'The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling' and Male Friendship

Judd Apatow is a filmmaker who has obsessively chronicled male bonding rituals in his comedies. His mentor was Garry Shandling, the genius behind The Larry Sanders Show. Shandling died two years ago, and this week Apatow is putting out a love letter to his friend in the form of the HBO documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling. For MEL, I wrote about the film -- specifically, how it picks up a familiar thematic thread from Apatow's previous work. You can read my essay here.

'The Larry Sanders Show' and the Birth of the Bromance

Over at MEL, I pay tribute to the late, great Garry Shandling by writing about a particular plotline on the show in which Larry's buddy David Duchovny has a crush on him. In the piece, I argue that the characters' sexual tension helped give us the modern bromance. Check it out here.