In the 4th, and final, season of Baskets, Kristine and her husband-to-be Ken move in into a new house in Bakersfield. They try really hard to make it work, but between Ken’s business (still in Denver) and struggling with all the changes in life, it proves to be really hard. In the meantime, Chip finally steps firmly on the path of self-improvement. He moves out of Kristine’s house, and in with his Arby friends, whose baby (named Chip, by the way) drives him crazy. He learns from Martha about this life-coach, Tammy, and joins the class. In the result of it, he buys a condo in a new building and learns to be more assertive. He takes up the position of CEO of the rodeo, and at the same time tries to pursue his clowning, now in the form of grief clowning in the hospitals, but that doesn’t really work for him, for he knows not how to connect with modern children. Later on, the government decides to build a railroad through Bakersfield and seizes related land plots, including that of the rodeo. Kristine and Ken arrange a wedding party, but Ken misses it due to an emergency at work, and so they later simply get married with no party. Dale moves to a trailer park, where he becomes the king of the WiFi. Martha’s father dies in the result of an accident, and they hold the wake in Chip’s building. After Kristine finally decides to move to Denver, Chip goes in hiding when he makes a decision to build himself from scratch.

More of the same. The show is as great as it was from the beginning – and is just the same level of ‘not for everybody’. I like the development of the story, it feels logical and internally consistent. There is something powerful in Chip’s transformation; the rest of the stories are more like accompanying ones – at least they do not offer anything this game-changing. The show has an open finale, which in this case is more than appropriate.

At the same time, I can’t say I regret the show’s ending. It’s not the kind of narrative you want to soak up as much of as possible, it’s not particularly captivating, for there is very little action. I can honestly say – I get it. It’s how the life goes. So goes the show.

The execution is no different from what we’ve seen before. Like I said, it’s more of the same: the camerawork, the direction, all the small implementation details – everything works as it supposed to. The acting is great, of course.

All in all, this is a really good show that is nowhere near comedy in the traditional sense of the word, but works well as a comedy of life – better than most of other examples I encountered. It’s not for everyone, but – recommended.

Names and figures

In the 3rd season of Baskets Christine tries to run the rodeo with the help of her two sons, but, because she doesn’t have any business acumen, she quickly goes into overdraft with the expenses and also upsets her relationship with Dale, whose advice, often quite sane, she tends to ignore. Early in the story Chip goes off to find Eddie, the former owner of the rodeo, who becomes a part of the team, and even moves in into Christine’s, who also helps him with his drinking problem. Chip has a lot of trouble finding clowns, and Dale makes some unfortunate decisions as well, specifically with the horses. As bad as they were going, things become even worse when Christine gets a strange idea to host an opera night at the rodeo; while the event itself goes relatively well, save for the finale, Dale becomes extremely upset on account of not being appreciated. He even sues his mother for his losses, and makes her to transfer the management of the rodeo to him exclusively. Christine goes to Las Vegas for a conference for business women, where Martha puts some sense into her, and upon her return amends the relationship with Dale to some degree. She then comes up with an idea to film a commercial, and makes Ken and Dale compete, which ends in Dale running off after Ken slaps him in the face. He later returns with a bride named Shannon; in the finale the family of Baskets and Ken’s family both go to a rented cabin, where things escalate to the extreme. In the intertwining storylines Martha holds two relationships at the same time – with a married guy and with a tracker, both of which end on the day she turns 50; Chip abandons the french cloon routine and works up another persona, Gil Pickles; Christine meets a pastor from the Korean church next to the rodeo. Although turbulent, the season ends on a positive cliffhanger, when Ken proposes to Christine.

The story in the 3rd season develops logically with several curious excursions, all justified. The quality is more or less as great as it was in the first two seasons – the characters’ behaviour is in line with their qualities and peculiarities, their relationship evolve as they would’ve in real life, etc. – in other words, the narrative is as good as can be expected, plus some parts of it are warm and gentle, while others are prickly and somewhat distressing, reflecting reality and mixing in the right proportion so that not to deter or bore the viewer. The humor is nice enough – there were a number of funny situations, although in general the mood is more reflexive than hilarious.

The execution shows stead improvement – it was pretty great from the get-go, but it gradually becomes better with certain aspects, such as with the Chip and Dale being in the same shot. The acting is great, especially that of Galifianakis and Anderson (Christine).

All in all, the show shows admirable consistency and generally sticks to the format. Sometimes it’s pretty funny, but mostly it’s adorable and a little sad. I enjoyed it quite a bit, can’t wait for the next season. Highly recommended.

