I want to like Bored to Death, but it just won't let me

You want to like "Bored to Death" (HBO) but it keeps promising to be good and then disappointing you (me). At its best, it's zany and witty with some good dialogue, a kind of likable nebbishy literary lead character (Jason Schwartzman) who manages to get the girls mostly through his wit, a role Woody Allen might have played 40 years ago. It also offers Ted Danson in a great role for him, a Clay Felkerish boulevardier and magazine editor - Danson continues to get better. Also some amusing name checks and cultural references - watch this show if you want to be reassured that you already know the most hip writers and directors. Also some good stunt casting here and there. All that said, Bored to Death just never comes together and never makes sense. The odd premise is that Schwartzman is a magazine writer, a blocked novelist, with a part-time job on the side as a private eye. He is completely and utterly unbelievable as a detective, and it seems that the writer (Jonathan Ames) has no idea how to blend these elements of plot and character into a unified vision. For example, shouldn't the plot lines link - he solves literary mysteries? He uses his writerly skills to solve mysteries? No, we just have two different characters living in the same body, it seems. His palling around with Danson makes no sense either; no magazine editor of Danson's stature hangs around with a part-time writer and a cartoonist (Zach Galif... - another poorly conceived character, never believable as an artist). Although there are many laughs along the way, the whole feeling is of three musketeers concocted by a screenwriter who have no relation to one another outside of this script. In a great series, you can imagine the characters lives beyond the frame. Not here. And, by the way, no serious writer ever tells someone: I can't hang out tonight, I have to work on my novel.