The confusing but exciting landscape that is the present and future of television has come into sharp relief for Remotely Interesting.
He may have been around for years, but comedian Louie C. K. has taken that long to grow on us, and now he has there is an interesting diversity of options to enjoy his work.
The American comedian, actor, writer, producer and director is maybe best known for his observational and self-deprecating comedy show Louie, and a style accurately described as "dark and vulgar'' humour.
Season five is running on Sky's Comedy Central at the moment, while seasons one to four are available on Spark's on-demand service Lightbox.
But it is his latest offering that adds to the myriad television possibilities now available, being on no television channel at all.
Horace and Pete, a show that crosses some strange line between television and the stage, is available only as a download from Louie C. K.'s website for $5 (that's one way, anyway. However, we paid).
It was released just over a week ago, and includes some very up-to-date references to American politics.
The 70-minute show also features some fine actors.
There is Louie C. K. himself, of course, but also the fabulous Steve Buscemi, the wonderful Edie Falco from the Sopranos and Nurse Jackie, Alan Alda all the way from M*A*S*H and Jessica Lange, who has a wonderful line about Hillary Clinton too offensive to cover here.
The basic storyline is a family dispute about the future and ownership of 100-year-old bar Horace and Pete's Est. 1916.
Set mostly in the bar itself and shot mostly from just one direction, giving the fourth-wall perspective of a play, the dispute is a background to plenty of discussion of issues including racism and the meaning of conservative and liberal in politics.
Horace and Pete covers all the bases a show needs covered to push it into the upper echelons of what we believe is good drama.
It is dark, has a sense of hopelessness, drifts strangely through uncomfortable aspects of human life, highlights the ugly sides and dysfunction of its characters and ends ambiguously, with no real conclusion.
We just loved it.
It does include funny moments, though not of the laugh-out-loud kind that Louie provides.
Some of the bar room dialogue is darkly hilarious, especially delivered by actors like Alda, so well known for quite different roles.
The show was released with no publicity, and using the website for distribution means a direct-to-consumer model for television.
This has reportedly been a success in the past for Louie C. K., and shows consumers are willing to pay a reasonable amount for content they care about.
Thoroughly recommended.
- Charles Loughrey
