Remember that existential comedy-mystery about self-aware, self-absorbed hipsters you requested? HBO heeded your call by bringing an equally incompetent, yet far more unqualified version of “Fletch” to your Sunday night lineup. Jonathan Ames created his own “Being John Malkovich” with “Bored to Death,” a dramedy about self-titled character, Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman, “Funny People”), a thirty-something writer who moonlights as an amateur detective via Craigslist. Jonathan Ames (the fictional one) is bored. He just split up with his girlfriend because he can’t shake his drinking and marijuana habits, and he can’t finish his second novel. Instead of facing reality, he feigns a career in private investigation. The series follows the misadventures of Ames, his brash, artist friend, Ray (Zack Galifianakis, “The Hangover”), and George (Ted Danson, “Cheers”), Ame’s needy yet charismatic magazine editor. The show also follows the deadpan banality of the men’s relationships with the women of the show, Leah (Heather Burns, “Miss Congeniality”), and Suzanne (Olivia Thirlby, “Juno”).

Ames drew inspiration for the story from his daydreaming days of little work and writer’s block. While the story is fiction, it draws themes from many internal truths of the creator, Jonathan Ames. Like the real-life Ames, Jason Schwartzman’s character longs to be a hero: a Don Quixote of sorts. He read too many detective novels and came to think of himself as a private eye, just as Don Quixote read too many books of chivalry and came to think of himself as a knight. The Raymond Chandler inspired antics gives the show just enough nostalgia to draw in a good majority of viewers.

If not nostalgia that draws in the viewers, it will be Jason Schwartzman’s brilliant portrayal of Jonathan Ames. He’s pathetic and sincere, with the naivety of a pre-teen and it works perfectly. With film noir undertones and an intelligent script, “boring” is not on the list of adjectives for this show.

“Bored to Death” airs Sundays at 10 PM on HBO