Horace and Pete

What an incredible piece of art by Louis CK. There are very few movies or shows that have managed to captivate me the way this series has. It does an excellent job of presenting different perspectives on beliefs, morals and ideals and really bringing to conscious thought the internal struggles we all deal with but often fail to realize everyone else is dealing with in different ways as well. This is definitely not a comedy although it can be funny at times. The still camera shot style of filming makes it feel like a theatrical drama and it is very raw.

I think opinions will be rather polarizing, with artfully minded, highly empathetic personality types really appreciating the show and everyone else being bored by it. There is so much subtle, as well as not so subtle brilliance present but the subtleties really make the show and I think they might be missed by a lot of Louis CK's general audience. The show is slow paced, utilizes lots of long shots of dialogue and could only be pulled off with top notch scripting, casting and acting, and it absolutely nails it in all these departments.

Each episode is produced and released in the same week, which is pretty incredible. This means that episodes can adapt to and discuss very current events which often makes the topics of discussion much more interesting. The downside is that such a short production cycle sometimes results in somewhat raw editing, but I find that sometimes adds to the charm. I think producing this particular show in this way was a brilliant call by Louis CK and the pros far outweigh the cons.

If you watch the first episode and don't like it, don't expect it to get any better. If you watch the first episode and like it, they keep getting better and draw you in more and more as you learn more details of the characters lives and back-stories. This really is a masterpiece showcase of Louie CK's talents. It may just go down as one of the most underrates shows ever but I hope it gains the recognition it deserves.

I have watched a lot of Louis CK's stand up comedy and it seemed to me that his amazing humour came from him extracting the absurdity of life and him talking about it on stage in a way that was both very funny, honest, and engaging, which is not easy feat I think (the feat being presenting the absurdity and confusing nature of life in way that both the presenter and audience can laugh together at it, as opposed to be terrified/confused/annoyed by the confusing universe). Even though the episodes of Horace and Pete feel formatted more in the way of a play, to me it is still fantastic in the same way. Family and life can be infuriating because as we grow up we see that the more we know about family/life/universe the more we realize that we don't know (that whole Socrates thing), but that doesn't mean we give up hope ... instead we can find it absurdly funny and laugh in the face of absurdity, and try and learn from it, and move forward in a better way, especially when there is a master funny man like Louis CK to extract amazing funny thought lines from the absurdity. In this way it is an honest reaction to the confusing nature of life instead of simply trying to create a sanitized narrative to our lives that might make us feel less fear, but doesn't really address the reality. Anyways, that is more my emotional mumbo jumbo response to why I think this is a really good show, but in more specific terms I find the dialogue really great, the acting great, and the jokes great, and therefore I find it ... very great! Thanks Louis CK!

Wow. So grim, but I cannot stop watching. Every episode is stomach- churning (the moment in episode two, where Marsha-- Jessica Lange's beau-- tells her his wife is waiting at home....and then that pause before Jessica Lange lets out a brittle chuckle...shiver me timbers!!). It's like I'm flipping over rocks to see the gross, sticky but roiling, thriving stuff underneath.

The cast is outstanding, as is the writing-- I cannot stop thinking of writers like Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor. So here I sit, uneasily waiting for...I know not what. One of the darkest and most interesting things I've watched in a long time, with no pat resolution or happy ending in sight.

I hope that eventually its beauty will break my heart; right now I'm still white-knuckling it. But every angel is terrifying, right?

Starts out kind of slow and awkward in the first episode. Strange facial expressions and very little action or dialogue. By fifteen minutes in, many interesting characters have entered into the bar and it starts to become interesting. At a half hour I was becoming charmed by the stimulating dialogue and very impressed by the casting which includes many stand up comedy greats doing some serious drama. By 45 minutes I became completely sold and hooked after Steve Buscemi's pivotal performance that just blew me away. Louis CK has done some impressive writing here and it goes a long way to compensate for his acting ability which can be a bit uneven. However unlike his show "Louie," here he is only one member of a very impressive ensemble. I was expecting a comedy but what I got was something I've never seen before on a TV show. This reminded me of "the Iceman Cometh." For a pilot, this was really intriguing. I have high hopes that it continues to develop and doesn't let me down.

I expected Horace & Pete to be like Louis CK Part II – short, crisp, mostly hilarious episodes about some middle-aged guys. So, in the beginning I was slightly disappointed to see that the first episodes of H&P turned out to be like full feature movies, however, without, almost any action, fast-forwards or exciting flashbacks, unexpected twists etc. The episodes sometimes seemed to be long, protracted and in some moments – honestly, a bit boring, and even more often so – painfully embarrassing, even sad. Yet, somehow, I kept watching... Because, as I understand now, it made me truly believe that these people are real, like me or most of the people I know, and I actually felt for them. Take Steve Buscemi, for example, – you know, it's Steve Buscemi, the guy from Fargo, Tarantino movies, you name it. But in H&P you believe – that is Pete, and you kind of root for him. The same goes for Louis CK - although you can still see it's Louis CK, and he is very much the same guy he was in the Louis series (well, without the excessive masturbatory habits anyway...), you can't help but empathize with him. I guess there lies the brilliance of H&P – what it depicts is the closest thing to a normal, regular, average life, with all the lowly daily drudgery, failures, and the brief glimpses of tenderness that come when you least expect them and tear your battered, cold heart open. Like today, I was watching S01E09 in the background while putting on my makeup, and, out of the blue, Tom, the old guy with the beret, said this random thing, a few lines about love and I completely lost it – it turned me into a sobbing mess in the middle of the day, just like that. I guess that's the beauty of H&P – you can actually believe that the characters are like you, like real, average people, who have been through the same embarrassing, tender, painful and for some fleeting moments - happy experiences that life throws at you. So, to wind it up - this is definitely a show for grown-ups, preferably - slightly weathered ones. So, take your time and take it slowly.