seconds of blowing his top, and then the rest of the night holding his head down.
Mr Furious
A very good show. I don’t have HBO, so I don’t get to watch it, but I stayed up till like 4am watching episode after episode one night while staying at a hotel. It just kept coming on, and I couldn’t turn it off…
Was never a big Jeremy Piven fan before (my wife thinks he’s brilliant) but after watching him on this show, I’ll concede—he is brilliant at least in this role.
Andrei
Let’s hug it out bitch!
Carpbasman
I’m personally a bit distressed how much the show is attempting to make Ari sympathetic.
Ok. Here’s the deal. All of the characters, besides Eric, are supposed to be irredeemable. They’re all hopelessly corrupt. And even Eric is succumbing, or really appears to have succumbed, to the LA life style. And given the arc of the series, he won’t be redeemed.
In other words, they are all little Ari Golds (other than Vince) hustling their living off the Hollywood scene. I don’t know that you are supposed to root for anyone based on anything more than the fact that they are presented.
That is, we root for Ari because it’s presented from his point of view.
The major problem with the series is its apparent focus on the time between projects of a major star. Things may be in suspense, but we know from the get go that Vince will get the part. Things tend to resolve themselves to tidily.
Brad R.
“Rude, insensitive, foul-mouthed…” Gee, I can’t imagine where’s the attraction in that for you, John ;-)
Tony Alva
I was not a big fan of the show in it’s first season at all, but based on my love of the other HBO series (Soprano’s, 6 Ft., Deadwood, etc…), I gave this one another look this season. I’m glad I did. Like the Soprano’s, this show’s angle is to make us forget how contemptible these characters really are by drawing us into their world where contemptible behavior is normal. It seems to be a theme with all these HBO shows. We actually give a shit about some rapist, murderer, thug serving time in OZ, or find ourselves drawn in and sympathizing with Al Swearingen on Deadwood as he trys to keep the peace, at the same time attempting to keep a piece for himself.
I gotta hand it to the people that create these shows that do this so brilliantly. At the end of last season I would have swore that there was no way I’d ever feel the slightest bit of sympathy for Ari, but there I was hatin’ on the Malcolm McDowell guy for yanking Ari’s Mercedes from him right after he quit.
They have me hooked once again…
Don
Personally I can’t think of a single thing Jeremy Piven has done that I didn’t love him in, if not the project. Compare “PCU” with “Van Wilder” and you see what a difference that quality of comic talent makes in an otherwise typical genre flic, and I say that as someone who enjoys Ryan Reynold’s work.
Tony Alva
John Cusack’s old high school buddy in Gross Pointe Blank was a great Piven role too. Hilarious movie…