I BELIEVE THEY'RE CALLED "BRAZIL NUTS," ACTUALLY: Someone here was supposed to tell me sooner that I needed to start watching Louie. Hot damn am I enjoying this quirky, dark, weird and fearless little show. I thought "Moving" was just genius and deeply affecting, and a show that can pull off that and "Blueberries" and the Joan Rivers episode ... yes, I will follow Louis C.K. wherever he wants this show to go.
(Okay, Sepinwall has been sounding the alarm.)
It's fantastic. I hope you're planning on catching up on the first season; though CK was plainly figuring things out as he went in the early eps, it was always interesting and often ("Poker/Divorce," "God," and "Bully," among many others) sublime.
ReplyDeleteSorry, my bad. I started watching this season and have been LOVING it. (I need to watch the first season as well.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, Wilfred is...weird. I mean, really weird and kind of admirable in it's refusal to state or even examine why Ryan is talking to a guy in a dog suit.
A month or so ago, I was simultaneously marathoning Breaking Bad and Louie. And, somehow, I didn't kill myself!
ReplyDeleteYes, Louie is a singular, impressive show. It's both funny, moving and deep in a way that no other current comedy show even attempts. It's also one of the few examples of a very personal, auteur-driven television shows, since C.K. is the creator, star and probably does the craft services himself, too.
ReplyDeleteWilfred is really weird in a good way. They're a very inspired pairing, since neither show would fit well with any of the other FX comedies.
I watched the most recent ep (Subway/Pamela) last night. It was beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I like the show very much, I do not believe it captures the essence of his stand up. He may be the finest non ron white standup working today until Chris Rock releases his next HBO special. cf., Lewis Black.
ReplyDeleteYou really don't read the comments here, do you? A LOT of people have been talking about Louie (including Matt and me).
ReplyDeleteI agree that you need to watch his stand-up separate and apart from the show. I don't study the craft of stand-up the way some do, but it seems to me that Louie C.K. is an amazingly well-studied comic. His material is terrific, but he doesn't stop there: Every glance, every bit of his cadence; every knowing smile; every "ummm"; and every self-induced chuckle is meant to achieve maximum effect. He is just awesome.
ReplyDeleteI would like to heartily recommend sticking around after "Louie" for "Wilfred." It's incredibly weird, but there are at least five laugh-out-loud one-liners every episode. Maybe it's just the accent? My dad watched an episode with me over the weekend, and I didn't explain the concept to him, so I don't know if he picked up that everyone else saw Wilfred as a dog or if he just thought the main character was a man in a dog suit.
ReplyDeleteDane Cook is in the next episode of "Louie." Should be interesting. Here's the new GQ story on CK: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201108/louis-ck-interview-gq-august-2011
The closest comparable is arguably Curb Your Enthusiasm, where Larry David has substantially complete creative control, but it's much more traditionally structured.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that Dane Cook is on, after Joan Rivers called him an (implied: unfunny) asshole earlier this season.
ReplyDeleteAnd me. Seriously, dude, you can lead a guy to the remote, but you can't make him watch.
ReplyDeleteI've loved Louie from day 1, but "Bully" really cemented it for me. I've seen it at least 4 times since, and it's one of the finest episodes of TV I've ever seen. Every time I thought I knew where it was going, CK zagged a different way, and yet it remained completely logical throughout. And it was funny and sad and heartfelt and meaningful. So well done.
ReplyDelete"Subway/Pamela" was fantastic this week. If Louie doesn't think of himself as a good actor, he just needs to watch that speech he gives to Pamela in the market. Just wonderful. And Adlon is a perfect, perfect foil for him, as she always has been.
Wilfred, on the other hand, I just couldn't get into. Watched 3 episodes and just couldn't really get past the scatological aspects of it to enjoy the rest of it. Oh well. Put it in the category of things that I recognize as high quality but can't get into.
And I've been thinking it!
ReplyDeleteI find Wilfred entertaining and mostly funny and interesting enough to watch every week, but I'm not lurving it. Willing to stick with it, though -- I find there are more than enough good moments to excuse the meh ones. There may come a point, though, that the central conceit is just exhausted.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really like the speech to Pamela in the market, but I thought he was great in all of the subtle stuff about how happy he is when he's around her, like how excited he is when she laughs at his jokes. In other words, completely agree with you that he should rewatch that episode to see what an actor he is, but disagree about which particular part. Anyway, Spacewoman and I agree that we kind of strongly dislike the Pamela character -- how jagged and broken-off she is and how downright mean she is to Louie -- and therefore have a hard time swallowing Louie's pillowy declarations.
ReplyDeleteI did love Bully, and, of course, the scene in the second episode of Louie and his friends discussing the word "faggot" while playing poker was among the highest points of last year's TV.
I liked all the other stuff Louie did in the Pamela episode too, but I guess we'll just differ on the speech. Pamela is not a great person, but she is a great character, and I can completely see why Louie is smitten with her - he's kind of a masochist and he completely loves that he has to work hard to make her laugh. I'm not sure she's actually mean to him, she's just abrasive. Regardless, their chemistry is great on screen, and I love that this show can have such complex characters.
ReplyDeleteThe "faggot" scene is indeed fantastic, and I'm also still thinking about the Catholicism episode, which is possibly the strangest thing I've ever seen on TV. This year's "n-word" episode was also incredibly well done.