Don't be sad. I still want to have your fat, ugly, red-haired babies...metaphorically speaking of course.
I came to Louis CK’s comedy somewhat late in the game. For several years I knew him by name only, as I would hear some radio or TV personality praise him as the best stand-up comic of his generation, but I never actually had heard or seen any of his work myself. During 1 particularly slow day at work earlier this year, I found myself perusing through YouTube, when I stumbled on a couple of the clips from his hour long “Shameless” and “Chewed Up” specials…I was almost instantly hooked. Before long, I found myself voraciously eating up any clip of his I could find across the Internet, including stand-up routines, talk show appearances, and, finally, his show on FX.
The 1st 2 seasons of Louie were impossibly good, and CK’s complete creative control assured that Louie was going to be unlike anything we had ever seen before. Most great comedians seem to go to kind of a dark place inside to find their comedic voice, but when they get the opportunity to make a TV show it doesn’t really manifest itself…but there was not necessarily any linearity or happy resolution to any episode of Louie, no “awww” moment, no moral to the story. And the show floated back and forth between being grittily honest and randomly absurd, which made you never know what to expect. Take the pilot episode, where CK awkwardly bungles his way through a date, makes what seems like a heartfelt (if not clumsy) speech to the girl, only to watch her escape into a helicopter out of nowhere as Louie goes in for a misguided kiss.
The beginning of season 3 has made me wonder if CK has lost something on his fastball though. In interviews, he often talks about how much he likes being a part of every process of filmmaking, from writing and directing all the way down to editing the video. But with that approach and the creative control that he has, some of this year’s episodes look like he’s tried to be a little too artsy. Sure, there have been good moments like the car scene from “Telling Jokes/Set Up” or when Louie waits until the beautiful people vacate the beach to go swimming with the geriatric crowd in “Miami,” but there have been parts of each episode, like the extended shots of the old town in that same “Miami” episode or the seemingly endless food eating scene in last week’s “Daddy’s Girlfriend: Part 2,” that I could have done without…if he could hear me now, CK would probably tell me (and rightfully so), “Hey bud, if you don’t like it, turn the f***ing channel to something else”…but truthfully I’d like more laughs, less panning shots of the urban scenery, please. However, the trailer for tonight’s episode “Barney/Never” looks pretty promising.
Either way, he’s still my favorite current comedian by a long shot, and I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. With 8 more episodes left though, season 3 is slowly becoming in danger of being the lost season of Louie. CK often boasts that he doesn’t necessarily try to make a “comedic” show, and instead essentially tries to tell a good story from which the comedy comes out of. This has proven smart and refreshing up until now, but let’s hopes he drums up a bit more of the funny for the rest of season 3…personally, I have faith that he will.
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