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How to Make It in America aired from February 2010 until ? on HBO.

This dramedy follows the lives of two Brooklynites seeking fortune and fame in the fashion world but they quickly find it's not as easy as it seems.

A Review from Variety

How to Make It in America
(Series -- HBO, Sun. Feb. 14, 10 p.m.)
By BRIAN LOWRY

Filmed in New York by Leverage, Closest to the Hole Prods. and Big Meyer. Executive producers, Stephen Levinson, Rob Weiss, Ian Edelman, Julian Farino, Jada Miranda, Mark Wahlberg; producer, Jane Raab; director, Farino; writer, Edelman;

Ben Epstein - Bryan Greenberg
Cam Calderon - Victor Rasuk
Rene - Luis Guzman
Rachel - Lake Bell
Domingo - Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi
Edie - Martha Plimpton
Gingy - Shannyn Sossamon
David Kaplan - Eddie Kaye Thomas

Part of the "Entourage" brain trust collaborates on "How to Make It in America," a new HBO series that somehow manages to make the lightweight antics of that earlier show look substantial by comparison. Focusing on a more hard-scrabble existence in New York -- where a couple of friends struggle and hustle, pursuing their dream of launching a new denim line -- one can most charitably approach this breezy half-hour as what E. and the guys might be doing if Vince hadn't made it as a movie star. Of course, that still doesn't make "America" a place you'd yearn to be.

Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk play Ben Epstein and Cam Calderon, respectively, the well-connected but financially strapped Brooklyn twentysomethings seeking a break into the fashion industry. They can get into the hottest clubs and bed attractive women, but paying the rent remains something of an adventure.

Their extended circle includes Ben's ex-girlfriend Rachel (Lake Bell) and his Wall Street buddy David ("American Pie's" Eddie Kaye Thomas), along with Cam's cousin Rene (the always-welcome Luis Guzman), who is pushing his own get-rich scheme involving an energy drink called Rasta Monsta.

Created by Ian Edelman, none of these threads really add up to much. And while there's a serialized arc to the storytelling, after four episodes it's still difficult to identify what the principal hook is supposed to be, other perhaps than Ben's pining for Rachel and her own slightly conflicted feelings despite having moved on to a more financially stable new boyfriend.

As with "Entourage," the real star here is presumably meant to be the atmosphere, offering a window into a multicultural urban setting filled with the young and hungry -- all itching to escape from the outskirts into the ranks of Manhattan swells. It's just that the show doesn't possess the conviction to present Ben and Cam with genuinely tough or compelling choices as they drift from one encounter to the next. At least "Entourage" offers vicarious thrills, providing a peek at life behind the other coast's velvet ropes.

A cynic might conclude that this eight-episode order flowed somehow from a desire to keep the "Entourage" contingent happy, or perhaps to create a vehicle for Greenberg -- last seen TV-wise traveling ABC's "October Road" -- who has a way with expressing youthful angst but can't bring much to a relatively nondescript character.

Whatever the underlying motivation, "How to Make It in America" is slick enough but, in fashion terms, follows a too-familiar pattern. Barring a dramatic leap in quality, that's no way for "America" to make it in pay cable.

Camera, Steven Fierberg; production designer, Nicholas Lundy; editor, Carole Kravetz Aykanian; music supervisor, Scott Vener. RUNNING TIME: 30 MIN.

A Review from The New York Times

Television Review | 'How to Make It in America'
The Dream, Without the Drive
Eric Liebowitz/HBO

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: February 11, 2010

Entourage written backward doesn’t quite spell garmento, but that is the gist of “How to Make It in America,” a new series on HBO beginning Sunday that comes from the producers of “Entourage.” Here they have reversed the premise to look at guys from the neighborhood who haven’t left the neighborhood.

Striving and sliding: Bryan Greenberg and Lake Bell play former lovers in “How to Make It in America.”

Instead of exploiting instant fame and wealth in Hollywood, these New York slackers are dodging creditors and cops, hoping for a break in the garment business, or at least enough cash to pay the rent.

Failure isn’t as much fun as success, probably because there is so much more of it. Dreams aren’t the same as drive, and self-pity is less attractive than hard work. Accordingly, it takes a while to care about Ben (Bryan Greenberg), a mopey Fashion Institute of Technology dropout who folds jeans at Barneys and moons over his ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Lake Bell). His best friend, Cam (Victor Rasuk), has more energy, but he wastes it on lame projects like selling designer skateboards and bootleg leather goods.

