Why Christine Baskets Was One of TV’s Greatest Characters
The New York Times
In the FX comedy “Baskets,” Louie Anderson brought humanity to a type of woman who is rarely given her due onscreen.
When Louie Anderson died on Friday, it felt like dozens of moms who I knew and loved all died at once.
That’s because Anderson took with him his portrayal of Christine Baskets, the doting but demanding mother of Zach Galifianakis’s depressive clown in the brilliant, bone-dry comedy “Baskets,” which ran on FX from 2016-19.
For me, Christine is one of the great TV characters, up there with Homer Simpson, Tony and Carmela Soprano or any of the Golden Girls. She was a caricature of a matriarch, but brought complexity and nuance to a type that is usually relegated to sketch comedy, two-dimensional walk-ons or viral videos of monstrous Karens.
