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Horace and Pete

Horace and Pete is an American web series created, written, and directed by Louis C.K., who describes it as a tragedy.[1] In addition to C.K., the series stars Alan Alda, Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco and Jessica Lange. Dealing with the themes of abuse, mental illness, politics and family dynamics, the series focuses on Horace (played by C.K.), Pete (Buscemi), and Sylvia (Falco), the owners of Horace and Pete's, a run-down Brooklyn bar.[2] The first episode was released on C.K.'s website without any prior announcements on January 30, 2016.[3] New episodes premiered weekly until the tenth episode was released on April 2, 2016.[4]

Horace and Pete

Louis C.K.

Louis C.K.

"Horace and Pete" written and performed by Paul Simon

United States

English

1

Louis C.K.
M. Blair Breard
Dave Becky
Vernon Chatman
Dino Stamatopoulos

Kathy Welch

Gina Sansom

30–67 minutes

Pig Newton, Inc.

louisck.com

January 30 (2016-01-30) –
April 2, 2016 (2016-04-02)

Synopsis[edit]

The series is set in a run-down bar called Horace and Pete's in Brooklyn, New York. The bar was owned by the same family since 1916 and was passed down through several generations, always with a Horace and a Pete in charge. The current owners are the 49-year-old Horace Wittel VIII and his 52-year-old cousin Pete. The bar is old-fashioned and tradition bound, serving no mixed drinks, with the only beer they sell being Budweiser on tap.


For many years, the management has been watering down the drinks, and pricing is variable, depending on whether the customer is a regular or a hipster who is drinking there "ironically". While there is a narrative concerning the relationships between the members of the family and the future of the bar, there are many scenes which take place in the bar and do not advance the main plot.

Horace Wittel VIII () is 49 years old and divorced. He is estranged from his son Horace Wittel IX, who refuses all contact with him, and has a frosty relationship with his daughter Alice. Formerly an accountant, he inherited the bar one year prior to the start of the series after the death of his abusive father, Horace Wittel VII. He carries on the tradition of the family bar but with little enthusiasm for the role. He is prone to bouts of depression, but nevertheless is quite successful at attracting women. He has good people skills and frequently becomes the peacemaker in conflict situations. However, he also has a callous streak.

Louis C.K.

Pete Wittel () is 52 years old and is co-owner of the bar. He was raised with Horace and Sylvia as their brother, but is their biological cousin; his biological father is Uncle Pete. As a teenager, he was handsome, athletic, and outgoing, but he was later crippled by a severe mental illness and institutionalized for several years. He is now dependent on an expensive drug called Probitol to function, and on the family bar for his livelihood. He is generally kind and concertedly respectful towards other people, especially women, but struggles with the limitations and consequences of his condition, making him sensitive to perceived criticism, especially where Horace is concerned, leading to frequent minor spats between the two.

Steve Buscemi

Sylvia Wittel () is in her early fifties and is Horace's older sister. She was a rebellious and unhappy teenager, and is tough and assertive as an adult. She has a son, Franklin, who is at school, and a daughter, Brenda, who is emotional and protective of her, much to her irritation. She hates the bar and all the misery associated with it, and wants to shut it down and claim her share of the inheritance to help pay for her chemotherapy, as she has just been diagnosed with cancer. Despite this, she has a good relationship with Horace, who persuades her to become involved in the bar's management. She can also be startlingly blunt when she finds cause to criticize someone, to the point of cruelty.

Edie Falco

Leon () is in his sixties and has been a regular at the bar for many years. A recovering alcoholic, he continues to visit the bar for companionship, drinking only apple juice. He speaks infrequently, is laconic and has a dry sense of humor. He is chivalrous and believes a man should never be rude to a woman regardless of the circumstances.

Steven Wright

Kurt (), a regular at the bar, is an opinionated loudmouth in his thirties. He has a nihilistic world view, and believes it would be good idea to elect Donald Trump in order to destroy the current political system. It is unclear what he does for a living or what his source of income is. He is crude and insensitive.

Kurt Metzger

Uncle Pete () is about 80 years old and was the co-owner of the bar before handing over the reins to Pete after Horace VII's death. He continues to tend the bar and in effect runs it, bullying Horace and Pete and drawing his own indeterminate salary from the bar's takings. He is an acerbic, foul-mouthed bigot who insults everyone and is particularly abusive towards his family, but his rants are often a source of some entertainment to the bar's patrons. He reveals in the first episode that he is Pete's biological father (his mother is unknown). He is the only Wittel who treats Marsha as family and he sometimes shows other patrons, particularly women, a degree of warmth and respect, but is hostile towards anyone who challenges his bigoted views. Horace VIII's father Horace VII was Uncle Pete's first cousin.

