Speaking of low stakes TV, raise your hand if you feel like what we need in 2017 and 2018 is another half-hour comedy about a doughy white male comedian. Yeah, I thought not. I was late to the Crashing train last year (wait, that doesn't sound-) but after some light prodding from Sweeney I gave it a try - I'm not saying it's hard to pass on an eight half-hour episodes from HBO, but come on, it's easy as hell not to, right?
Crashing is the semi-autobiographical story of Pete Holmes, a way-too naive and wholesome and religious guy with nothing in his life but the dream of being a standup comic. His wife leaves him (and leaves him homeless) in the pilot episode and the first season mostly just consists of Pete meeting (and crashing with) various other standup comics. Here in the second season, Pete sort of finds a shtick as a college performer and pursues a relationship with a female comic, but otherwise this is exactly the same show it was last year - which isn't bad! This was never going to be deep or deeply funny; it's a show about a dude learning how to be a comedian. It's almost like a love letter to standup comedy in general, the idea that you've got to tank and bomb and put in horrible hours in front of dead crowds for years before you get a sense of who you are as a comedian. Certainly not the greatest premise out there, but it's a show that seems completely comfortable with exactly what it is.
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