The two pals have some tenuous fashion and art-scene connections, mostly rich girls with downtown lofts. They have ambition, sort of, but first they have to repay a loan from Cam’s cousin, Rene (Luis Guzman), an ex-con who views physical harm as collateral.

Appealingly, the heroes inhabit a more multicultural milieu than the one on “Entourage.” But the grittier, graffiti-and-bodega backdrop is not necessarily as winning as palm trees and swimming pools. “Entourage” was a Cinderella story for guys that provided a new and amusingly wry look at show business — and the culture of young stars and their posses — through the eyes of losers from Queens who luck out.

Twenty-somethings trying to make it, or depressed about not making it, is a more familiar and well-explored subject, from “Reality Bites” to “Clerks.” Even “Bored to Death,” a recent HBO series about Brooklyn slackers, got bored with ennui and put its dope-smoking hero to work as a private detective.

“How to Make It in America” picks up steam as its heroes pick themselves up by their sneaker laces and try to start their own business, in this case a line of retro 1970s designer jeans. Theirs is not a Horatio Alger or even a Ralph Lifshitz to Ralph Lauren business model; this is a recession-era, empire-in-decline morality tale. They can turn a quick deal — Cam coaxes Ben into helping him move a shipment of leather coats bought off the back of a truck. But persistent effort isn’t worth the trouble.

Attitude and connections are the best way to make it in America, a point slyly reinforced with visual cues, like a party in a cool Lower East Side apartment on Hester Street, a location that was once a symbol of the immigrant work ethic. At a restaurant a friend introduces Ben and Cam to the designer John Varvatos, and over drinks they wheedle a consultation. Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein were Bronx kids who hustled to apprentice to designers and manufacturers; Ben and Cam hustle to avoid being apprentices.

“Everybody has ideas, but nobody wants to put in the work,” the rich father of a friend tells Cam after Cam tries to sell him on a new venture that he describes as “Cold Stone Creamery, but for doughnuts.”

The series has great music (the theme song is Aloe Blacc’s “I Need a Dollar”) and there are some snarky asides about hipster New York. A female friend tries to get Ben interested in a new girl, Jane, saying, “Oh, she’s cute, she has short hair and she writes for Nylon, and she will definitely sleep with you.”

The series takes off when secondary characters fill in the blank spots. Mr. Guzman is poker-faced and quite funny as a small-time mobster in a Dominican neighborhood who buys into a franchise for an energy drink, Rasta Monsta. Ben finds a potential backer when he runs into a high school classmate, David (Eddie Kaye Thomas), a nerd who has reaped a hedge-fund fortune. David, who looks a little like the goofy heir played by Tommy Noonan in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” is worth millions, but he can’t get past the bouncer at a hot downtown club, Avenue. Ben, who plays basketball with the bouncer, can, and that is a quid pro quo he can take to the bank.

Rachel dumped Ben, but she still isn’t completely over him, even though she has a handsome new boyfriend, Darren (Jason Pendergraft), a hotelier, and a promising job with an interior designer. Her boss, Edie (Martha Plimpton), perks Rachel up when Rachel returns morose and insecure from a lunch with a college friend who is combating the spread of AIDS in Africa.

“Any ambitious do-gooder with airfare can feel like they are making a difference in Africa,” Edie says airily, waving a joint. “It’s Africa.” She assures her protégée that the true heroes are the ones helping hard-working New Yorkers make the most out of tiny apartments. “I still want you to go to Africa and help out,” she says. “Just do it on your Christmas break.”

When Ben shakes his hangdog complacency and gives the jeans project his full attention, “How to Make It in America” finds its stride — not the “Entourage” strut but a garment-district shuffle.

Any movement is better than idleness. Hard work may not pay off anymore in real life, but it is still the stuff of fiction.

HOW TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA

HBO, Sunday nights at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Created by Ian Edelman; directed by Julian Farino; Stephen Levinson, Rob Weiss, Mr. Edelman, Mr. Farino, Jada Miranda and Mark Wahlberg, executive producers; Jane Raab, producer. Produced by HBO Entertainment.

WITH: Bryan Greenberg (Ben Epstein), Victor Rasuk (Cam Calderon), Luis Guzman (Rene), Scott Mescudi, known as Kid Cudi (Domingo), Lake Bell (Rachel), Martha Plimpton (Edie), Shannyn Sossamon (Gingy), Eddie Kaye Thomas (David Kaplan) and Jason Pendergraft (Darren).

