Unlike the the surprise "release" of Rihanna's new album, Louis C.K. purposely, and not to mention quietly, released a new show on his website Saturday. (No, that pairing isn't weird. See: SNL.) The project is one of the comedian's latest works as Louie is on hiatus. For fans who don't know what to make of Horace and Pete starring C.K. and co-starring Steve Buscemi, C.K. wrote an email to his website subscribers talking about the show in which he explains its sudden release and why he's charging viewers for each episode.
According to The Wrap, Horace and Pete sees C.K. and Buscemi as owners of a "100-year-old Brooklyn dive bar." C.K. has only released the first episode, but tells fans in an email that the second episode (currently being shot) will be released Saturday. Besides writing, producing, and directing Horace and Pete, C.K. adds that he's, "distributing and financing [it] on my own." And that's why he's charging viewers for each episode (More on that later.)
As to why the sudden release C.K. explained he wanted viewers to jump into the show without having any notion about it. "Part of the idea behind launching it on the site was to create a show in a new way and to provide it to you directly and immediately, without the usual promotion, banner ads, billboards and clips that tell you what the show feels and looks like before you get to see it for yourself," wrote C.K. "As a writer, there's always a weird feeing that as you unfold the story and reveal the characters and the tone, you always know that the audience will never get the benefit of seeing it the way you wrote it because they always know so much before they watch it. And as a TV watcher I'm always delighted when I can see a thing without knowing anything about it because of the promotion. So making this show and just posting it out of the blue gave me the rare opportunity to give you that experience of discovery."
The first episode of Horace and Pete was made available for $5, which C.K. addresses many will take issue with but explains the necessity to do so because as previously mentioned he's financing the show himself. C.K. put it plainly calling Horace and Pete "fucking expensive."
Viewers willing to dig into the who's who that this diarrhea money can buy ("Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco, Alan Alda, Jessica Lange, Aidy Bryant, Steven Wright, Kurt Metzger") will have to pay a discounted price of $2 for the second episode and then $3 for each episode thereafter.