Alan Alda

Marsha () is in her sixties and was Horace Wittel VII's last sexual partner before his death. Subsequently Uncle Pete has continued to give her a share of the bar's takings and give her free drinks. She is a chronic alcoholic and has been drinking since her early teens, relying on her sex appeal to attract men to support her habit. She is loud and often very rude, speaking her mind without social filters.

Jessica Lange

Distribution[edit]

The first episode was released on January 30, 2016, with no press or previous mention.[3] Subscribers to C.K.'s mailing list received an email notice of its availability. It is a continuation of the sell-through direct-to-consumer model that C.K. used successfully in prior releases of content.[23][13]


C.K. explained that the direct-to-consumer, sell-through model of pricing the pilot at $5 would allow him to produce following episodes.[24] On his website, he discussed the challenges of creating, shooting, and releasing a multi-camera TV show and addressed the pricing, revealing a tiered cheaper price for the remaining episodes of the show: $5 for the first episode, $2 for the next, and then $3 for the rest of the episodes.[13][25] The show has a very short production-release model, as episode 2 was being shot the week following the pilot, and was released a week after the first episode was made public, with following episodes to come.[26][27]


All of the ten episodes were edited by C.K.'s former Louie assistant editor Gina Sansom[28] and had no predetermined running time, ranging in length from 30 minutes to 67 minutes. The closing credits for episode 5 include the notice: End of Act 1.[29] At the close of episode 10, C.K. announces "That's a wrap on Horace and Pete" while the cast applaud in a kind of curtain call. Shortly after the final episode of season one was released, C.K. revealed that guest actress Amy Sedaris, a late casting decision, had developed her own character and improvised all her dialogue.[30]


Horace and Pete's production, marketing, and distribution model sparked much debate over the strategic, financial, creative options available to content creators.[6][31] C.K.'s work was compared to Kanye West[32] as both navigate funding singular artistic visions that focus on creative control and in C.K.'s case, distribution, funding, and publicity methods outside the typical television model.[33]


C.K., during an extensive discussion with fellow comic Marc Maron, said that he wanted to open source the process by which he created the show, transparently sharing as much information as possible so others might be able to adopt and learn from his experience.[1]


At The New Yorker Festival, C.K. told Emily Nussbaum that he sold the show to Hulu.[34]

Reception[edit]

Critical response[edit]

Critics have been generally positive towards Horace and Pete, with a consensus and praise that the show feels like a filmed stage play.[14][35][36] It was favorably compared to Playhouse 90, with critic Matt Zoller Seitz from Vulture calling it "aggressively classical."[37][38] The show has been described as being filmed live, with a realism that reflects technical imperfections that add to subtle moments by a cast of veteran actors.[39] James Poniewozik of The New York Times called it a "messy experiment that stays just on the good side of pretentiousness. But it's also probing, engaged and moving."[40]


Entertainment Weekly's Ray Rahman said of the performances, "Alda is magnetic as he descends into sadness, while Falco injects Horace and Pete with tissue-worthy emotion. Buscemi is masterfully Buscemi-ian, and C.K. has only gotten better at making shame-filled frowny faces."[41] Alan Sepinwall from HitFix declared Laurie Metcalf's performance the "year's best".[42]


Filmmaker Stephen Cone gave significant praise to the series in terms of Louis C.K.'s hybridization of film, TV, and theater, comparing him to French film director Alain Resnais and stating: "Leave it to Louis C.K. to save cinema – whatever that means – with a goddamn web series."[43] Seitz focused on the show's unique use of silence, in part a noted homage to a quote by recently deceased Garry Shandling on how there is value and meaning to be had in silence.[4]


Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes sampled 23 reviewers and judged 96% of the reviews to be positive. With a mean score of 8.7/10, the site's consensus states, "Horace and Pete creator Louis C.K. uses his signature blend of awkward humor – and brilliant performances from a top-notch cast – to pull off an engagingly ambitious experiment in TV tragicomedy."[44] On Metacritic the series has a score of 78 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[45]

Accolades[edit]

In 2016, Louis C.K. entered the series in the drama category for the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards. Lead actors C.K. and Steve Buscemi, supporting actors Alan Alda, Steven Wright, Kurt Metzger, Jessica Lange and Edie Falco, and guest stars Laurie Metcalf and Aidy Bryant were reportedly submitted for nomination by C.K.[46] Nominations were announced in July 2016 and the series received two nominations: Laurie Metcalf for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series and Gina Sansom for Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series.[47]


Horace and Pete won the Peabody Award in 2016, the original announcement began: "Horace and Pete is a true original, a melding of contemporary politics and serialized storytelling with a throwback approach to in-studio drama harkening back to 1950s television."[48]

Official website

at IMDb

Horace and Pete