HBO Shines a Light on the New American Dream

When I first heard the title of HBO's new drama How To Make It In America, it sounded like it would be a Jim Sheridan-esque tale about immigrants in New York City. Well, the show, premiering Sunday Feb. 14 at 10 p.m. on HBO, is nothing like I envisioned. It's a New York story about two friends in search of the new American dream, from the team behind HBO's hit series Entourage.

It's to New York's fashion industry what Entourage is to Hollywood's talent agencies.

The show centers on two enterprising Brooklyn roommates — the indie graphic designer, Ben (Prime's Bryan Greenberg), who works at Barney's selling jeans; and the charming but scheming Cam (Raising Victor Vargas' Victor Rasuk) — hustling their way through life in the Big Apple.

There are some familiar faces in the pilot episode. Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie) plays a hedge funder and high school friend of Ben's. Luis Guzman (Boogie Nights, Traffic) is Rene, Cam's cousin who's just out of prison and ready to collect on Cam's outstanding loan. Shannyn Sossamon (40 Days and 40 Nights) and Lake Bell (It's Complicated) round out the cast.

In the opening scenes, they struggle to scrounge up enough cash to repay their debt to Rene (from a failed skateboard venture of all things) but, in Ben's excitement over a discovered roll of expensive Japanese denim, an idea is born. Why couldn't he make the $500 premium jeans he pushes all day at Barney's?

What's nice here is that it brings attention to the waning factory business in midtown Manhattan's Garment District, which is in jeopardy due to so much foreign production.

The half-hour show flies by and I, for one, am eager to see with the fashion world has in store for these two buddies and what the show does for the real-life garment district.

Photo courtesy of Eric Liebowitz/HBO.