Louie (Louis C.K.'s show on FX)

I dunno I think this show's rly dull and pretentious anyway

Why cant I think about interesting shit and laugh as well? Cant good comedy do both?

Imo this idea of comedy being 'brave' for purposely not attempting to be funny is played out. Be brave, be interesting, be funny....but the latter should be the last to go

i feel like an asshole trying to be swashbuckling & defensive of this show's ~bravery~ but it feels appropriate when people specifically call it pretentious, with all that implies of it having ideas above its station & pissing all over the common man. just enjoy the thing for the thing. are people mad because they turn on the tv at eleven thirty & see something they enjoy but note it digressed from the tv-listings-colour-category for Comedy? I was promised Comedy, sir. who cares. who is sitting in front of the tv enumerating their chuckles like prisoners carving finished days into the wall. everybody feels this because it is funny, whether by being bracketed by stand-up or because of the just preverbal satisfaction of seeing anxious malfunctioning louis ck's dismayed face reacting to something, but a really big part of what it does is play with tone, & be surprising & oscillate ~~like life~~ between funny & sobering & engrossing. it is cluttered with good performances & with these accurate or else surreal blow-ups of things that aren't on television elsewhere. it has this amazing kind of panoramic rabbithole thing where premises, Kids In Public, The Dangers Of Indulging Kids Logic, are just exploded & inhabited. it's really dynamic & fresh & beautifully put together. its structure makes it interesting to watch because by now you are reassured that it won't have a kind of tried-&-true, pat, redemptive episode ending, like say community or whatever always would. I HAVE DRAMAS FOR THAT feels this insane emotional outsourcing, you have a mood chart on your wall, a line is drawn between soap operas & Emotional Involvement. i think i have been to see films i liked by directors whose work i'd already seen, & sometimes been thrown for awhile, expecting funny when now the guy was making a sad film or whatever. I liked your earlier, funny films. but you are holding something to this invented platonic ideal that you have concocted standards for, "Can't good comedy-" when instead you are getting an auteurist product that is interested in its own mix of things. louie is really funny! it's funnier than anything else i think? & for a bunch of reasons, it's situationally funny. but then also it's not. i remember straight up gasping when he hit the woman in episode two. it feels really good to see something that i didn't anticipate or want.

I've watched less than half of all the episodes but I find it pleasing because his format just seems logical and I'd be amazed if other shows didn't start using that mixture. I've seen so many comedy shows or any type of series exhaust their own formula and its really sad.
Louie probably isn't the first to do this, I really love it when a creator has a regular space to do whatever they want (the Love And Rockets comic book is the only thing that springs to mind but even comics people are slow to pick up on how well that works), it helps avoid stagnation.

Plus, I think pretty much everything in the show is supposed to be funny on some level. Laugh-a-minute is fantastic when you can get it but it's agony to watch comedians constantly aim for that and fail. When you see a stand-up talk about something fascinating for a while you forget you aren't laughing.

Yeah, that garbage men scene was hilarious.

But this was one of many comedy shows I was highly sceptical of at first.

the "fat girl" ep really rubbed me wrong. one of my best friends is a big girl who was (before she got tired of the pretension, infighting and general frustration) a talking head for the fat activist movement and the "being a fat girl sucks" narrative that louis is ventriloquising through sarah baker is bullshit. my clinically obese pal had a crazy active hetero dating and sex life for as long as I've known her and has since been in a ten year relationship through most of her grown up life. lotsa people dig heavy girls and it's a nonsense presumption that the majority of poor fat girls suffer quietly... and given how cute and smart and funny and successful baker's character is, it's batty to think she's wallowing in this variety of woe is me self pity.
i can't believe i'm linking to a fucking THOUGHT CATALOG article but, separate of tone, this is mostly dead on:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/jamie-varon/2014/05/13-incorrect-assumptions-louis-ck-made-about-fat-girls/
and yeah, i get that it's manipulation on baker's character's part to bag louis. it's still inane.

generally enjoyable thus far though

Because Louie is a comedian with a TV show and even frames the episode within his standup routine (just like Seinfeld), you expect the narrative to start cranking out jokes from the get-go. I think what's happening here instead is that you're waiting for the setup or comedic framework of the episode the whole time, and this doesn't reveal itself until in retrospect after the last scene plays out.

