What’s the name of this show? Baskets  When does it premiere? Thursday 21 January at 10pm on FX.  FX has some great comedies like Louie and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, is it along those lines? Absolutely. Comic Louis CK, star Zach Galifianakis and Portlandia’s Jonathan Krisel created this show. Also, just like on Always Sunny, everyone here is kind of an asshole.  Everyone? Well, mostly just the protagonist Chip Baskets (Galifianakis), a clown who flunks out of clown school in Paris – he enrolled without knowing French – and returns home to Bakersfield, California. The only job he can get in his chosen profession is as a misunderstood rodeo clown.  He sounds kind of sad. Yes, totally. He lives in a motel, has a French bride (Sabina Sciubba) who only married him for a green card, and a much more successful twin brother, Dale (also Galifianakis), who shames him when he asks to borrow money. His only friend is an insurance adjuster, Martha (Martha Kelly), who meets Baskets when he crashes his scooter and is in love with him for some inexplicable reason.  Is this as depressing as it sounds? Yes, in fact, it’s even worse, because Baskets isn’t just sad, he’s angry. He makes fun of the simple Martha and the Walmart dresses she wears. He snaps at his well-meaning mother (amazingly played by Louie Anderson) for not understanding his vocation. It would be one thing if the world was set against Baskets in some way, but he’s such an absolute jerk to those around him that you don’t feel bad about the lows he’ll sink to for his “art”.  I expect more from Louis CK. Me too. The beauty of his show is that he presents us with deeply flawed characters in relatable (though comically exaggerated) scenarios. However, he always finds the humanity in people and his character is someone who is really trying to do his best, though failing miserably. Baskets is just a miserable failure who thinks that his problems are created by the world and rages at it in sad retaliation. You never feel his love for clowning as much as his hatred for everything else.  What’s wrong with having all of these unlikable characters? Aren’t they real? The legacy of Seinfeld is a constant stream of comedies trying to be edgy by giving us characters that you would push over the railing if you were standing next to them on the deck of a cruise ship. But remember, Seinfeld ended by jailing Jerry and co for their crimes. And It’s Always Sunny takes pains to let us know the crew is absolutely loathsome in the context of the greater world.  Baskets, of course, is his own brand of outrageous and goofy dingus. When his scooter breaks, he takes up rollerblading, for instance. I’m sorry, but I’m sick of these horrible men in impossible situations. I’ve seen Eastbound and Down and I don’t particularly care for it. Same for Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Comedians, everything that Seth MacFarlane has ever done, The Last Man on Earth, and nearly all of FX’s slate that is not the wonderful You’re the Worst, which is really about awful people making sweet beautiful love and somehow becoming a little bit less awful.  Is there anything you like about the show? In the fourth and fifth episodes, it begins to find a bit of heart in Chip’s relationship with his mother, who is always supportive no matter how much her son scorns her. Anderson is the all-star in this ensemble, making not-great and sometimes harsh material sing with hilarity and empathy. I would love to see a show about her and Martha going to Costco and having adventures while Baskets stews in his own juices at the rodeo, marinating in his own misery.  This is all well and good, but is it funny? It’s funny in the same way that Louie is. Your brain registers that things are humorous, but your body never follows up with the physical response of laughter. If you were watching with a friend, you could coldly point to the screen and say, “That’s really funny,” like when Baskets is kicked out of his motel room and is riding in a car seated behind his impossibly large magnifying glass. But then there are those gags that are just grating. I would have given my right arm to get Baskets to stop yelling “Schwepps” at a drive-thru worker who can’t understand him through the intercom.  At the end of the premiere, we finally get to see Baskets perform the act he really intends, and it is strange, beautiful, and somewhat moving. He has some talent, but his utter disdain for the mundane and the virulence with which he objects to it and those who are slightly more eager to muddle through it, is keeping his talent behind. When he performs, we wonder if all the indignities he has had to suffer through – again, nearly all of his own creation – are worth it.  Should I watch this show? I can’t willingly tell you to choose to endure a world so crushingly cruel and myopic that doesn’t offer any synthesis or revelation, especially because it’s a world that has been so well-plumbed before. We have to slog through enough grimness every day; there’s no reason you should be forced to watch it on TV too. But if you’re willing to endure for the occasional flash of brilliance, have at it.
It’s occasionally brilliant, but the new FX comedy about a failed clown is ultimately just another show about a misanthropic man in a miserable situation