Television series
Baskets
Baskets is a tragicomic portrait of a man undone by his own delusions, set in Bakersfield and the spaces between ambition and failure. Zach Galifianakis delivers a career-best performance as Chip, a failed clown who returns home to his overbearing mother and discovers that reinvention is harder than escape. It's warm, absurd, and genuinely heartbreaking.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like comedy that stays loyal to a failing dreamer's stubbornness, where awkward silences and deadpan sadness do more work than punchlines, the way Atlanta's oddball melancholy does.
Skip it if you want fast jokes, tidy plots, or a show that wraps up its feelings neatly; this one moves slowly and lingers on discomfort longer than most comedies would.
What it asks of you: Each episode runs about half an hour and rewards patience, with quiet scenes and long pauses that build a mood rather than chasing a laugh every few seconds.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Fleabag2016
A character study where shame, family dysfunction, and bad choices collide with real tenderness. Like Baskets, it finds profound humanity in mess and self-sabotage, anchored by a magnetic lead performance that owns both comedy and devastation.
But The fourth-wall breaking takes getting used to, and some episodes feel slight. The second season gets deliberately slow in ways that test patience.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia2005
Follows deeply flawed people in a small world, mixing slapstick with genuine pathos. Both shows understand that comedy and damage coexist in the same person, and that watching someone fail repeatedly can still feel oddly moving.
But Much broader and crueler than Baskets. The characters never change or learn, which some find liberating and others find exhausting after five seasons.
Scrubs2001
Balances ensemble comedy with real stakes—hospital setting means actual life-or-death weight. It has Baskets' ability to shift from silly to sad without warning, and similar faith that you'll care about people you're also laughing at.
But Gets progressively more sentimental in later seasons. The hospital setting is fundamentally less interesting than a broken family or a person alone, so it relies more on formula.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Baskets
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Welcome to Marwen2018
Both explore the possibility that a damaged person's elaborate fantasy is not something to cure, but something to honor as a survival mechanism and form of expression.
A man traumatized by violence escapes into an elaborate diorama world he built, starring dolls of real people. Like Baskets, it's about someone whose grip on reality is fundamentally broken, but treats his delusion as legitimate art rather than pathology. Profoundly strange and genuinely kind.
But The tonal balance is precarious and some viewers find it cloying. The real story underneath—a hate crime—sits uneasily with the whimsical visual language, and that discomfort is intentional but not always earned.
More like this (8)
Schitt's Creek2015
A wealthy family forced to rebuild in a small town they despise. Like Chip returning to Bakersfield, it's about people confronting the gap between who they thought they were and who they actually are, with genuine warmth underneath the comedy.
But The first season is rough and takes time to find its voice. The ending is aggressively wholesome, which some readers will find earned and others will find saccharine.
Halt and Catch Fire2014
Deeply character-driven drama about ambitious people pursuing impossible dreams in a specific time and place. It shares Baskets' willingness to let you watch someone fail, and its sober understanding that ambition and delusion are often the same thing.
But The early seasons move slowly and the stakes are abstract. It's about computers and business, which doesn't sound inherently compelling, and it kind of isn't until you're invested in the people.
Transparent2014
A family in permanent crisis, held together by obligation and damaged love. Explores how we wound each other and why we stay. Like Baskets, it treats its characters with real seriousness and finds both comedy and tragedy in the texture of daily life.
But Emotionally heavy and sometimes self-consciously artful. The transgender storyline is central and demands engagement; if that's not your priority, it might feel didactic.
Rectify2013
A man released from death row tries to rebuild a life in the South. Quiet, deliberate, and deeply interested in how damaged people navigate simple human interactions. The show moves slowly, but the psychology is exquisite.
But Moves very slowly. Some episodes are nearly silent. If you want plot momentum or regular payoffs, this will feel frustrating rather than meditative.
BoJack Horseman2014
An animated show about a washed-up actor incapable of change, set in a Hollywood that mirrors his own decay. Like Baskets, it takes its protagonist's self-destruction seriously, and finds something almost noble in how thoroughly he fails.
But The animation style takes real patience to warm up to. The tone is relentlessly bleak for stretches, and the show can feel like it's punishing you for watching.
WKRP in Cincinnati1978
A workplace comedy about ordinary people with small dreams and constant failure, set in a specific American place. It's lighter than Baskets, but shares the same faith that warmth and humor can coexist with real disappointment.
But It's very much a product of the '70s—the pacing and sensibility feel dated. If you want modern production values and contemporary references, you'll feel you're watching a relic.
The Wrestler2008
Both characters are performers whose relationship to their chosen art form is inseparable from their inability to function as human beings. Both films refuse to mock them for it.
Darren Aronofsky's study of a man clinging to a past identity in a dying industry. Randy the Ram, like Chip, is delusional about his relevance, but the film treats him with absolute seriousness—his pain is real even if his fantasy is false. Raw, unsentimental, devastating.
But It's aggressively bleak. No comedy, minimal dialogue, and the ending is unsparing. If you watch Baskets partly for laughs, this offers none, and some find it punishing.
La Haine1995
Both are love letters to specific places and the ordinary failures of the people who live there. Both suggest that dignity exists not despite your circumstances but because of how you move through them.
A day in the lives of three unemployed men in a French housing project, shot in black and white. It has Baskets' texture—the small humiliations, the pointless rituals, the friendship that matters more than the plot. Funny, angry, and structurally perfect.
But It's in French with subtitles. It's also brutally political about class and race, which some find preachy. The style is very deliberate and some viewers find the pacing mannered.
People
Cast
Writing
- Jonathan KriselCreator
- Louis C.K.Creator
- Zach GalifianakisCreator
Production
- Anna DokozaCo-Executive Producer
- Andrea Pett-JosephExecutive Producer
- Dave BeckyExecutive Producer
- Jonathan KriselExecutive Producer
- Louis C.K.Executive Producer
- M. Blair BreardExecutive Producer
- Marc GurvitzExecutive Producer
- Zach GalifianakisExecutive Producer