Baskets - TVs Best Character Drama

by Ryan Scott

Baskets began as a place for Zach Galifianakis to play.  Along with the brilliant Better Things, Baskets was introduced as part of Louis CK’s development deal with FX, although unlike Better Things, CK had little to do with its content.

On the surface an absurdist dark comedy meant to showcase the ridiculous, it quickly morphed into TV’s best showcase for brilliant, well-rounded character work.  Galifianakis plays twins, Chip and Dale Baskets, who at first appear to be complete opposites (including radically different accents), but wind up being two very different manifestations of the same damaged, arrested-development persona.

The rest of the cast is an odd assortment of characters, placed around the twins presumably to react in strange ways.  Louie Anderson won an Emmy for portraying Chip and Dale’s mother, Christine Baskets, as an embodiment of Anderson’s own mother, long an integral part of his stand-up act.

That the Emmy win was for the first season is testament to voters’ recognition of greatness well before Christine became the focal point of the show in seasons two and three.  Galifianakis has long given the impression he’s more interested in exploring a character than getting the limelight.  This could not be more evident in Baskets, where a vehicle designed to showcase his talents has become one where his work serves almost solely as background.

The oddness of Chip and Dale keep the plot moving forward from episode to episode (although even that began to change in season three), and they provide the absurdity that keeps Baskets a comedy; the rest of the cast is now, more or less, playing things straight in response to the inanity and it’s producing high quality, emotionally gripping entertainment.

Baskets is not a character drama the way Mad Men is, but the stakes often feel just as high.  Christine might’ve started as a stock character, but Anderson didn’t let her stay that way.  Also front and center is Martha Brooks (played by Martha Kelly), a Costco insurance agent and possible Chip (and actual one-time Dale) love interest, who started out as a wet-blanket doormat.

As the show developed, though, Kelly has found Martha’s backbone, standing up for herself when she believes she has to, proving she’s really just willing to give far, far more in all her relationships than she ever gets out of them.  As seasons roll on, Martha’s suffering transitions from a source of comedy to a source of strength – and just the calming, committed presence the Baskets family needs to survive.

All of the odd details that would ordinarily make a sit-com one-note – Chip’s French clown training, the family buying a failed rodeo, the prevalence and centrality of Arby’s – serve to create space for the supporting actors to flourish.

Chip’s French green-card wife, his juggalo protégé, Christine’s carpet-king boyfriend, Eddie the drunken cowboy, Dale’s estranged wife and daughters, and Christine’s judgmental friends all get major plot points in various episodes and space to show multi-faceted, complex characters.

It’s not a serious show; it can’t be, but it does much more than play for laughs.  You see real pain and heartbreak, along with hope and joy, sadness and longing, not just from the stars, but whoever is gifted with screen time.

In the second season, Chip runs away from home and joins a roving band of hobo circus performers who literally ride the rails and commit petty crimes under the tutelage of a cult-like leader.  The main plot line pays off in darkly comedic ways, but Baskets has the courage to follow through with all the consequences of those actions, bringing a sense of realism and emotion you just never see in comedies.

I don’t know how else to describe Baskets other than to urge everyone to watch it.  The characters on Baskets are real, even if it’s difficult to imagine any of them could exist in real life.  The comedy certainly isn’t for everyone, but if you care about art that powerfully reflects the human condition, you need to push through.

At the very least you’ll get Anderson’s award-winning work; if you’re lucky, you’ll also enjoy amazing, emotionally resonant performances with all the nuance and tenderness you expect from prestige TV.  Baskets is a true gift, for the audience, the actors, and the world.  It’s everything this new era of television was supposed to be.  Season four is coming soon; please tune in.