Louie Anderson supplied one of TV's greatest-ever matriarch characters in the somehow-obscure Baskets

Baskets is sneakily high on my list of favorite all-time comedy TV shows. And it’s one of those programs that I frequently recommend to people who then give me a blank look. People somehow don’t know about it, even though it had quite an Emmy run back in its time.

And why am I just now writing about a show that has been over for five-plus years? Well, one, I guess time goes fast. But two, the show ran from 2016 to 2019 on FX, which I didn’t have access to for its last two seasons. But luckily Baskets is now fully available on Hulu. So I binged the last two seasons over the past couple of weeks.

Louie Anderson and his legendarily touching and relatable performance won an Emmy for his Season 1 performance and was nominated in Seasons 2 and 3. He played Christine Baskets, the matriach of a trashy Bakersfield, California family, and her mannerisms and dialogue just seem so close to so many older moms I’ve known over the years. Her sons Chip and Dale (both played by Zack Galifinakis) are a circus clown and entrepreneurial businessman, respectively, who primarily found and operate a rodeo, along with several other side gigs along the way. Galifinakis was nominated for an Emmy for Season 2.

Baskets is a weird show, but only weird in the sense that people who liked Galifinakis’ performances in The Hangover and Between Two Ferns will love it. The last two seasons that I just watched are definitely a step down from the masterful first two seasons, but I would think that if you’re hooked by the first two, you should finish out the last two.

I should mention that there is a tinge of sadness to the whole thing. Chips’s French ex-wife only married him to get a green card, Martha is Chips’s best friend and she is an oft-broken-armed Costco insurance agent who speaks in a monotone that somehow manages to be totally wacky, and nothing really ever goes right for any of the Baskets family—except for maybe carpet-salesman Ken from Denver being the sweetheart who sweeps Christine off her feet for a late-in-life marriage.

I need to update My 63 Favorite TV Shows of All-Time from back in 2013, which I will definitely do one of these days since I’ve watched so many shows since then that would now be included in the list. Anyway, Baskets definitely belongs in my top 63 somewhere, and Anderson, who sadly passed away from cancer in 2022, at the very least should be hailed for turning in one of the finest comedic performances in TV history.

Seasons 1 and 2: 5 out of 5 stars

Seasons 3 and 4: 4 out of 5 stars