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

with the netflix

and there is no louie on the netflix

i did rewatch the first four seasons of 30 rock tho lol

so you've got that goin on

goin on

So what else...

Missed the last two episodes. I just got to the "Who the fuck are you?" part and WOW LOL

Louie's teenage agent/manager/whatever made my evening.

Dane Cook thing was handled well. Sitcom frustration at the beginning was great.

fuck el paso in the ass

great ep

Longtime ILM'er, first time ILE'er...glad to see a thread about this show. I loved the first season of Louie so much, and still think he's better than anything on except Curb, but does anyone feel that the 2nd season eps so far are not as good as first season's? Still great, but its edge is slightly dulled. He seems like he's lacing the shows with this subtle I'm such a great guy thing, even when he's humbled. Also, I know there was an episode explaining how he got the cushy new brownstone, but I can't help but hear some producer saying, "You HAVE to be in a big beautiful apartment for the female demo [sexist of me?], no more of this verite stuff". Just little things like that. His sublime ability to create cringes feels diminished, like an accomodation to becoming more mainstream.
I'd be happy to be corrected, reminded of specific eps that refute this, but just wondering if anyone else feels the same. Thanks!

He seems like he's lacing the shows with this subtle I'm such a great guy thing, even when he's humbled.

He veered close to this in the 1st season too (thinking specifically of the poker convo about homophobia)

I haven't seen the new episode yet.. he actually somehow bought the 17m dollar house??

i think iago is referring to the place he's currently in

i'm behind two episodes, mostly because i'm sort of scared to watch the gut-wrenching scene you guys keep talking about

yeah, the new house/apt

feel like this season is on some n/l shit tbh, 1st was good but this is like all time for me

Agreed

I don't see why a nice brownstone is too out there. I have non-famous, non-rich friends who live in brownstones they bought. Not many, but still. "Louie" is a fairly successful comedian.

mostly because i'm sort of scared to watch the gut-wrenching scene you guys keep talking about

― g++ (gbx), Friday, August 5, 2011 2:19 PM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark

feeling u dogg

wait, Louis CK is a successful comedian, but the fictional Louie? How much did the realtor say that apartment was worth on the show? This is picayune so I'll drop it, but the shows I've seen don't give the impression that he is rich, which you would have to be to afford that particular apartment in the West Village or whereever it's supposed to be. (Sorry, as a perpetual renter in NYC, I have a pet peeve about "Friends" style luxury living in sitcoms...)

He never bought the house. He just repainted the one he was renting with his now ex-wife.

Also this doesn't matter because the show just makes thing up as it goes along anyway.

i sorta have the impression fictional louie is about as successful as real louis?

doubt real louis would need to grovel to Dane Cook to get Gaga tickets.

Iago no no me too! I guess I never twigged that he lived in the Village. I certainly don't have any friends with brownstones there.

My impression of Louie is that he's about as successful as the real Louis, pre-TV show.

i get that it's just a plot device, but why would it be so hard to get lady gaga tickets? he can afford scalper prices.

He seems like he's lacing the shows with this subtle I'm such a great guy thing

I've noticed this too. It's kind funny that my other favorite show, Curb, has the lead character basically doing the exact opposite.

After reading that comment I'm now watching the new episode and the whole first skit is about how he won't compromise his principles, which is another theme that always pops up here, and one I don't really find all that interesting.

anyway, here's what i liked about last night's episode.

the self-inflicted failure of the sitcom was a nice setup for a few things:
-that he *can't* say whatever he wants is a lead-in to him stopping short of outright accusing dane cook of stealing the bits, plus he has a family and he realizes that being a "comedian's comedian" is not going to bring much comfort/stability for his daughters or himself
-that his daughters really do mean a lot, because post-divorce, they're all he has in his non-comedy life
-that he feels he's a loser for blowing the gig, and making his girls happy (to the point of having to approach dane cook) is his way of dealing with that and apologizing for that

After reading that comment I'm now watching the new episode and the whole first skit is about how he won't compromise his principles, which is another theme that always pops up here, and one I don't really find all that interesting.

but another theme of the show is him grappling with eventually *having* to compromise his principles -- see the joan rivers episode, or the realization post failed sitcom that certain outpourings of artistic integrity can really piss people off who are depending on you.

comparing real Louis to fictional Louie is a non-starter. he's admitted he's basically taking emotions he's felt on a microbial level and then amplifying them for comedy. the price of the apt doesn't matter, just that Louis probably wanted thought about buying a new apartment at some point

and i'm interested in his thoughts on what it means to "steal" in comedy -- he seems to be saying that whatever isn't direct plagiarism is a lot murkier than that, that people can just absorb things by osmosis without saying "i'm going to take this thing that isn't mine."

I think Kurt Cobain once said he absorbed Mudhoney's "Sweet Young Thing Aint Sweet No More" for the line "daddy's little girl aint a girl no more" on Bleach and didn't realize it until after they recorded it. it happens!

do you guys think dane cook & louis ck are getting married irl? there's no way they could've acted that scene

cryptomnesia innit

lmfao j0rdan

lol

hahaha.

i dunno, i just thought that the episode was narratively well-played. good mechanics of storytelling.

fwiw i don't think there is really overwhelming evidence that dane cook stole from louis

right and i think calling the kind of unconscious idea transfer louis was talking about "stealing" is a little silly

the whole first skit is about how he won't compromise his principles

Yeah, but I think there was more to it than that, and it wasn't just the first bit but the theme of the whole episode. the punchline being the last bit, with Saget (someone we all know is a filthy stand-up who has made a career playing likable dudes on family shows) happily stepping in for the role. It wasn't Louie saying: "if you don't sell out, some other hack will happily step up and take the cash", as it was, "the replacement who was sitting backstage reading a newspaper while waiting for the stubborn and difficult Louie to quit or get fired from the show, was the right guy for that job all along". I took it as much of his own version of a "When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong" skit, with the fallout being having his agent scold him for not playing more shows, and his grim acceptance of his diminished status by having to ask Dane Cook, of all people, for a favor.

right

i mean even dane cook's defense is pretty understandable -- they've both traversed the same topics three times in the span of... two decades? seem innocuous if not inevitable, seeing as their style of comedy is pretty similar

xp

Have you listened to the bits? They're like exactly exactly the same

what are the bits in question?

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/08/louis-ck-dane-cook-louie.html

yeah the scene w/ dane was pretty awesome

my gf was grimacing and being like "oh god i hate this guy" at the beginning of the dance cook scene, and i was like "well hold on, he's willing to take one for the team here, give him some room" and by the end she was like "dane cook isn't so bad!" but then she felt bad about it because she figured that was what dance cook was going for, some kind of comedy indie-cred thing, by doing louis' show. she ended up with very confused feelings about dane cook is my point.

lol "dance cook"

Hah I ended up today watching a Dane Cook special on youtube, I'd never seen his comedy before. Yeah, pretty lowest-common-denominator, but not really worthy of frothing hatred he seems to attract.

a shitty comic is just a shitty comic until he becomes the most successful comic in the country

anyone else disproportionately happy when the gift-wrapped box was an actual gift-wrapped box to be torn open and not just a box with a removable lid to facilitate multiple takes?