Baskets

Casting Louie Anderson as the mother is pure genius! His portrayal adds an extra layer to the series.

The pilot was not great. It hadn't really gotten to the deeper emotional stuff yet. But, as the series progresses and we get deeper into the characters, I just fell in love. Some people are complaining that it's not a comedy because it has these more real moments in it, but that's IDENTICAL to Louie. Louie is not a laugh riot. There are good laughs throughout the episode, but the meat of each episode is more about the tragedy of being human. Baskets kind of reminds me of Nebraska. The show is does an excellent portrayal of the mundaneness of people's every day lives and their ordinariness. It's really funny and very moving. I don't see anything wrong with having both things.

But a 9 for Louie Anderson's performance! I almost didn't watch because I've never been a fan of Louie and him playing a woman?!? Well he was fantastic! It felt real! Never like he was playing a part. Is this funny? Well at times. I laughed mostly at louie's subtleness . He was so real. I liked Penolope as well. Very good series I did not think I'd like as much as I did but kudos to Louie as he made this series.

When the series started, and I saw that Zach Galifianakis was starring, I set my DVR to record the series. Yes, I started watching for Zack Galifianakis- I now watch it, primarily, for Louis Anderson. During last season I told my husband, If Louis Anderson doesn't win an Emmy I will be physically ill. Louis won the Emmy, I didn't have to get ill. So glad that Zach & Louis CK saw his potential outside of stand-up. The rest of the cast, it goes without saying, is so special, Scripts are so well written. Truly a gem, I feel very lucky to have found it.

At least one resident of Bakersfield should write a review of "Baskets" -- so here goes.

I agree with the majority opinion. This is an excellent dark comedy/satire with some amazing acting and quirky, creative scripts.

From now on I will think of Louie Anderson as a middle-aged woman in a man's body. Martha seems dull and naïve but she's actually the sanest character. Zach's characters are amazing tragicomic nutty brothers.

Why is the show set in Bakersfield? Our city has been the butt of jokes in Hollywood for decades. It continues to be the go-to prototype of a backwards redneck town in the worst part of California. Some years back there was a comedy cop show called "Bakersfield PD".

I was expecting to see some actual places and settings in or around Bakersfield. Some of the road-trip scenes looked like Kern County but I didn't see any identifiable landmarks. Bakersfield has a few odd cultural events, but clowns are not among them, and we only have the usual kinds of rodeos.

According to IMDb, none of the filming locations were in Bakersfield. Oh well...