Hilarious Comedy Series On Max Shows How Comedians Find Their Best Material
If you’re a fan of stand-up comedy, you’ve no-doubt been subjected to plenty of painful television sitcoms offering stand-up comedians a vehicle to dramatize the source of their on-stage material. While most of these shows provide nothing more than hackneyed retellings of jokes that were funnier as stand-alone bits, some TV outings serve as diamonds in the rough, such as Pete Holmes’ Crashing. Crashing serves as a semi-autobiographical tale of how Holmes got into stand-up after his life was flipped upside-down, while also highlighting the material of some hilarious lesser-known acts.
Pete Holmes Is Pete Holmes In Crashing
Pete Holmes created and developed Crashing as an HBO original series back in 2017, with the assistance of executive producer Judd Apatow. Apatow, who is best known for directing such classic comedy films as Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Funny People, also helmed 3 episodes of the show as a director, including the pilot. Holmes stars in the series as a fictionalized version of himself, alongside a number of incredible comedic talents including Artie Lange, Lauren Lapkus, George Basil, T.J. Miller, Hannibal Buress, Bill Burr, John Mulaney, and Severance‘s Zach Cherry.
From Personal Tragedy To Stand-Up Comedy
The premise of the series centers on Pete Holmes, a devout evangelical christian and aspiring youth pastor, who comes home one day to find his wife cheating on him with another man. This incident causes a crisis of faith within Pete, that sends him crashing out of his bubble, and crashing on the couches of a few of his newfound friends. As Pete progressively begins hanging out with more stand-up comics, he develops a taste for the humorous but demanding art form, and starts performing himself.
True Slice-Of-Life Comedy
Along the way, Pete discovers the hard way that breaking into the comedy industry is incredibly difficult, all while sticking out like a sore thumb as he surrounds himself with binge-drinkers, drug addicts, and other damaged miscreants who take to the stage. Much of the dialogue in Crashing is improvised, and based on real experiences held by each of the comedians who appear in the show. The result is a series that feels all too real while still offering nuggets of hilarity to the viewing public.
3 Seasons Is A Light Weekend Binge
Today, Crashing touts a staggering 90 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and continues to bring in new fans with each passing year. Despite the show’s critical success, HBO cancelled Crashing after 3 seasons. Holmes announced an effort to explore the possibility of concluding the series with a film adaptation in 2019, though no such film has materialized as of this writing.
Real Life Picks Up Where Crashing Left Off
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Despite failing to receive a proper ending, the final moments of Crashing do serve as a nice conclusion to the series, especially since fans of Pete Holmes’ stand-up comedy already know how the true story ultimately ends. Crashing is fairly concise, offering only 24 half-hour episodes in total, all of which are available to binge via Max. If you’re a fan of stand-up comedy in general, this is one of the best shows on TV to present the realities of the grueling comedy underworld, combined with the highs and lows of stage performances.