Who ws the joke REALLY on

I can second the fact that for big girls, the demand is pretty high

I think the "fat girl" episode almost worked up until Sarah's diatribe. Louie's better at pointing us towards conclusions rather than drawing them for us.

Yeah I agree with that.

http://www.avclub.com/article/fat-woman-talking-louie-starts-necessary-conversat-204504

Obviously it's not the same for us, but as a fat guy I completely agree with "don't tell me I'm not fat".

Rarely but sometimes I will refer to myself as fat in casual conversation, and I find it frustrating when someone tries to correct me on it. But I've also been on the other side of it, trying to politely navigate another person's dysmorphia. It's a challenge even if you have good intentions, and I don't think there's a single right answer.

I always think of "You're not fat" as being the bodily equivalent of "Not you, you're one of the good ones."

'you are kind of fat but you dress pretty nice'

lotsa people dig heavy girls and it's a nonsense presumption that the majority of poor fat girls suffer quietly... and given how cute and smart and funny and successful baker's character is, it's batty to think she's wallowing in this variety of woe is me self pity.

i thought this too. i'm sure that there are fat girls who feel like they're constantly being passed over, and those who have robust romantic/sexual lives. the same mix you'd find among... skinny girls, medium-sized girls, etc. i've no doubt that there are social stigmas that fat women experience that make dating harder, but the diatribe kind of posited an universal "Fat Girl" experience which I agree is kind of patronizing.

Someone once told me that some parts of Europe (might have been Sweden) treat fat women with an extra level of stigma that almost verges being a taboo. Is there anything to this?
I've heard some people say it's much tougher in France for non-thin girls.

Ep. 2/The Model was fucking excellent. That whole queasy nightmare vibe. How are people not digging that one?

Oh I loved that one. It was nuts. My favorite of the season.

every episode of this season has been aaaaaamazing

and btw everyone who's like "this show shouldn't try to speak for fat girls, i happen to know one and her life is different," you realize there's a bit of irony there right

that episode resonated with a lot of people. that doesnt mean it was pretending to be 100% universal. im sure louis ck knows not all big girls have a tough time dating. but don't pretend none of them do, either.

btw, his ex-wife's weird burst of relief/anxiety laughter when they go into the hallway was wonderful

yeah but also funny/sad was how she excluded louie from the moment she was having

p decent read here:

here: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201405/louis-ck-cover-story-may-2014?currentPage=1

love the part about Louie and Steven Wright trying to coach a 13 year old to act high:

"How do you teach a 13-year-old who's never gotten high to act high?" C.K. asks. Wright gives a doleful kids-these-days shake of the head and says, "You just can't teach that."

and btw everyone who's like "this show shouldn't try to speak for fat girls, i happen to know one and her life is different," you realize there's a bit of irony there right

you realize my point is not that "this show shouldn't try to speak for fat girls" but that "this show's 'fat girl message' is spurious?

it's not a fat girl message, it's one take on a fat girl's life.

The look on Louie's face when she's pantomiming taking a shower

this elevator set has been fantastic.

but louie meeting a person from somewhere else and suddenly being enveloped in a feeling of the joy of life and difference an ah humanity does get a bit old.

The violin scene was so wonderful.

And also the piano scene.

the argument with the ex that just fell apart was exquisite

but louie meeting a person from somewhere else and suddenly being enveloped in a feeling of the joy of life and difference an ah humanity does get a bit old.

