Showtime, your Diablo Cody is showing. (Your eggo is Preggo!)

So, without further ado, let the debate begin:

 

HBO

vs.

SHOWTIME

 

My judgement: I’m ruling this a NO CONTEST, HBO TKO.

 

 

For a few years now, Showtime has been marketing itself as being on the cutting edge of television series. It specializes in the kind of shows that are easily recognized and defined by their “edgy” subject matter, if not laid out plainly in the title itself (Queers! Lesbians! Weeds!), then still easily summed up in one word or a short phrase (Serial Killer! Multiple Personalities!) In essence, these shows do not strive for depth in their premises, and the shows themselves often fare no better.

Showtime’s best show, Dexter, is a prime example. Going off premise alone, Dexter shows the most promise. As you are probably aware, the show is about a moralistic serial killer who uses his job as a forensics blood analyst to gain access to “bad” guys (kiddie touchers, murderers who got away) and end them. The whole examination of good and evil has potential, however the show is often side tracked by silly subplots, and is almost always too neat in how it ties things up. And man oh man, that inner monologue is usually just laughable. Still v watchable, though. Michael C Hall was always my favorite on Six Feet Under, and he is pretty damn good on Dexter. And, Julie Benz, meeeeow (kinda sick that MCH is tapping that off set, though, considering they play brother and sister (EW!)).

Weeds started off as one of the best comedies on television, and then had a major tone shift from serio-comic satire to comic-comic-like-seriously-Sunday-morning-funnies-or-Three-Stooges satiric-self-parody. For me this is seen primarily in the transformation of Celia Hodes, played by the great Elizabeth Perkins (aka Wilma Flinstone). In Season One, she was a great foil to Mary Louise Parker’s Nancy Botwin, a hard edged housewife who was on the surface a hateful woman. But her struggle with breast cancer that season completely humanized her and she was a fascinating character (the scene where she reveals to her husband that she had cancer was devastating and brilliant). Fast forward to now, and when I happen to catch an episode of the latest season, she is in federal prison in some kind of gang. She’s become some bizarre arch villain that would give Cruella DeVille pause. The humanized Celia of season one has been lost completely, and there’s nothing that the (very capable) Perkins can do to bring humanity to the writing of the character. It’s a damn shame. So now, the show is just pure straight silliness with drugs, and they have even moved, leaving those “Little Boxes” of suburbia which gave them a lot of their satiric license. In other words, consider this shark JUMPED.

And then there is United States of Tara. This show is about to wrap its first season (those of us who know how to work a DV-R have already wrapped it (and if you’re like me, sent it straight back! (jk, it’s just alright))) and stars the consistently very good Toni Collette and that guy from My Big Fat Greek Wedding who I think dated Carrie Bradshaw for a spell. Premise: mom and interior decorator Tara has multiple personalities, at least two of which are legally retarded (because in the mind of Diablo Cody, a 15 year old teenager is without any sense of self or appropriateness whatsoever, and also is just begging to be thrown from a tall building). These Alters are fun and diverting and each have their own logic as to why and when they take over Tara’s body. Toni Collette is brilliant as Alice, the walking 50s-Better-Homes-and-Garden’s Stereotype (to Lady Diablo’s credit, a very good creation), as well as her only male Alter, the bowling and quick-to-violence Buck. However, as the 12 episodes wore on, the most compelling characters on the show became her kids, at least one of which started off very annoying (the daughter). By the end, though, the show became The United States of Marshall, I think that little guy (he’s probably like 19 IRL (<-in real life, for those who don’t speak internet (4TWDSpInt))) is just an incredibly gifted actor, or he’s very much like his character. Also, more props to Diablo Cody for writing young people who don’t speak in a slang-uage that makes me want to kill them/myself. However, as this season came to a close, I found myself thoroughly over it, not invested, and not really caring about getting to a season two.

Now, Showtime’s obvious rival in the pay cable world is HBO (Starz made a TV series out of CRASH, the Worst. “Best Picture” Winner. Ever. ()So they are forever irrelevant in my eyes), and in my not-so-humble opinion, there is simply no competition. HBO’s series are consistently great, even as they have been struggling to find new footing post-Sopranos (huge ratings hit) and The Wire (very much less so, though loved by the few who watched). Personally, I think Big Love’s last season measures up to seasons of The Sopranos and Six Feet Under (though a very different show, especially from the former). I haven’t watched In Treatment, but have heard almost universally good things (and Diane Wiest is immortal in my eyes). And they’ve only gotten stronger in the comedy department, I would argue, retaining the always great Curb as the comedic lynchpin (Curb>>>>>>>>Sex and the City (4TWDSpInt: It is infinitely better) and giving Flight of the Conchords two seasons (looks like no more(L)), and Summer Heights High (which originally aired in Australia a year or two before HBO) is one of the funniest things I have ever seen on television. In fact, HBO’s only real blunders in the past few years has been passing on Mad Men, and instead picking up True Blood (for multiple seasons, no less).

Now, I will confess to enjoying True Blood. But I enjoy it much the way I enjoy a Showtime show. On second thought, I think it might still be better than most Showtime shows, because, sure, it’s silly pulpy fun, but it also doesn’t pretend to be V.V.Important the way Weeds or US of Tara try to say Important Things (not w/ Demetri Martin (do not like, find his tone grating)) about Suburbia or Identity. And probably the best thing about True Blood, is that it is unlike anything that has ever been on HBO. A fantasy/thriller series with an almost comic book feel (a far cry from the last stab at fantasy, the sometimes awesome, sometimes V frustrating Carnivale). And thus, this is HBO’s greatest strength—their willingness to always try something completely new and different. Whereas on Showtime Queer as Folk begat the L Word, Weeds begat The United States of Tara, etc.

Last night, HBO premiered The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, starring Jill Scott. The show is very odd, at first, to wrap your head around. As Donna Bowman writes for The TV Club:

HBO is certainly a strange place for the series, given its genteel family-friendliness.  The tone, pacing, and emphasis on heavenly rural scenery practically scream Hallmark Channel.  But if HBO audiences can slow down enough for an original series without profanity, nudity, weed, lesbians, or any of the other trappings of its usual offerings, they’ll find themselves smiling at this love letter to Africa and its disappearing traditions.

But, at least from the pilot, I’m saying this risk pays off for HBO. It verges on possibly being too sweet, but the effervescent charm of the awesome Jill Scott completely sells it. Just when I think I might be over HBO because Big Love finished its latest (and best) season, this beautiful (aesthetically and in the writing) series comes completely out of left field.

Granted, I watch a good deal of television shows on Showtime, and do enjoy them (their incarnation of This American Life generally escapes my criticism, though it is much more hit-or-miss than the radio iteration), but the bottom line is that Showtime will simply never approach the level of sophistication and artistry of even the worst HBO show. Even the late night sex shows on HBO have more complexity and depth than their Showtime counterparts. In fact, HBO’s REAL rival in cable television is on basic cable—AMC (a channel most people don’t know exists). But that’s another entry for another day.

 

 

 

 

 

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