dafoe, man

Would've responded to the other thread-starter who mentioned Dafoe, but it's just been too long (2004 to 2006 or so).

The series is...well, I guess it depends on how you feel about ultra-cool Manhattanish ironicism from the early '90s. It seems dated, and was a little ridiculous even when it was going on (more), but that's not to say there aren't interesting people and good art that came out of it (and even the more-or-less retro version going on now). Probably you could use the Waits-Jarmusch barometer. As in, if you like Waits and/or Jarmusch, you'll probably like the series.

At any rate, even with the self-conscious ironic bohemianism, the series still has its moments, none better than the Dafoe episode. And in a true irony, it's not because Dafoe is in weird-dark mode, but precisely because he's not. In fact, he seems disarmingly normal, like a guy who would actually do something like this with you, with (seemingly, anyway) no mask between him and the viewer at all. This guy who has the Kinskiesque feel in so many films -- so many really good films, and even in the not-so-good ones, usually a character nobody else could've done that way -- seems here like the old friend from high school you saw in the hardware store and who talked you into going ice fishing. IMHO, definitely the highlight of the series.