By Mike Byrne
The sad clown is an archetype long used in art to express the melancholy underneath a comedian’s surface. FX’s new show, “Baskets,” takes the idea to the extreme by embodying the whole essence of a sad clown. The show stars Zach Galifinakis as a clown who takes the art form very seriously, but cannot find any success in it.
“Baskets” is a comedy, but takes the genre in a different direction. This makes sense given that the three creators — Galifinakis, Jonathan Krisel and Louis C.K. — all have made idiosyncratic comedies of nuanced varieties before. Galifinakis was the host of the purposefully awkward web series, “Bewtween Two Ferns,” Krisel is a writer and director for the quirky sketch show “Portlandia” and C.K. is the writer, director and star of the deeply introspective show “Louie.”
Galifinakis plays Chip Baskets, a man who is perpetually trying to escape his roots in the painfully average town of Bakersfield, California. The story mainly takes place after Chip returns from trying to get through a prestigious clown school in Paris, and now has to settle for being a standard rodeo clown. He moves back in with his mother, Mrs. Baskets, wonderfully portrayed by Louie Anderson, and tries to deal with his shortcomings.
Anderson’s performance as Mrs. Baskets is nothing short of magnificent. Anderson is a male comedic actor used to playing male roles who saw much of his success well over a decade ago, but he slips into the part of Chip’s mother seamlessly. Anderson playing a woman is in no way a gimmick, it may be a subversion of the norm, but after a minute of watching him play the part with grace and honesty, everything makes sense.
The most striking thing about “Baskets” is its tone. The show is a comedy, but it deals with some tragic and heartbreaking themes. Krisel constantly describes the show as “slapstick drama,” which I think is the most apt characterization there is. Galifinakis gives a master-class performance in pratfalls, never failing to gain a laugh by falling on his face or being run over by a bull in the rodeo.
But alongside the broad humor, there are moments of pure tenderness. Chip is dealing with failure. He can’t find any success within his passion and his loveless marriage falls apart since his French wife just married him to get a green card (she was open about this fact to Chip, but he couldn’t resist the hope of her one day loving him). One moment Chip is the butt of the joke, but the next he exudes an air of brutal melancholy that makes it impossible to not feel sorry for him.
The best example of this impressively executed juxtaposition is the fourth episode, “Easter in Bakersfield.” The episode finds Chip and his family going to church, and usual slapstick antics ensue. Chip hilariously interrupts the mass, trying to get his mother’s attention. But it all ends on a tragic note.
Chip and his mother, who never seem to completely get one another, sit next to each other in a casino and just talk. Mrs. Baskets brings up being ridiculed for her weight by her own mother and Chip discusses his failed marriage. The two indulge one another in their respective vices — Mrs. Baskets with her candy and Chip with his cigarettes — and are just together. It is a moment of sincere honesty. Chip says to his mother, “My life is in disarray, Mom.” Mrs. Baskets responds, “Whose isn’t?”
It’s the undertones of dejection that tie the show together. “Baskets” certainly dives into absurdity at points, but it is defined by its humanity. Whose life is not disarray?
“Baskets” is a single story of dreams and failure in a universe of millions. Life is neither a comedy nor a tragedy. It is an unruly mixture of the two and “Baskets” captures that with subtle beauty.
