OK, fellow TV lovers, how's your spirit of adventure? Are you up for something avant-garde? Even absurd?
There's a new offbeat series on FXX that's somewhere out in left field beyond the wackiness of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Portlandia.
Man Seeking Woman is billed as a "surreal comedy" and airs at 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays. The 10-episode first season premiered on Jan. 14, so you're already a couple of episodes behind. But you can easily catch up online at fxnetworks.com.
Surreal comedy may be accurate, but a far more literately astute co-worker who's seen the show labeled it "magical realism." Think of the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez that explore the theme of solitude.
I toss Marquez in just to elevate the erudition factor of The TV Column and to please any of my old grad school professors who might still be out there after 40 years.
Series creator Simon Rich told TV writers at the recent winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., that the series has a fairly familiar premise.
"It's definitely a weird show," Rich said. "There's time travel, there are various monsters, there are a bunch of decapitations. But at its core, it's a pretty simple show about a guy looking for love. In some ways, it's the simplest show on television despite all this insanity."
The series, which is executive produced by Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels, is based on Rich's book of short stories The Last Girlfriend on Earth, and stars Jay Baruchel (Undeclared) as the hapless Josh Greenberg.
The Hollywood Reporter quotes the 32-year-old Baruchel as saying that the series has the "elasticity of a cartoon world." That makes sense, because Rich says he was influenced by the sketch comedy series Kids in the Hall and Monty Python, which were frequently absurd and cartoonish.
Baruchel added, "We realized fairly early that we could only do the weird, crazy surreal stuff we do if we keep it super intimate and small and keep it incredibly real. It wouldn't be half as good if it was just a bunch of crazy nonsense or a bunch of people complaining all the time."
While the series features bizarre characters, it's firmly grounded in Rich's real-life experiences dealing with the elation and disappointment of dating and the single life.
Real life with a twist.
For example, after his girlfriend Maggie (Maya Erskine) dumps him, the sweet and naive Josh begins his unrelenting quest for true love. To get him started, his intimidating older sister Liz (Britt Lower) arranges a blind date with a troll. Literally. An actual troll named Gorbachaka.
"She's a troll," Josh complains.
"Have you looked at yourself lately?" Liz retorts. "You don't work out. You have no job."
With the encouragement of his confident best friend Mike (Eric Andre), Josh soldiers on even after he meets his ex's new boyfriend -- a 126-year-old Adolf Hitler. That's what we mean by absurd.
Man Seeking Woman is hilarious, surprising, witty, and poignant without being cloying. It's the latest addition to my DVR list.
Fair warning for the easily offended: The series, however much I like it, is not for everyone. It's rated TV-MA "for crude/indecent language, graphic violence and explicit sexual activity." It sounds worse than it is.
Viewers will either welcome the series as a refreshing change of pace, or see it as further evidence that all the sitcoms since Green Acres have been vulgar effluvia. And while we're at it, why'd they have to name it "Hooterville"?
• Changing times. Apropos that last paragraph, here's this from The New York Times quoting Paul Lee, president of ABC's Entertainment Group, at last week's Television Critics Association winter press tour.
"Least-objectionable television is dead," Lee pontificated. "We're at a world where passion rules, where social conversation is so important and where people can watch what they want to watch, where they want to watch it. So they're only going to watch the shows that they really love, that they're really passionate about."
If you don't like what you're watching, change the channel.
The Times notes that this year 113 cable networks are programming 32,828 hours of content in prime time, up from 44 networks and 12,537 hours in 1999-2000. Streaming outlets such as Amazon, Netflix and Hulu are adding to the choices.
That means there's room for everything from HBO's Girls to NBC's forthcoming A.D.: The Bible Continues from Roma Downey and her husband, Mark Burnett. The 12 episodes debut on Easter and pick up where the couple's History Channel miniseries The Bible left off.
We can credit (or blame) a changing audience for the growing diversity in programming.
"The changes in demographics in the U.S. ... are every bit as important a revolution as the technological changes that we're all going through," Lee said. "It's our job to reflect America."
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
Style on 01/25/2015