Westworld is Boring and Other Unpopular Opinions about HBO Programming

I’ve watched 10 shows on HBO since I first subscribed to the network in ‘87.

Five were good. Five were bad.

Here are the five good ones:

1. Boardwalk Empire: All of my daydreams are set in the 1920s. This program was like a five-season-long, costumed reverie interspersed with turf wars over the vices and the rackets.

2. The Wire: In the Trutor household, this program is referred to as “The Proposition Joe Show.” As an homage to the late Robert F. Chew’s character, I always wear a clip-on tie to Summer League basketball games.

3. Eastbound and Down: The funniest television program of all time. Bronze medalist for most quotable work of art in the history of Western Civilization behind King Lear (Gold) and American Movie (Silver).

4. Generation Kill: I would argue that this dark comedy set during the Iraq War captured the vernacular of young men in the early 21^st century as well as anything on film.

5. Fraggle Rock: Jim Henson’s stab at socialist realism. The creator of The Muppets weaved a colorful, subterranean world reminiscent of the paintings of Isaak Brodsky. The Fraggles, Doozers, and Gorgs are roughly analogous to the Petrograd Workers Soviet, the urban Mensheviks who supported the March 1917 Provisional Government, and the Kulaks.

Here are the five bad ones:

1. Westworld: Funny looking.

2. Games of Thrones: Eviler than Dungeons and Dragons.

3. The Newsroom with Bill Oliver: Sanctimonious.

4. Deadwood: Too much spitting.

5. True Blood: Too many werewolves.