― wat is teh waht (s.clover), Tuesday, May 20, 2014 3:26 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i hate literally all criticism of this show & so will ruin this thread myopically defending it but i can't watch two episodes of this without being so freshly reminded of just the feeling of being alive, of life & the space between people; the argument and the violin scene are exquisite examples of this & weariness with this, as if it's always achieved by the same means or else is some kind of party trick, is kind of mindblowing to me

the argument with the ex that just fell apart was exquisite

― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Tuesday, May 20, 2014 4:54 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

man yeah just jesus christ

The piano and violin scenes were amazing. I felt so bad for Louie just before that piano moment.

The relationship between Louie and Jane is beyond classic, although it helps that the kid that plays Jane is just hilarious. That scene where she's suddenly asking all these big questions and Louie looks relieved when it's apparently just standard bad behaviour.

Also I love the doctor and I want him to be in every episode.

that scene where louie yells at jane after she gets off the train made me burst into tears. i don't even have kids! really beautifully done.

Jane is a really, really good actress

i hate literally all criticism of this show & so will ruin this thread myopically defending it but i can't watch two episodes of this without being so freshly reminded of just the feeling of being alive, of life & the space between people; the argument and the violin scene are exquisite examples of this & weariness with this, as if it's always achieved by the same means or else is some kind of party trick, is kind of mindblowing to me

― schlump, Wednesday, May 21, 2014 5:26 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

I really love the abrupt cuts to black, no bow-wrapping

"How many legs does this dog have?"
"Uh...three?"
"No, enough."

"What's happier than a dog with three legs? A dog with four legs."

loved the implicit echo of louie's map for a date, too; taking somebody to the same place, such a beautiful thread to draw.

louis' performance during the argument scene so next level, also. performances are just out of sight. pamela being just awful. amazing.

man pamela wasn't so awful, louis was such a jerk to her. :'(

love pamela so much, every line of pamela's dialogue so brutal

ps straight tingling at riding elephants

Jane is a really, really good actress

Also exceptionally well-directed, I think. The quote upthread about getting a kid to act high illuminated that side of this for me. That scene where Louie and Jane are sitting on the bench after she's been sent home from school, those aren't a kid's mannerisms, they've clearly thought about every aspect, every hand gesture, to give her that mix of wise-beyond-her-years and typical naive kid acting up.

both those kids are great, I love how they both have very well-defined personalities even though they're both minor (hehe) characters. they're both great actors.

man pamela wasn't so awful, louis was such a jerk to her. :'(

― Merdeyeux

Nah I thought she was being worse.

loved the implicit echo of louie's map for a date, too; taking somebody to the same place, such a beautiful thread to draw.

even better, if i'm not mistaken he took her to the place that he was introduced to by parker posey in an earlier season (sorry, i always forget what happened in which season). there's a circulation of happiness there that's quite lovely. even if some of his montages remind me a little too much of woody allen with the jazz music etc. (he's obviously very deeply influenced by allen but he also seems to me to transcend almost every limitation that woody allen had, mostly notably by actually confronting some issues that allen is content to ignore or just talk around.)

pamela was being awful, there's no way to retroactively put ironic quote marks around something as cruel as "dating somebody? nobody wants to be with you, louie!" and for a moment, after he mistakes the hungarian woman's realism for rejection, he thinks she's just been proven right. even in a more general sense she's being selfish--she comes back after not having communicated (one presumes) with louie for several months, and expects that he's in the same place, and she can just kind of take over his life where she had left it. she should have treaded more lightly. tbh that whole scene hit kind of close to home.

the daughters are really incredible actresses, and louis ck is a great director of them. it is rare that you get child performers who create such distinct presences without it just being the usual sort of child-actor precocity.

the show has hit a very sober vein lately, despite all the jokes. not as much screwing around with continuity and the limits of realism. i'm sure he'll get back to that a bit; the defining aspect of this show, aside from louis's screen personality, is its unpredictability, owing to the take that louis can just do whatever the fuck he wants. he really is making use of the freedoms he's been granted (or those he's seized).

what a nice show. also very nice to see eszter balint again, she was the best thing about stranger than paradise.

that said i rarely have an urge to watch episodes of this show a second time, why is that?

You only ever want to see a magic trick once