# Horace and Pete (2016)

> Two siblings who co-own a Brooklyn dive bar and its colorful regulars talk, drink and unravel their family history over a single season.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/57821

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 10
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy, drama
- Created by: Louis C.K.
- Cast: Louis C.K., Steve Buscemi, Aidy Bryant, Edie Falco, Rebecca Hall, Steven Wright, Kurt Metzger, Alan Alda
- TMDB rating: 8.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5425186/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: slow
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: bleak, melancholic, absurd, intimate, uneasy

## What critics say

Audience reception is strongly favorable, with the show seen as a bold, experimental experiment in distribution and tone, though its overall rating is modest.

## Synopsis

Horace and Pete (2016) is a dark, experimental American dramedy created by Louis C.K. and released as a single ten-episode season. Set in a rundown Brooklyn dive bar, it follows the siblings who co-own the place: Horace (Louis C.K.), a divorced and frazzled owner, and his brother Pete (Steve Buscemi), whose lives are tangled with a family history that keeps resurfacing. Around them orbit regulars and relatives, including Edie Falco as Sylvia, Aidy Bryant as Alice, Rebecca Hall as Rachel, Alan Alda as Uncle Pete, Jessica Lange as Marsha and Laurie Metcalf as Sarah. The engine of the show is conversation: each thirty-minute episode is built from long, rambling exchanges over drinks, where characters share their problems, grudges and confessions while the bar keeps running around them. The mood swings between bleak and absurd, with addiction, psychosis, institutionalization and a broken home surfacing beneath the jokes. Because the story unfolds in one place with no case-of-the-week structure, it reads like a stage play or a bottle episode stretched across a season. Fans of Louie, Barry and Cheers will find resonance in its raw, character-driven comedy and its melancholy look at people who keep showing up to the same bar.

## Shows like Horace and Pete

- [Togetherness (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/54924)
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- [Maron (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/42269)
- [Bored to Death (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/28634)
- [Louie (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/30334)
- [In Treatment (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/13103)
- [Nurse Jackie (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/16723)
- [Love Me (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/79841)
- [Teachers (2001)](https://ember.film/tv/9801)
- [Bupkis (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/130821)

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