How much Zach Galifianakis is too much? ‘Baskets’ pushes the limits.
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Version 0 of 1. Comedian and actor Zach Galifianakis specializes in playing schlubs who are pathetic and egocentrically oblivious — outrageously confident, perpetually loud and easily wounded all at once. FX’s half-hour dramedy “Baskets” stars Galifianakis as the apotheosis of that personality type — and to give it that perfect extra layer of unseemliness, this time Galifianakis’s character is a sad clown. After less-than-stellar marks as a student at a Paris academy for French clowns, Chip Baskets (Galifianakis) returns to his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif., broke and dejected, but married to an aloof French woman, Penelope (Sabina Sciubba), who is in it merely for the green card. While she holes up in a gated apartment complex and shuns him, Chip lives at a weekly-rate motel and finds a $4-an-hour shift as a clown at the local rodeo, where his classic mime routines are greeted with jeers. He nevertheless insists on his art, demanding to be billed as Renoir the Clown. The rodeo manager wisely rechristens him Baskets the Clown, but either way it doesn’t matter: Baskets/Renoir always gets knocked out by the bull. “Baskets” boasts a fine array of co-creators/writers. Besides Galifianakis, there’s Louis C.K. (who has put his own FX series, “Louie,” on a long hiatus) and also Jonathan Krisel, whose other work includes producing and directing for IFC’s “Portlandia” and Comedy Central’s “Kroll Show.” That combined talent reveals itself mainly in the melancholy, funny-because-it’s-painful tone of “Baskets.” The viewer feels no sympathy for Chip, while Galifianakis’s flair for the absurd and postmodern slapstick actually works against the verisimilitude and utterly banal Bakersfield feeling that the show works hard to create. And if you’re not getting enough of him, Galifianakis plays a second role, as twin brother Dale Baskets, the effeminate proprietor of a fly-by-night “career college” that operates in a strip mall. It could easily peter out, but there are two very wonderful characters who rescue the show. When Chip crashes his scooter, the insurance agent who shows up from Costco (you can buy anything from Costco; the megastore is sort of a running inside joke) is Martha (Martha Kelly). She seems to have stepped straight out of those old Jean Teasdale columns in the Onion. Strangely attracted to Chip, Martha becomes his de facto personal assistant, acting as the only dose of common sense in his life. He treats her like dirt. The show’s other — and most inspired — choice is the decision to cast 62-year-old comedian Louie Anderson as Chip’s mother, Christine Baskets. With nothing more than a wig, some lipstick and color-coordinated, plus-size separates, Anderson’s Christine is a formidable force in her son’s life, chiding his clowning dreams while agreeing to help him out financially. The price she extracts is high — forcing Chip to attend Easter church services and then insisting on brunch at the casino afterward, as per family tradition — but she and Martha lend the show a dimension it desperately needs. As we all know from the “Hangover” movies, a little Galifianakis goes a very long way. It’s good to know there’s something more to “Baskets” than a creep in greasepaint. The delicious misery here is evenly spread. Baskets (30 minutes) premieres Thursday at 10 p.m. on FX. |