Should You Put Any Of Your Eggs In Baskets?

What Is This Thing?

When Chip Baskets washes out of his fancy Parisian clowning school due in part to the fact that he doesn't speak French, he must return to his hometown of Bakersfield to be closer to his family/their potential handouts, while also sort of working in his field as a rodeo clown. Penelope, the French wife he's brought back with him and who told him explicitly at the time of his proposal that she was marrying him only for the green card, is no support, but maybe Martha, the Costco insurance adjuster he meets after a scooter accident, could be.

When Is It On?

Thursdays at 10 PM ET on FX.

Why Was It Made Now?

The FX family of networks (...okay, it and FXX) has built its comedy brand on edgy comic voices...

What's Its Pedigree?

...and this project combines the efforts of several. Legendary alt-comic/occasional slummer (The Hangover) Zach Galifianakis, who plays both Chip and his twin brother Dale (sigh), created the series with Louis C.K. -- himself the star of FX's Louie -- and Portlandia director Jonathan Krisel, also a director here. Standup comic Martha Kelly plays Martha, Chip's insurance contact and potential friend. And playing Chip and Dale's mother Christine is, for some reason, Louie Anderson, in drag.

...And?

I realize this is going to sound insane, but LOUIE ANDERSON IN DRAG AS CHRISTINE BASKETS IS KIND OF THE BEST PART??? Obviously, when Anderson showed up in his wig and Dress Barn separates, I was like, "This, on top of everything else?" But Anderson's cross-gender performance is more akin to Kids In The Hall at their best than screechy comedy drag like Monty Python or Divine. Anderson is playing a female character, with a lot of subtlety and even a weird kind of grace? I hope the many question marks are conveying how shocked I myself am that this is my reaction.

Dale is a far more amusing character than his twin Chip. Dale is the dean of Baskets Career College, an institution that can educate you in such fields as yoga instruction, flip phone repair, ice cream truck washing, and "All Kinds Of Chutneys." The stiffly acted ads for Baskets Career College, with their lists of the ridiculous non-jobs it can train students to perform, are examples of a premise you have seen before many times, but in the middle of this particular show, you will guzzle their refreshing ice water as though parched on a dry Bakersfield afternoon.

Speaking of which: this is also one of those shows where the city is a character, and Bakersfield does an exceptional job looking like a place someone who'd lived in Paris might be disappointed to be forced to return. (Shout-out to my readers in Bakersfield. Hey, at least y'all have a Costco, I have to drive an hour to get to mine!)

...But?

I'm surprised not to see the names Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim anywhere on this thing since I associate them so closely with this brand of un-comedy, and if you're familiar with their work you can imagine what this is like: uncomfortable, weird, not "funny" in the sense of "featuring many good jokes that will make you laugh." I gather the humour is supposed to come from these awkward characters and the struggles they experience in their tiny, pointless lives. It's clear the creators have affection for Martha -- a sweet soul who, when her boss tells her she must sell more executive memberships to Costco or get fired, and shares his distress over the very idea of terminating her, asks if it would be easier if she were just to "go missing" -- and though her obvious goodness makes her the norm of the satire, if satire this is, it still feels like a lot of punching down. At a certain point, I wasn't sure how much of Martha's ability to absorb verbal punches from everyone in the Baskets family -- even Dale takes a swipe at her personal style -- is proof of a Zen master level of equanimity, or if we're supposed to assume that she's too simple to understand she's being abused to her face. She's either loaded with quiet dignity to a Vanessa Bayer degree (tm Joe Reid), or so bereft of it that it's never occurred to her to stick up for herself and tell a near-stranger it's not okay for him to tell her that it looks like she made her dress out of a shower curtain.

But the real problem is Chip -- both in his own life, which he is bad at managing, and on the show. Investing in the efforts of a self-deluded man-child to make his dumb clowning dream come true while insulting or exploiting everyone around him is a big challenge for the viewer. Like, Forrest MacNeil undertakes a lot of doomed pursuits on Review, but at least (a) some of them are interesting ideas before he inevitably fucks them up, and (b) he generally remains pretty cheery and engaging throughout. I don't have a problem with building a comedy around a titanic jerk, but Basil Fawlty, Jimmy Shive-Overly, and Selina Meyer at least all manage to be witty. Chip is just mean and morose, and being in his company is oppressive.

...So?

I like my sitcoms funny, so this was not for me. I would watch Martha Kelly again, though, so I hope this gets cancelled soon and gives her the chance to do something better.