Quick Take: How to Make It in America, "Good Vintage"
"Don't think of it as 'you're fired.' Think of it as 'you're free.'" – Alex to Ben
Review: How to Make It in America, "Good Vintage"
(S0106) I know I'm probably the leader of the Kappo (Eddie Kaye Thomas) bandwagon at this point, so at the risk of being repetitive I'll state it again: the show automatically gets better when Kappo is on the scene. The character works as "uptown" comic relief for our main hipster hustlers Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam (Victor Rusak), and Thomas is flat out great as a thirty-something yuppie hanging onto the dream of all night ragers followed by seeing off voluptuous new friends into taxies. There are, it seems, multiple avenues to make it in America.
And I'll say again that while Luis Guzman (who plays older generation hustler Rene) is a great actor and always will be, his character and storyline don't add to this show and I'm becoming more convinced that it's a serious mistake to invest so much time following him and his dealings.
In a way, we have a case of Entourage-lite (which is not exactly a slight: Entourage is a high quality comedy and How to Make It is one with potential and, as yet, some flaws) meeting Carlito's Way-lite (which Guzman was in, by the way). We need to lose the Carlito and power up the Entourage, which was excellently played out during "Unhappy Birthday," the best episode to date by far.
Rene spends a lot of time dealing with finding the money that Flaco stole from him, but it's not terribly interesting so let's skip that. Meanwhile, it's the morning after Rachel's (Lake Bell) and Darren's (Jason Pendergraft) crazy ecstasy party night, which included Darren kissing other women, a dude, and even a dog during a post clubbing walk about the city sesh. One of the things that How to Make It is doing really well is piping in still photography quick snaps for flashback/montage scenes with accompanying ironic music. I'm getting more and more comfortable with seeing Rachel and Darren, and I'm becoming more interested in seeing where their relationship and storyline is headed. As compared to… okay, I won't get into that again this review, I promise!
While Cam scrambles about town to find the proper vintage "50-50s" to satisfy designer Haraki's fluke vintage tee-shirt order, and we see Ben at Barney's, his daytime retail sales gig, more than we have before. We also see more of Alex (Curtiss Cook), his meticulous boss, who is not thrilled (to say the least) with Ben's penchant for taking calls on the job and running off to further his ambitions.
We also have Julie (Margarita Levieva, who was amazing in Adventureland) in the mix as Julie, who works at a vintage shop and catches Ben's eye.
Overall, the chemistry on this show keeps getting better each week. Lose Rene (sorry Luis, I still love you!) and we may really have something here.
More thoughts on "Good Vintage":
Video: How to Make It in America, "Good Vintage"
Here's an HBO backgrounder on How to Make It in America: a conversation with Bryan Greenberg and Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi.
Recap: How to Make It in America, "Good Vintage"
Ben and Cam find it hard to meet Haraki's vintage-tee quota.
From Around the Web: How to Make It in America, "Good Vintage"