A Review from The Washington Post

'How to Make It in America'
TV Preview: Hank Stuever on HBO's 'How to Make It in America'

By Hank Stuever
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 14, 2010

HBO's new series, "How to Make It in America," debuts Sunday night, and it's about two guys trying to launch their own brand of designer jeans. But what it's really about is the mysterious alchemy involved in launching an HBO series, trying to please what may be the most discerning and demanding (read: picky) niche audience in the history of television.

I would expect "How to Make It in America" to be greeted by them with something between a yawn or a groan and the easy accusation that the show has been shamelessly cloned from DNA samples of the network's meandering status hit, "Entourage." Some of the same writers and producers are involved, as is the same invisible hand of executive producer Mark Wahlberg.

Truly, it moves the same, acts the same, and is motivated by the same libidinous swagger. Instead of being about young men who've worked their way into the impermeable spheres of glamour and fame in Hollywood ("Entourage"), "How to Make It in America" is about young men working to even get anywhere near the impermeable spheres of glamour and fame in New York.

Instead of the movie business, it's street fashion. Instead of cameos by movie stars and directors playing themselves (Matt Damon, Martin Scorsese), it will have cameos by designers playing themselves (John Varvatos). Instead of sunshine and palm trees, it's gritty skies and the G and L trains.

"How to Make It in America" takes a few episodes to get properly underway. I've seen the first four and, although each was more compelling than the last, the series contains a repellent amount of hipitude, which distracts from its tale.

The main character is Ben (Bryan Greenberg), a city kid in his late 20s who has disappointed his nice, Jewish parents with his nebulous yearning to become a famous designer -- not in the gayishly productive sense of "Project Runway" contestants, but in a more status-conscious way. Which is to say Ben cannot sketch, cannot sew and knows next to nothing about the garment trade (which, as we know from HBO's recent documentary "Schmatte," doesn't exist anymore). The message here is that to make it in America now, you need to be extremely cool and deceitful. It's about the right club, the right street sense, the right soundtrack, and having your show's opening credits set in Helvetica allcaps, which is the coolest font of all time.

To pay his rent, Ben works as a jeans folder in the men's department at Barneys. Having failed to launch a line of skateboard decks, Ben and his quasi-homeless Puerto Rican friend, Cam (an exuberant Victor Rasuk), hatch a scheme to launch a line of expensive jeans they've labeled "Crisp," which are to be assembled from a stolen roll of Japanese selvage denim they've acquired from the black market.

Complicating things is that they owe money to Cam's thuggish cousin, Rene (the terrific Luis Guzman), who has his own problems with the marketing of a questionable energy drink called Rasta Monsta.

As trendiness goes, the show is the New Yorkiest thing you could find on television, which is saying something, given all the New Yorkiness that audiences must watch each day. It presumes you're something of a sneakerhead as well as a skateboard aficionado, and that you know about selvage denim, or what that even is.

While I admire "How to Make It in America's" portrayal of a dirty, scrappy, multi-ethnic New York culture (this melting pot is really roiling), the show also presumes in its viewers a high threshold for HBO-style criminality and stereotypes: It asks you to accept Ben and Cam's propensity to deal in the black market, to sell knockoff designer leather coats on the street, to borrow money from gangsters. Like the "Entourage" boys, they operate best in a world of lies (and nightclubs), where pretense is all. Ben and Cam's vacuous characters are deepened and made sympathetic only by their reliance on one another. We wind up feeling sad that their dreams are so empty.

That's a shame only because we've seen it before, with Vinny Chase, Turtle, et al., back in L.A. Taken together, both shows say something sad about the young American male and his value systems.

And, also like "Entourage," fascinating women show up and are relegated to subplots at best: Lake Bell plays Ben's ex-girlfriend, Rachel, who works in furniture design and space organization. Her boss, Edie, is played by a happily rediscovered Martha Plimpton (where's she been all this time?). In Episode 3, Edie gives Rachel a pep talk about the transformative experience of decorating hopelessly small urban apartments.

I'm so much more attracted to the story of the women in "How to Make It in America" that I found myself wishing for a show that's about Rachel, Edie and the science of Manhattan closet organization. (Remember, HBO, that while everyone thinks you've failed to fully replace "The Sopranos," you've also failed to come up with a new "Sex and the City.")

"How to Make It in America" has slightly less than half an hour to convince us of its originality and teach us its language, a task I don't envy. But one thing all of HBO's scripted series do very well (even the bad ones) is that they acquaint viewers with fictional worlds and lifestyles that can seem at once familiar (New Jersey Mafiosi; Baltimore drug dealers; polygamist Utahns) and yet somehow new and intriguingly accurate.

