The Bait and Switch of HBOvoyeur

Voyeurism is just another perk to living in New York, reality as entertainment. And there's no better theme than this to capture the complex stories and characters of television's best storyteller, HBO.

It's confirmed, after last night's premier, HBOvoyeur is viral marketing produced with BBDO and not the next big thing from the makers of The Sopranos. They gave us the old bait and switch for no apparent reason--going viral seems only crucial to companies and college kids trying to break into media, not for those who wear the crown. Unless they feel they have something to prove now that Sopranos ended. But everyone knows HBO is the best in the world when it comes to television and attracts the best talent. They didn't need to remind us with their artmercial.

No, Voyeur wasn't the next Six Feet Under like I wanted it to be, but it was beautiful and it was art and it was engaging with disturbing characters and heartbreaking unraveling. Projected on the side of a building on Ludlow in the Lower East Side your eyes had to keep up with eight different apartments with action happening inside each one simultaneously, making it really hard to understand what's going on.

In one apartment a group of young men ran around a pool table with a bunch of strippers. It looked like they were about to gang bang the woman they were helping onto the pool table, but it turned out something entirely different was going on. So if you focus your eyes on one apartment at a time you'll get a grip on the shoots-and-ladders action taking place among the crazy cast of tenants, that range from a middle-aged woman serial killer to an over the top pretentious cocktail party host.

The production, directed by Jake Scott who's directed music videos for Tori Amos and Radiohead, felt like cinematic ballet. The actors had a dance-like quality in their movements, almost operaesque and there was no dialogue, of course, because you're meant to watch, not listen. Six original compositions take turns playing over the 10 minute clip that played on repeat all night.

Spending millions of dollars and over a year to produce Voyeur and the fact that it's launch coincided with the ending of The Sopranos just makes me think of one thing: the British show Absolutely Fabulous. When those women were at the top of their game, they bowed out, a very English thing to do in UK television, quit while you're ahead. But here in America, we've got to push for bigger and better and keep winning. HBO can to take off it's Lance Armstrong bracelet and rest on it's laurels for a while to give its audience time to mourn The Sopranos and wait for the courtship period with the Hendrickson wives to take hold, which seems to be happening, I have a couple friends who are already obsessed with Big Love. But if they are shopping around for ideas, how about Johnny Drama: the Movie?

--Andrea Chalupa