Blunt Talk
Season 1 Episode 2: “I Experience Shame and Anticipate Punishment”
Directed by Tristram Shapeero
Created and written by Jonathan Ames
Starring Patrick Stewart, Adrian Scarborough, Richard Lewis, Jacki Weaver, Timm Sharp, Dolly Wells, Karan Soni, Mary Holland
Starz
Air Date: Saturday, August 29th, 2015, 9:00pm

Blunt Talk is a brand new series from Starz, debuting this Saturday evening, but as a promotion, they’re offering the first two episodes free on the Starz website. In Episode 1 (see our full review, we are introduced to Walter Blunt, played by the magnificent Patrick Stewart. Blunt is a cable news host with an addiction problem. In just the show’s first 30-minutes we witnessed him ingest alcohol, Ambien, cocaine, speed, and marijuana chocolate. Suffice to say, these things have an adverse affect on him. He is pulled over and charged with solicitation, drunk driving, and assaulting a police officer. When he gets to interview himself (yep, you read that right) live on the air, he begs for forgiveness only to pass out on air.

Blunt Talk
Season 1 Episode 1: “I Seem to be Running Out of Dreams for Myself”
Directed by Tristram Shapeero
Created and written by Jonathan Ames
Starring Patrick Stewart, Adrian Scarborough, Richard Lewis, Jacki Weaver, Timm Sharp, Dolly Wells, Karan Soni, Mary Holland
Starz
Air Date: Saturday, August 22nd, 2015, 9:00pm

Walter Blunt is a little bit of Will McAvoy from Newsroom, with the addictions and demons of Dr. House, and a lifestyle straight out of Shameless. If you like any or all of these shows, then Blunt Talk may just be for you. Patrick Stewart is Walter Blunt, the host of nightly cable news show who is dangerous addicted to… well, pretty much anything. As we learn in the first episode of Starz’s new half hour comedy (free now on Starz), Blunt is a 4x divorcee, estranged father, who is constantly supplied fresh flasks of alcohol and drugs from his manservant and best friend Harry (Adrian Scarborough). Despite the seriousness of the addictions, and his arrest early in the episode, Stewart is absolutely hilarious and believable in the role, and I was laughing constantly. The show was created and written by Jonathan Ames (Bored to Death) and is executive produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane amongst others.

Watch the Blunt Talk featurette below, and beware of spoilers!

Continuing their week of HBO deals, today’s Gold Box spotlight deal at Amazon is Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Seasons 1-6 for $82.99 (down 65% from $238.98).

If you do the math (which I typically do), you’ll that that works out to less than $14 per season as opposed to the nearly $40 list price — even with Amazon’s usual discount, each season averages around $30. Therefore, this is a huge savings and definitely worth getting if you’re a fan of the series.

For those of you not familiar with this half-hour HBO series, it stars Larry David, who co-created Seinfeld and was the basis for the George Costanza character. In Curb, David plays himself, which if you thought Costanza was outrageous, you should see the “real” Larry David. Most episodes are packed with famous actors, also playing themselves, and typically, Larry David will always put his foot in his mouth and do something extremely inappropriate. It’s funny as hell, but also so cringe-inducing, as you can’t believe some of the things he does. What makes this show really stand out is the fact that the episodes are not scripted. Each episode has a storyline, but then the actors improvise their dialogue, which is what makes the situations they’re in seem all the more real.

Comedians Cheryl Hines and Jeff Garlin (Wall-E) are in character as David’s wife and best friend, respectively, while frequent reoccurring guest stars are Richard Lewis, Ted Danson, and Wanda Sykes (all as themselves).