Viewers don't need to understand everything right away so much as they need to experience it, whatever "it" is. We have to love the story and the cast, of course, but the most important thing is capturing backdrop, culture, feel.

"How to Make It in America" has that to spare, but if the "it" here is only about overconfident young men and their pursuit of perfect jeans, then I'm afraid that while I get it, I don't necessarily need to see more of it.

How to Make It in America

(30 minutes) premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO.

A Review from The LA Times

TELEVISION REVIEW

'How to Make It in America'
The new HBO series follows a group of eclectic young New Yorkers as they try to hustle and drive their way to success.
February 13, 2010|By ROBERT LLOYD, Television Critic

Although it shares industrial DNA with "Entourage" -- some executive producers, a network -- and concerns young men who go to parties and clubs, “How to Make It in America,” premiering Sunday on HBO, is a different kettle of testosterone. There is more estrogen in the mix, for one thing.

As the title suggests, success is something that will come to its characters after a time. Vincent Chase and his Hollywood pals might be high-fiving or fist-bumping or whatever it is the kids do now over the luxurious goods and services that adorn their celebrity, but it only takes a couple of cafes con leche to make Cam (Victor Rasuk) and Domingo (Scott "Kid" Mescudi) declare that life is good.

Our heroes are hapless entrepreneurial running mates Ben (Bryan Greenberg), a nice, sensitive Jewish boy, and Cam, an energetic Dominican who is sort of a can-do Scrappy-Doo to Ben's worrying Scooby. When we meet them, they are scrabbling to pay back a loan from Cam's cousin Rene (the ubiquitous Luis Guzman), a mug lately out of the jug who is trying to go straight as a local distributor of a Jamaican energy drink. They will borrow from him again, to fund their quixotic dream of an empire based on blue jeans.

Their friends include Gingy (Shannyn Sossamon), who runs a struggling art gallery; Rachel (Lake Bell), the ex-girlfriend for whom Ben pines and a protegee of interior designer Edie ( Martha Plimpton); and David, called "Kappo" (Eddie Kaye Thomas), an uncool, but not unlikable, hedge fund manager who can't get past the velvet rope on his own. Actually, the whole thing is a lot closer to "Friends" in some ways than it is to "Entourage."

On one level, it makes no sense that all these people would be hanging out together: There is something of the “Mission: Impossible” Assortment-Pack School of Character Creation about them: Jewish guy, Latino guy, black guy, rich guy, and so on. But the actors are bound by an easy rapport that makes it work. Rasuk in particular brings delicate colors to a character who could easily be a stooge.

Certainly, this is something of a fairy tale of New York, but it largely hums with an easy and attractive naturalism. Creator Ian Edelman keeps his characters on the right side of caricature and avoids the kind of melodramatic confrontations their relations might typically suggest. (When characters do act melodramatically here, they are sort of embarrassed about it afterward.) Most of the people we meet act decently to one another, the way that people mostly do.

Perhaps if I were a New Yorker myself, sharing the metropolitan air with folks something like these, I would like this show less. I can't watch “Entourage,” which strikes me, perhaps unfairly, as a celebration of the worst parts of my town. But New York is a kind of fairy tale to me, and I can be persuaded to believe things a native would not.

Anyway, I wish these characters their successes and hope they take their time getting there.

A Review from The Boston Globe

TELEVISION REVIEW
The Boston Globe

A grittier take on making it in America

‘How to Make It in America,’’ HBO’s new comedy, and “Entourage,’’ HBO’s much older comedy, are both about money. They’re also both about young men in the throes of the American Dream, which includes professional success and sex.

But “How to Make It in America’’ and “Entourage’’ are nonetheless extremely different shows. They’re a virtual study in opposites. “How to Make It in America,’’ which premieres tomorrow at 10, is set in the hip backwash of New York, rather than the sleek mansions of LA. It’s as street-textured a show - with shots of graffiti-strewn subway stations and tattooed skateboarders - as “Entourage’’ is limousine-bound. And the two leads - Bryan Greenberg’s Ben and Victor Rasuk’s Cam - are constantly trying to scrape together a fraction of the money that the “Entourage’’ guys drop in one night at the clubs. They’re eating street dogs, not sushi.

