Back when Vincent Chase had a cocaine problem, a little show called How To Make It In America snuck onto HBO. The show garnered comparisons to Entourage left and right, due to Marky Mark and the Entourage crew being the ones who brought HTMIIA to life. But now that the crown jewel of Entourage has mostly sailed, is this the new show for douchebags and haters to flock to? Like Entourage, HTMIIA also is billed as a “comedy” even though for all intents and purposes it’s a light-hearted drama. Both shows also deal with the topics of success in a creative medium, but the differences basically stop there. Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk play Ben and Cam, two guys in New York City who are looking to make a buck by using their creativity and fashion sense. Season one was about the slow start of what becomes the driving force of the show, the guys’ clothing company, Crisp. (Our fellow writer Mason has a fantastic review recapping most of season one here) While being the closest show on TV to Entourage, How to Make It feels just a little bit more refined around the edges, making it a much more enjoyable show. HTMIIA has more stylized cinematography, rarely feels like a showcase of a glamorous lifestyle, and not everything always works out for the main characters.

Picking up right from the season one finale “Big in Japan”, Ben and Cam are shown in a stylized recap enjoying Japan and dealing with the fashion industry. Yet once the show got back into the plot, I wondered if I didn’t have a higher opinion of the show due to the interim. While the plots dealing with the clothing company are what made me like this show in the first place, it’s already getting too ahead of itself. While the theme of competition as a plot is perfect for a show about success, the New York hipster aesthetic ingrains itself way too quickly to be thoroughly enjoyable. The two leads spend the episode planning marketing techniques and after running through buzzwords like ‘pop-up shop’, they decide they need a certain flavor to make it their own. And like an annoying friend who won’t shut about how traveled they are, these guys spend the episode trying to pull together “an authentic fetish show like we saw in Shinjuku.” As if that’s some perfect way to sell t-shirts.

On top of all of this, this show has absolutely one of the most diverse and strange combination of actors. Did I mention that Luis Guzman is also in this show as an energy drink slinging gangster? As the cousin of the Cam character, the two stories cross over between the characters yet seems awkwardly pieced together when it happens. While the energy drink subplot is usually the more boring of the two stories, the annoying hipness of the main plot disappears in lieu of the gritty side of New York. While overall Guzman’s plot fits in nicely with the theme of the show, other characters aren’t so lucky. Lake Bell, who is absolutely the most comical element to the show, always feels forced as Ben’s ex-girlfriend who just can’t stay away. And in one of the greatest roles for a rapper on TV, Kid Cudi always hangs out with the Crisp guys just to crack wise, be really suave with the ladies, and sell people marijuana. There’s really no other point to him beyond that.

While it’s still a step above Entourage, I think my reasons for watching both shows aren’t dissimilar. It’s pretty self-indulgent, and the show is so easy going that it’s simple to watch. With the budget of an HBO show, they have plenty of money to waste on nice looking filming locations and time for as many pleasing visual details as possible. The writing on this one isn’t very strong either, but at least some things don’t work out for the main characters which gives you more reasons to keep watching. As of now I mostly like this show for superficial reasons, but I’m very interested to see what direction it heads in. Right now, it’s either one step from being another classic, quality HBO show, or the next worse thing to grace the network.

3/7