Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Streaming, the cord-cutters guide to the week that was—without a cable subscription. This week, we're going to talk about the show Louis CK tried to sneak past us, the show he made with Zach Galifianakis, and some other gems I found myself drinking alone too.

Horace & Pete's

Recommended dosage: Generations of watered down liquor. No mixed drinks.

In keeping with the theme of last week's unfortunate, "Comedians Tied to Rumors and Allegations of Sexual Misconduct" I bring you an offering from America's favorite comic, Louis CK. He launched his show from his personal website one episode at a time, each priced separately, and I mean that. The first episode is $5, the second is $2, the third is $3, and I'm guessing the fourth will be $4. So right off the bat you know you're getting into something weird, something different.

Horace and Pete's is essentially an off-broadway play with the soul of the classic American sitcom. It features Steve Buscemi, Alan Alda, Edie Falco and a great cast of comedians inside a bar, drinking watered down booze with Louie. It's slow and plodding. It's dark and sad, but you feel like it might be on to something. 

I got about eight minutes into the first episode before it really started to sink in that the run time was 67 minutes. Sixty-seven minutes of this? That seems like an eternity, and not a very pleasurable one. I started panicking. I couldn't help it. The show looks different than anything I've ever seen, but it feels familiar. It's unsettling. The fact that there's so many incredibly talented people associated with it keeps you hanging on. 

I finished the first episode and sat silently for a few moments. I was utterly baffled about what I had just watched.

Did I like it?  Had I been bored because the show was bad? Was it trying to say something, and if so what the hell could it possibly be trying to say? As I entered my Paypal information to download the second episode I think I figured out the point of the show.
 
Life itself is purgatory for alcoholics.

I'm still not sure if I like the show, but I definitely like that it exists.

Baskets

Recommended dosage: Red wine and a box of circus peanuts.

Here's another show that lives entirely in it's own little world with a very simple premise, Zach Galifianakis plays a clown. That's it. That's all it needs.

Baskets is the story of Chip Baskets, an American clown classically trained at the Academie de Clown Francais in Paris trying to make a name and a life for himself as a rodeo clown in Bakersfield, CA (and anyone from California knows the fact that it's set in Bakersfield is equally hilarious and depressing all in itself). Each episode is packed with beautiful moments of incredible awkwardness, love and plenty of pratfalls. 

Zack Galifianakis delivers every time he's on the screen, whether he's playing the clown, the man beneath the makeup, or that man's twin brother Dale. 

 Four episodes in and this has been my favorite show of 2016 so far. While Zack is great, the thing that really makes the show special is the brilliant performances by secondary characters. I don't want to spoil anything, but "Louie Anderson might get an Emmy for this." Now there's something I bet you never thought you'd read.

Baskets is available for streaming for the next three months over at FXNOW.

The Triumphant Return of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

Recommended dosage: An ice cold rack of domestic beers...for me to poop on!

Earlier this week I saw that Robert Smigel, the genius behind classics like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the Ambiguously Gay Duo was a guest on the Bill Simmons Podcast. I know that he created "The Night of Too Many Stars" and caters a lot of his time to raise money for Autism research and treatments and was pleasantly delighted to hear that Hulu had recently given him some money, a crew and six weeks to develop a show that would skewer our political process. 

The last time I remember seeing Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, he was destroying nerds waiting in line for one of the Star Wars prequels.

This special is an hour and a half long and is loaded with hilarious bits, one right after the other. The genius of Triumph is that just by the very nature of talking to a hand puppet you've essentially waved your right to not be made fun of. And god forbid you try to go jab for jab with him. The worst thing you can do is try to insult the Insult Comic Dog. Basically, you just have to take it all. 

One thing that really stood out is that it's borderline alarming how much access a man with a dog puppet on his hand has to the frontrunners of the 2016 presidential campaign. Having a camera crew legitimizes your presence and when it doesn't, Smigel and his crew have plenty of ways to cheat the system. (Check out the 7:38 mark for an example.)

On the aforementioned podcast the two writers had a great discussion about political correctness, what it means to be offensive and the future of comedy. It's an interesting perspective to hear because Robert Smigel has been pushing the envelope for about as long as I've loved comedy. This perspective is perfectly illustrated when Triumph spends some time talking to young voters at the University of New Hampshire.

The special works best as a collection of 5 to 10 minute bits like you'll find on Hulu's YouTube page, but no matter how you watch it, you gotta be glad that we have this much time with our old friend Triumph.