The trio of Steve Buscemi, Louis CK, and Edie Falco in Horace and Pete
Thoughts on the beautiful and unique new Louis CK show Horace
and Pete just as soon I water down your boos to save some money…
“I don’t feel good Maggie”
-Horace
It was four Saturdays ago when Louis CK became the Beyoncé
of television and dropped a little show entitled Horace and Pete. All of a
sudden there was just an episode sitting there on his website with no build up,
promotion or anything really that goes with the release of a new television
show. It was a present surprise to see it arrive in all of it’s $5 glory,
especially given how much I love his FX show Louie and stand up.
What Horace and Pete was has been an even bigger surprise as Louis CK delivered a show that
wasn’t really funny at all. Instead the first episode was essentially Louis
CK’s version of a dramatic play filmed for television. It was an awesome shock
to the system and a beautiful amalgamation of what seemed like a bunch of Louis
CK’s pent up dramatic ideas dumped out into this new format.
What has made Horace and Pete something special though has
been what the series has been able to accomplish post the initial surprise.
Every week Louis CK has presented something different and equally as satisfying.
The second episode was for all intents and purposes a free form jazz like
venture through various bits of comedy and drama exploring everything from breast cancer to disturbing sex fantasies. The third episode, which essentially
revolved around a single conversation was one of the most extraordinary hours
of television I’ve ever witnessed (more on that in a minute). Finally, this
week’s fourth episode felt like a multi cam episode of Louie just with three
different sketches instead of two. The joy of Horace and Pete is not knowing
how and what one is going to get week by week and just watching Louis CK be
creative in this new medium is fascinating.
The chief example of the unique creativity of the show is in its brilliant third episode which is pretty much just a
single conversation. The episode opens on a just over nine minute still shot of theater actress Laurie Metclaf as she’s telling a strange and super detailed story.
As the story progresses the details become painfully clear, Metclaf is playing
Horace’s ex wife Sarah who is telling the story of how she has cheated on her
new husband just as Horace had cheated on her in their prior relationship. The conversation
is stunning on a number of levels, first of all it’s essentially one giant monologue
carried by Metclaf. It’s one of the single best bits
of acting I’ve seen in a long time, Metclaf is not only required to tell an incredibly
complex story in a realistic fashion but must do it all in incredibly long
takes. It’s truly extraordinary to watch the camera just linger, hanging on the
pain behind of every word.
The third episode also allows Louis CK the writer and
director to shine brightly. While Metclaf has to do a lot of heavy work on the acting
side, it can’t be forgotten how important the creativity of Louis CK plays in
throughout the hour. The direction is careful, still, and calculated allowing
both Metclaf and Louis CK the actor time to let the story slowly build, and for
the audience to linger on the conversation's implication. The conversation itself
is also incredibly well written, not only striking a tone of realism, but
constantly adding twists and turns to continuously build the conversation to a beautiful
climax. It makes the moment when Uncle Pete comes in at the end to crack the
cruel joke at the end of the episode hit hard. There was definitely laughter to
the idea that Louis CK could have created this incredible hour of television as
an elaborate set up to a cruel punchline, but the uncomfortably long, silent
shot of Horace that follows is a reminder of the pain that was felt throughout
the hour. The range of emotions one is left with at the end of the episode is a
perfect example of all the elements of filmmaking coming together to create
something rather extraordinary. Horace and Pete’s third episode is truly an
hour of television I will never forget.
It’s follow up and the most recent episode of the show,
while not as extraordinary as its predecessor, continues the creative hot
streak that Louis CK continues to strike with this show. The episode revolves
around three skits that almost could have come right out of Louie. The first,
and weakest of the skits revolves around the show’s weakest aspect as a whole,
which is the discussion of current events. The abortion discussion depicted is
slightly more successful than previous attempts made to cover current events and
politics, as it is much funnier and revolves around the theme of
the rest of the episode, but it still doesn’t connect the same way the rest of
the show does. While it is funny to listen to a send up of a bunch of older
guys talk about the intricacies whether an aborted fetus ends up going to hell
(all while ignoring the woman sitting right next to them) it dose not have the
same resonance as the rest of the show and can ultimately feel out of place.
Despite its lesser opening third the fourth episode (come on
Louis CK we really need episode titles) of Horace and Pete manages to return to
greatness for its final two thirds. The episode’s examination of different
forms of love worked beautifully. Horace’s interaction (lets not call it a
booty call) with the young waitress Maggie (played by yet another theatre
actress Nina Arianda) continued the show’s knack for getting theatre actresses
to deliver great monologues.
The best moment of the episode though comes in its
final little sketch in which Uncle Pete and Steve Buscemi Pete have a strange
father, son bonding moment. While Uncle Pete’s views and ideas have been made
to look outdated and ridiculous throughout the show his final moment in which
he describes what he believes to be love is as tender and vulnerable as the
character gets. It's a scene that shows just how deep a character that Uncle Pete can be, even as there is natural temptation to make him a stereotype. Uncle Pete may, in many people’s eyes, be wrong about the power
relations involved in going down on a woman (that’s as far as I’ll go) but the
moment when he’s acknowledging his son really for the first time to tell him
what love really is, before walking out of the door (with yet another beautiful
lingering shot to accompany it) is another example of the emotional power that
Horace and Pete has been able to achieve over its mere four week existence.
Horace and Pete has quickly established itself as television’s
most unique and powerful show. Louis CK continues to surprise, delivering
episodes that span genres and deal with painful situations with the amount of
care that is often not seen on television. I do not know what Louis CK’s future
episodes of Horace and Pete will bring, all I know is that I cannot wait for
the email informing me of a new episode enter my inbox.
Some other musings:
- I’m going to try and cover this show in some form or fashion weekly from now until the season is over… No promises on timeliness but I love this show too much to let it slip through the cracks…
- Alan Alda has been so very fantastic as Uncle Pete throughout the four episodes… It’s a different kind of role for him and he’s playing it to perfection.
- Louis CK has established such great cast its astounding… And a Paul Simon original song! It would be interesting to hear the story of how he pulled all of this off...
That’s just me though. What does everyone else think?
