Zach Galifianakis is not clowning around in ‘Baskets’

This Thursday, the new series “Baskets,” starring Zach Galifianakis and produced by Louis C.K., will premiere on FX, and it’s full of things you wouldn’t expect from a television show.

Zach Galifianakis’s character is called Chip Baskets, who is a rodeo clown. He makes four dollars an hour and lives in an extended-stay motel. Martha Kelly, who is an amazing stand-up comedian in real life, plays his best friend, Martha, who is an insurance adjuster at Costco.

The TV show is set in California, but it’s not the sun-kissed Los Angeles you would expect. Instead, it’s a sun-blasted Bakersfield, where the most coveted job around appears to be behind the counter at Arby’s, and where one character remarks that the town is pretty, like a “garbage dump.”

Critics are confused

There is a mounting sense that shows made by some comedians may be getting a little too serious for their own good. And “Baskets” may be the bleakest of the bunch. A show about clowns with comedians in it? Even before seeing the trailers, you would expect some great jokes, but “Baskets” makes you wonder how funny comedians need to be. While some critics called it terrible, others thought it has a great potential. According to the New York Times, “Baskets” and Louis C.K.’s own show have expanded the idea of what emotional tones a TV comedy can evoke and how many jokes it must deliver.

Zach Galifianakis was absolutely perfect

The first episode of “Baskets” begins in Paris, where the protagonist, Chip, is seen struggling as a student at a prestigious clown school, mostly due to the fact that he doesn’t speak any French. He begs his professor to tutor him in English, telling him that “being a clown is the most important thing in the world to me.” The professor just stares at him for a moment, then walks away.

Later, he decides to quit clown school and move back home to California. He takes his nominal girlfriend, Penelope (the musician Sabina Sciubba), out to dinner and proposes marriage, asking her to return home with him to California. She gladly agrees and tells him she needs a green card and will most probably leave him for an attractive man. But still, Chip is delighted.

Six months later, in Bakersfield, Chip is staying at a motel while Penelope lives across town at a much nicer place with a pool. She calls Chip and demands 40 dollars to get HBO, and Chip is forced to ask his mother (played by the comedian Louie Anderson in cleverly uncommented-upon drag) and twin brother (a proprietor, also played by Zach Galifianakis) for the money.

Along the way, after he crashes his imported French scooter and meets Martha, his insurance agent. Because she is perhaps even lonelier than Chip, Martha offers to drive him around. He then goes to a rodeo to show off his highbrow clown act but gets booed by the crowd and then mauled by a bull. Only then does he earn some applause.

Zach Galifianakis is great in the show. With the television industry full of young, good-looking actors who are always focused on wearing the right clothes on screen, “Baskets” has a very “normal” looking cast with relatable problems. It’s definitely going to stick around for a long time.