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| Credit: Deadline.com |
Before the HBO series “Crashing” came along, the tired genre of comedians playing slightly modified versions of themselves consisted of two basic categories: Deranged clowns ("Seinfeld", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "The Comedians", "Legit") or depressed clowns ("Mr. Saturday Night", "Louie", Larry Sanders Show"). Because comedians are naturally entertaining and often are good at expressing comedy with a unique voice, much of this fare is still watchable and entertaining even if it’s not particularly innovative. The freshest take I’ve seen in recent years has been the Netflix offering “Lady Dynamite” which took the deranged metaphor literally and used it as a platform for a soft exploration into mental illness.
“Crashing” however is not just a fresh take within already-tried confines but it’s something I've never seen done successfully. It’s a show that shows that the archetypal comedian is not
necessarily synonymous with traits of amorality, loneliness or flat-out
craziness.
The first season of the show begins with a wet-behind-the-ears
Pete Holmes (played, of course, by Pete Holmes) who’s forced out of his
marriage by a wife who cheats on him because she needs someone more exciting in
bed. In his late 20s, Holmes is forced to come to the realization that he has
quite a bit of adulating to do as his Christian upbringing and the complacency
of married life has stunted his development quite a bit. Unable to support himself, Holmes is saved by
a near supernatural ability to fall into random encounters with comic
celebrities and, even more luckily, he elicits their sympathy enough to get a
place to stay (hence, the title of the show).
The show’s cleverness is that all this depression and vice
you ordinarily see in the genre is filtered through the lens of an audience
surrogate in Holmes who manages to hold on to his cheerful naiveté in forging
his new relationship with himself and his new circle of friends. Some of these friends like Artie Lange could
set the depraved comedian trope to new heights if he were to star in his own
show, but through the eyes of Holmes, he elicits empathy. Similarly, the
off-kilter nature of many of the other characters –TJ Miller has a bit of a God
complex, Richard Burr is a bit miserable in domestic life to the point of being
unappreciative of his wife, Sara Silverman is a bit overly trusting – is minimized when
seen through the eyes of Holmes who sees them for their faults but also for
their generosity.
Whereas the comedy scene is generally portrayed in fiction
as a cesspool that collects the bottom feeders of society, “Crashing” is about
a man who chooses comedy simply because he feels it’s his life’s calling. The
second season sees Holmes in a gradual arc of losing contact with his innocence
as he sells out his act with a catch phrase, let’s a little cursing slip into
his language, and has his first sexual encounter outside of marriage. However, whereas the typical the comedy scene
is generally portrayed as a cesspool that brings out the worst in people the
longer they dwell in it, the sense of camaraderie and mutual support is
emphasized here.