Names and figures

In the 2nd season of Baskets Chip wanders the land, occasionally jumping on a train, until he meets a group of travelling and homeless entertainers led by Morpheus. He stick with them, which even results in a conflict, when one of the standing members of the group, Trinity, leaves because he took her place, basically; until he sees the dark side of the group, i.e. breaking and entering and drug abuse – they barely manage to get away from the police at some point, and soon after that the group disassembles after sudden death of its leader. Chip gets into prison and is compelled to call Martha about it; and because Martha doesn’t have any money, she tells Dale, who in his turn tells Christine. Christine comes to Chip’s rescue, puts bail and then stays for the trial; Chip gets community service, because it was his first offence. While being there Christine meets Ken, father of another member of Morpheus’s group, and they kind of hit it off. After Chip’s return, both brothers stay at Christine’s, but not for long – they engage in a huge fight, virtually ruining the whole interior, and so Christine kicks them out. Chip goes on and squats in the vacant rodeo, at the same time trying to take off the ground his clown career by making Martha looking up gigs for him. On a Costco party she invites him to, he meets an actual events manager, and becomes her client; and she indeed provides him with some work. And then Christine decides to fly out to Denver, where Ken resided, and though everything goes pretty good for her, during her absence her mother suddenly dies. The whole family gathers for the funeral; at this point Chip finds out that the career of Logan and Cody made a twist when they’ve been fired by the Chemical brothers; he calls Penelope, who manages to find another employment for them. Mima leaves Christine everything she’s got (on account of which she gets in conflict with her brother), so she finds herself in front of a choice about what to do with those money: at first she gets the idea of investing them into an Arby franchise, but then Ken asks her to move to Denver, and she reconsiders.

In its second season the show is firmly on what seems to be a right track. The story is interesting, with great twists and overall logical development; the characters, new as well as old, are great; the dialogs and the writing in general are amazing – Krisel and his team did an absolutely wonderful job. There is no drawback to speak of, and there is not even a hint of that somewhat awkward atmosphere that besmirched the show in the beginning of the 1st season.

The execution is pretty much perfect – at least, I didn’t  notice any wrongdoings on the technical side of things; on the contrary – some scenes were solved rather beautifully. The acting is quite amazing as well.

All in all, I enjoyed the season a lot: it’s consistently clear and strong, with lots of highly engaging attractions. Recommended.

Names and figures

Baskets is a sad comedy about a guy named Chip Baskets, whose sole desire in this world is to become a clown. Already in his 40s he signs up for a clown school in Paris, ‘which is in France, which is in Europe’, but, because he cannot speak a word of French, he gives up soon enough. He comes back home, to Bakersfield, California, and brings with him a french girl named Penelope, who agreed to become his wife for a green card. Upon return Chip becomes a rodeo clown, which doesn’t pay very much, but he holds on to it nevertheless. He meets Martha, an insurance adjuster, who for some reason finds something attractive in Chip and sticks around. And so he leads a sad little life, unappreciative of the growing friendship and in conflict with the rest of his family, which includes his mother Christine, soon to be diagnosed with diabetes, his twin brother Dale owner and principal of a local college, a couple of adopted twin siblings Cody and Logan, successful DJs, and, well, his unloving wife Penelope. He aspires to flourish in the art of clowning, but has no idea how to do that; yet he moves forward in life, getting a tiny bit wiser with every step.

This show requires some getting used to; I was rather skeptical about the first several episodes – Chip struck me as an awkward person with way too many delusions about the life and himself, which is not a very attractive combination, especially considering that the humor here is far from ‘hilarious’. But the further it went on, the greater grew the depth acquired by the story, and the more profound and touching it became.

Over the course of the story you get to know the characters pretty well, and in some point of that process you kind of start to care about them; it doesn’t happen fast, but once it settles, you suddenly start to realize that the life the characters are leading is not only sad (sometimes pathetic), but that there is a place for beauty, however small, and genuine emotion there. That the characters, although deeply flawed, are human and do posses curious personality traits that may even be attractive at certain angles. Turning to metaphors, this show is like a unpresentable, feeble flower that no one gives a second look as it grows, but that turns into a strong and beautiful plant.

The story all in all is quite interesting, and develops logically; there are no implausibilities, no stretches. The characters are three-dimensional, not stereotypic at all, even though it might seem so in the beginning. The dialogs are great, as well as the situation.

The execution is a solid, professional work, nothing much to talk about. The acting is very good, – and that is an additional treat, because most of the cast members are pretty fresh to the eye, and some are of non-convetional character type.

Generally speaking, this is a great show, not so much a comedy as a tragicomedy; it takes some time to appreciate it, but once you’re there, it’s a smooth and enjoyable ride. Highly recommended.

Names and figures