Which is to say, “How to Make It in America’’ does not offer the same pornographic allure of “Entourage.’’ But it has other charms, as it draws viewers into a little slice of crowded Manhattan life. Ben and Cam are hoping to make it in the fashion world, but not in the “Ugly Betty’’ elite world of Vogue and Fashion Week. They want to create their own line of jeans, which takes them to the back alleys and the docks to buy fabric and to the gruff manager of a clothing factory, who might help them put together a prototype. They’re good boys, but they’re walking close to the fringe.

By night, they’re the random guys hanging out at art openings and late parties; by morning, they’re hung over and still broke. As they try to piece together financing for their jeans project, they deal with Cam’s ex-convict cousin, Rene, an explosive guy who loans money to them with many strings attached. Rene, played by Luis Guzman with a hint of Joe Pesci from “GoodFellas’’ about him, is a comic figure, but menacing, too. Ben and Cam are clearly mixing with the wrong guy, despite the fact that he’s part of Cam’s family.

I was skeptical about seeing Greenberg - from “October Road’’ - play a guy who might wear scruffy clothes and have a little B.O.; but he pulls it off nicely. He’s a dreamer always on the verge of giving up. He’s still in love with his ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Lake Bell), but she has clearly tired of his inveterate struggle to make it on his own, his way, and she has a new boyfriend. As his former Fashion Institute professor, played by Griffin Dunne, tells him, Ben is a talented guy who’s just not very good on the follow-through. He desperately wants to reverse his luck, and he desperately wants to give up, too.

I think “How to Make It in America’’ has a lot going for it, if show creator Ian Edelman can keep from indulging in New York hipster cliches. The characters - including Rachel’s self-conscious boss, beautifully played by Martha Plimpton - have some depth, and the milieu has plenty of gritty urban poetry. It’s not as flashy as “Entourage,’’ which is appealing - but which may ultimately have an impact on whether it will make it on HBO or not.

A Review from The San Francisco Chronicle

TV review: 'How to Make It in America'
February 12, 2010|Tim Goodman

The first thing to get out of the way regarding HBO's new comedy "How to Make It in America" is that you're likely to think it's "Entourage" based in New York. But its creator doesn't think that way, even if the show is executive-produced by a gaggle of "Entourage" people, including Mark Wahlberg. And, indisputably, it is a lot like "Entourage."

And yet, a couple of seasons ago, that wouldn't have been such a bad thing, right? While it seems that "Entourage" has been in neutral for a bit and lost its luster, the show still makes 30 minutes fly by effortlessly. That's an admirable achievement that a number of lesser shows would like to claim.

"How to Make It in America" is, like "Entourage," more entertaining than actually funny. You're not going to burst out laughing at anything, but there are plenty of comic moments. Its arrival only reinforces that many cable series made as half-hour comedies - from "Weeds" to "United States of Tara" to "Hung" - are essentially half-hour dramas.

The series, shot on location in New York, follows two Brooklyn friends trying to make a buck without selling out. Or, if you prefer, trying to capture the American dream without really trying the traditional way, but willing to break their backs at something just above a street-level hustle if the result means fame and fortune.

Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam (Victor Rasuk) are best friends who, when we meet them, look to be heading in opposite directions. Both are in their 20s, but the throbbing pace of New York - the excitement, the parties, the sex - seems to have faded for Ben as he's not staying out late much anymore, hasn't been with anyone since his breakup with Rachel (Lake Bell) and he's taken a job as a salesman at Barneys.

Cam, on the other hand, is all about the hustle, the scam, the shortcut - big dreams undercut by a lack of forethought, cash and execution. He and Ben took a $5,000 investment and began a skateboard deck business modeled after and endorsed by a renowned New York skater who has since gone off his meds and gone crazy, rendering the decks unsellable.

But it turns out the 5 grand was no investment - it was borrowed from Cam's dangerous and scary cousin Rene (Luis Guzmán), who just got out of prison and wants his money back. Cam talks Ben into helping him buy some stolen Marc Jacobs leather jackets as a way to get the money. During the transaction, Ben - who attended the Fashion Institute of Technology before dropping out - realizes that the guy also has some very rare Japanese denim and doesn't understand how valuable it is.

That's the start of "How to Make It in America," which fuses New York and the fashion world the same way "Entourage" meshes Los Angeles and the entertainment business. It's young people on the verge of making it but without any real road map on how to do it - or any knowledge of the many pitfalls that await them.

