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

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

Didn't the daughter's violin just magically appear in the last ep?

Also the woman Jane tormented

was that an adult actress playing a kid? or was she supposed to have tormented a teacher?

- it was a teacher she was meant to have pulled the skirt from
- & naw, we've seen jane practice violin before, iirc w/louis telling her to shut up

btw to amend & make amends for my previous righteous Naw-ing, i was kinda wrong about the history of actors playing louie's wife; there was a scene really early on in which you saw a disembodied arm sign a divorce contract. white arm. for all the correct talk of it being a fun & audacious thing to do, casting wise, i do think it's also a pretty elegant solution to dealing with some of the issues around portraying a biographically-accurate ex-wife of actual-louis-ck.

love your post, anyway, amateurist; i have the same feeling, of at once feeling compelled to try to go back & see the episode again & then not doing so, maybe knowing part of it was the unfurling, the slow alignment of what ends up being a focal point.

& wrt the sober tone; it's really interesting what he's dedicating space to. there are scenes that haven't been mentioned, here, like louie having basically narratively irrelevant quarrels with his brother, or he & his ex reaching for phones in the teacher's office, without it even being played so dramatically as a punchline. like i think mapping out those parameters of his life is a really big part of the subsequent effect the show's able to achieve. proposing to smashing up pianos to grinning. feels so real.