How can you describe one of the best shows you have seen on T.V. ?Well, do you mean, this month, this year, this decade ?How about EVER !If this work does not win every award it is eligible to receive, than the awards aren't worth winning.The cast alone will draw you in. They are a group that create their own high expectations, and they exceed them. Thoughtful, real, nuanced, brilliant, moving, all of it.Watch it on a big HD TV, and you will feel like you are in a small theatre. Hey, where's the coat check ? It is a visceral theatrical experience. They way it is set up, shot, and presented to the audience is amazing. It comes alive. You are there with them.The story ? Uncommon, touching, all while seeking and hitting deep points of your emotions. Every day life bits of humor and quirky characters, who are brought to the point of life.I can't wait to watch it all again, and again.It really is a masterpiece.

Just finished watching the show. I seriously can't remember the last time, if ever, I had fallen so perfectly, hopelessly and unashamedly in love with the TV show. And I shall not excuse Louis C.K. for making me feel like that. I seriously can't recall when in the recent, or even not so recent past, a TV show was so entirely, absolutely and freshly written that the modified classifications of comedy shows one had watched over the years- for as long as memory could be awakened back in time- had suddenly begun to seem not just obsolete but downright wrong and offensive. And I seriously can't appreciate Louis C.K enough for that. Can't recollect when last, the hyphenated words, 'author- backed', when used for a show performance, had been justified so fully and considerably by an actor who stupefied you by actually making you believe that he wasn't acting at all. And, once again, I can't pardon Louis C.K for fooling me like that. And, finally, can't seem to point out when was it last that a TV show could be just about one writer, one actor, one performer, and yet catch you by the veins and force you to search, with a sense of awkwardness, for a little of awkwardness lurking within you. Or, a lot of insecurities, raging without.

Like many of his other shows, it is the manner of distribution that attracted me to this show. CK has a low-cost, direct model for his stuff and I am happy to pay to support that idea, and his work. With Horace & Pete there was another reason to do so – because it was supporting the idea that the television model does not need to be restricted to the network one. It does seem that for many viewers, that this is 'different' is enough to make it brilliant – I admit part of my attraction to it was this quality, but it being a cut away from the normal television show doesn't inherently mean it is a great one.Essentially it is a stage play, albeit one delivered for television cameras and with no live audience. The plot follows the titular characters through personal narratives small and large. Dialogue driven, the show does have plenty to like; it gives its characters and cast room to be themselves, and material to work with. There are many scenes where the cast working with one another is what makes it engaging, while the natural tone helps it feel convincing. I liked that intimacy that one does get with theatre, and liked that it came through in the screen. Technically it is scrappy at times – particularly in the early episodes.It is slow though, that much is undeniable. It does also have the feeling that mostly it is trying a bit too hard; okay it has those natural elements, but a lot of the cast do really feel like they are 'acting'. It still engages as a piece, and the novelty factor is there, but the material is not as good as many suggest. The performances are variable; mostly they are good, and a few of the leads in particular are very strong, but it is not without fault. The heavy (and underused) presence of famous faces (particularly the last episode) doesn't really work as it feels a bit self- congratulatory in a way. The weakest performance is from CK himself – he has a limited dramatic range, and surrounding himself with stronger actors only highlights that.Horace & Pete is an interesting personal project. It has enough to recommend it for, even if it isn't as good as many clearly wanted it to be.

I was watching some video review of Better Call Saul when the reviewer in passing mentioned Horace and Pete. Horace and Pete? Why had I never heard of this show? So I got myself a copy and binge watched it over the course of three days. All I can say is WOW. This is my kind of drama. It's basically Cheers spliced with My Dinner With Andre; in other words, Cheers if Cheers was about real life. Unfortunately it's a bit too real, as characters that you instantly fall in love with just as soon die or disappear for other reasons, robbing you of the opportunity to enjoy them some more. In fact, so much in the lives of Horace and Pete crumbles by the final episode it is guaranteed that there will never be a Season 2, and that just plain sucks. Why create such lush, developed characters if you're just going to flush them down the toilet? And what great characters they are!Alan Alda shines the brightest as one of the last remaining Archie Bunker's on planet earth, but he only appears for a few episodes (in one of them he's merely a hallucination). Steve Buscemi is spot on as Pete, co-owner of the bar who is clinically psychotic and can only keep his disease under wraps by taking a very expensive drug, who finds out he isn't really Horace's brother but in fact his cousin. Edie Falco does her greatest work yet as the rough around the edges sister suffering from cancer who would like nothing more than to shut the doors of Horace and Pete's and move on in life. Jessica Lange is nothing short of wonderful as a barfly who's welcome unfortunately runs out early in the season. Add to this mix a theme song by none other than Paul Simon and a slew of cameos from other great dramatic actors (we even get the voice of K-Billy Super Sounds of the 70s) and the result will leave your jaw dropping through eight episodes. I say eight because by this time the writing and acting seems to get a little rushed (maybe Louis CK was running out of money by this time, and had to move it along) and the final episode will leave you so furious and disturbed that you'll look back and wonder was it worth it. Horace and Pete is masterful at delivering emotional pain, perhaps too masterful, because pain hurts and that's what you'll be left with at the end of the binge: a lump in your throat and a bit of heartache.I give it a perfect score of ten because it really is that good, and maybe you should just think of it as a really long movie that has an ending, because as television it's an odd bird (nothing is consistent: one episode might be thirty minutes long while the next might be fifty minutes long for example). Like some of the characters, the show itself is suicidal and it makes damn sure there is NEVER going to be a Season 2. What a loss. What a shame. It'll make you want to cry.