The series has a lot of interesting angles, but the main drawback is that the linear story line doesn't really fuse with the character development until about the third episode, which is not atypical for HBO but demands a certain dedication from the viewer. At the end of each half hour - which, as with "Entourage," comes quickly - you're left with a small sample of a big story. It doesn't even feel like a full chapter, in some ways, which brings into question why HBO didn't just make this an hourlong dramedy.

By the third episode, the worldview of "How to Make It in America" has expanded sufficiently to include story lines with Rene (Guzmán is wonderful in the role) and Rachel, whose boss is played by Martha Plimpton. It's enough to make you want to keep going to find out what the series can do in the eight episodes it has in this first season.

But also like "Entourage," not a lot happens, though New York art parties, late-night clubs and restaurants filled with beautiful people make the time go by quickly. There's gloss galore and more depth than a network show, but it develops slowly and there's no telling if, like that show the creator doesn't think it should be compared to, there will ultimately be no there there, contentwise.

And yet, the series works as an entertaining diversion. and both Greenberg and Rasuk grow on you quickly even if the odds of your vintage Nikes taking you from the street to Fashion Week seem rather long. If you want to make it in America, you have to dream the dream before you live it, apparently.

A Review from The Denver Post

television | Joanne Ostrow

Young guys try to conquer Big Apple in gritty HBO dramedy
By Joanne Ostrow
The Denver Post
Posted: 02/12/2010 01:00:00 AM MST

Where HBO's highly successful and endlessly hyped series "Entourage" was sunny, superficial and full of competitive Hollywood agentry, "How to Make It in America" is gritty, street-smart and full of hip New York hustlers.

Where "Entourage" tracked the culture shock of guys transplanted from Queens to Hollywood, "How to Make it" more subtly follows guys from surrounding boroughs trying to catch a break in Manhattan.

Bring on a new favorite: Premiering on HBO Sunday at 9 p.m., "How to Make It" is the East Coast companion to that earlier testosterone- heavy survey of contemporary fast-lane life from the same producers, including Mark Wahlberg. Think of it as "Entourage NYC," with great street visuals and all of New York as the backdrop. Less locked into a stunted man-child perspective than its predecessor, "How to Make It" is a more accessible dramedy for cash-strapped times.

The New York state of mind depicted here involves 20-somethings attempting to hustle their way into the fashion industry. But this is hardly "Project Runway." These guys have no fashion sense beyond spotting a high-quality roll of stolen denim they score from the back of a truck.

Depending on your patience for the "Entourage" wannabe players in their expensive shades on the freeway en route to take a meeting, you may prefer to throw in with the slightly more domesticated boys in New York, rolling by taxi and subway.

Overall the setup is less fantastical, more credible — like the city itself.

"How to Make It" is instantly captivating and more relevant than "Entourage." Maybe the idea of making a killing selling denim is slightly more realistic than the idea of making a killing in the movies.

The posse of immature guys is replaced by a smaller team of buddies and an ex-girlfriend who clearly isn't out of the picture.

The superior cast is winning: talented Bryan Greenberg plays Ben Epstein, a likable underachiever, adrift after a breakup with his girlfriend Rachel. He works folding jeans at Barneys while avoiding asking his parents for money. His dad would be happy if Ben just had health insurance.

Ben's buddy "Cam" Telfair is played by Victor Rasuk . "Cam" is an effervescent hustler but also a solid friend when it counts.

Lake Bell (the new wife in "It's Complicated") plays the aforementioned Rachel, who is now consorting with handsome new boyfriend Darren (Jason Pendergraft). And inviting Ben to dinner.

Dynamic stage actor Martha Plimpton, with an Emmy nomination for a guest role on "Law & Order: SVU," plays Rachel's eccentric boss, Edie. Luis Guzman ("Oz," "Anger Management") is Cam's scary-crazy cousin Rene, newly sprung from prison with get-rich schemes of his own (he's marketing an energy drink).

In place of "Entourage's" barracuda agent, a dorky hedge-fund manager serves as the butt of jokes. The casting is rich, down to small supporting roles (Ben's mother is played by Joanna Gleason).

Moreover, the commentary on what it takes to "make it" in 2010 is insightful. For some post-adolescent pre-adults, making it means not having to choose between rent money and the next gamble, with cash left over to get drunk.

It's possible to live large in New York on favors and loans until the next great American retail idea pops. Or until the bottom drops out, whichever comes first.

And, hey, there's always your grandma's couch.

To watch some clips from How to Make it in America go to http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+make+it+in+america+hbo&aq=f

To listen to the theme song of How to Make It in America go to http://www.televisiontunes.com/How_to_Make_It_in_America.html