Last evening was Bored to Death‘s first season finale. In the beginning of the television season we could have called this the only finale, but HBO has been smart enough to order another full season of the Jonathan Ames half hour. With only 8 episodes in the initial season, the finale needed to be strong in order to maintain an audience, and it definitely was.

Episode 7 ended with GQ Editor and Chief Richard Antrem challenging Edition‘s Editor and Chief George Christopher to a boxing match. But what made the week long wait so frustrating was the prospect seeing Jonathan fight Lewis Green, or as most people would recognize him as, the PC guy from the Mac commercials.

The final episode to Bored to Death‘s first season was extremely entertaining.

It included the standard amazing dialogue, the pace was quick and got to the point and it ended with a soft look into the relationships of the characters rather than some over-the-top cliff-hanger.

The boxing match between GQ and Edition was the focal point of the episode, but as we find out through a series of hilarious scenes with Ted Danson, the fight is really only occurring because of a girl – his ex-wife who is now married to his opponent. Jonathan wants revenge for a negative review of his first novel and Ray is simply scheduled to fight because they need a third.

The outcomes actually weren’t as interesting as the banter before. Lewis Green tried to get Jonathan to throw the fight, but was then pummeled. Ray loses, but his opponent is actually a fan of his work – which makes their pre-fight conversations hilarious. George’s fight is really the defining moment in the entire first season. The reason why Jonathan, George and Ray constantly distract themselves is because they are in a constant state of pain/love. When George throws the fight at the request of his ex-wife, he actually feels better.

The finale wasn’t flawless though. I’m not a big fan of Jonathan’s new flame Stella. In fact, I’m quite surprised Suzanne wasn’t really mentioned at all. I always felt as though she was a main part of Jonathan’s reasoning, but it turns out he just really likes to get high and the road to his heart is actually through a vaporizer. The other missing piece to all of this was that we learn nothing about Ray’s child. The previous episode looked as though it was going to set up a great conversation between Ray and his girlfriend, but none of this was touched on.

Bored to Death is one of those shows that can delve into the extreme when it comes to plot. In previous episodes they’ve used skateboarding, lesbians and herpes; but at the heart of the show is Jonathan Ames and his friends adjusting to change in their lives. The finale really wrapped all of this up nicely and I’m excited to see what will happen next season.