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

oh & the music on this ep killed. the piece on the roof w/the female vocals, so good.

he's pretty much totally given up on the show being a comedy at this point and I am 100% ok w/ that.

this was too squirm-inducing for me. i felt so awkward after and yet i don't think i laughed once.

xp the music is my favorite part of the show

The music was definitely more elaborate than usual this week.

i was rewatching i think ep 1 of this season w/someone recently & they said, is this coltrane, re: a slow lifting horn kinda dirge he uses - i hadn't recognised it but it reminds me of naima or something. was in last night's, too.

he's pretty much totally given up on the show being a comedy at this point and I am 100% ok w/ that.

― Simon H., Friday, 27 July 2012 18:31 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i am not 100% sure i am doing the math right but something that's weird about this season is that it's the first, i think, that isn't based on a set of toured stand up material - the tour he did prior to filming was the Beacon special, which he released, whereas with the last couple of series' he's toured a show that has been chopped up into the tv shows, like word. & there's new, good standup in this, but probably less, & the show also goes in other directions. i don't think they're necessarily causal, but it's kinda interesting that the schedule & the release of the beacon meant he was making this season w/o the same quantity of standup bits.

open to corrections if i did my sums wrong on this.

I prefer the "early, funny ones" (that's from Stardust Memories to bring the Rampling-Posey homage full circle) of seasons 1 and 2 to Louis-as-auteur and Woody imitator...

that episode was fucking horrid. WHERE IS THE FUNNY

I prefer the "early, funny ones" (that's from Stardust Memories to bring the Rampling-Posey homage full circle) of seasons 1 and 2 to Louis-as-auteur and Woody imitator...

― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 28 July 2012 01:14 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that episode was fucking horrid. WHERE IS THE FUNNY

― thebingo, Saturday, 28 July 2012 01:15 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

don't have a problem with no funny
have a problem with recycled archetypes and surprising lack of original ideas

c'mon! the interpersonal relationship dynamics in this have been SO ORIGINAL. seriously cite me some antecedents for uncommunicative guy whose gf must literally drag sentences from his brain representing his prioritisation of avoiding conflict over considered happiness; or manic depressive dream date; or out of the realm of the guy's experience first same sex crush confused by feeling of transgression. i get it if you're reading "louie is dating" as an unoriginal arc but he just seems to be really freshly rendering some of the most common experiences we have in this season. also recycled archetypes idg?

Louie running at 80% quality is still more original than most 2012 television

i thought last weeks was about perfect though. bald, sweating and lumpy.

interpersonal relationship dynamics in this have been SO ORIGINAL
^this

The show continues to astound. This last one was just so beautifully shot, too. It might not have been sitcom-funny but I found myself laughing out loud a bunch of times esp. along w/ Posey each time he caught on to her joke.

Can't believe the disappointment ITT!

Also I think persisting with the idea that this show was ever primarily a comedy is setting yourself up for a massive fall xp

otm, the last scene was exceptional, almost as much for what didn't happen as what did

i don't think that's a crazy misconception but it's not a useful attitude to bring to watching it now, sure
xp

recycled manic pixie dream girl archetypes
omg We HAVE TO SAVE THIS GUY
and get jellied peaches
and i have to put you in a dress
oboy

and the sop to ever so hip food porn was just pandering (and where did they eat all that, anyway? there's no sit down in Russ & Daughters, or is that recent? Continuity!)

ha. i mean i guess that's true of 'we have to save this guy' (i mean i don't think we're at any kind of saturation point in which we can not channel surf for fear of this trope, but it exists). but in this context - schlumpy divorced father & out of his league date - i don't know where it's going, & where it's going isn't usually the point (like i'd imagine in most other we-have-to-save-this-guy scenarios the payoff is that everyone feels awesome about it & that we gather they are some nice folks: that isn't the case w/this, it's more about whether louie even wanted to, whether you should, what it infers about her mental state, &c). the context makes this shit pretty new because it shorts its formulaic function.

xp

and the sop to ever so hip food porn was just pandering (and where did they eat all that, anyway? there's no sit down in Russ & Daughters, or is that recent? Continuity!)

― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 28 July 2012 01:44 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i just don't get this - like it makes me understand the thing someone was saying about how louie is just selling out for the mainstream & replacing paedophilia jokes with like salmon-eating-montages; i really think this show is singular enough that it can stray into well-worn territory as comfortably as it can operate in uncharted terrain. we don't have to lose our shit if it does something that's happened before. the food sequence is like a minute and a half of nice ambient new yorky date vibes, it's isn't his step towards getting a cooking show or trying to instil a feelgood buddy-movie vibe in the audience.

recycled manic pixie dream girl archetypes

To me she seemed to be teetering on the edge of something much darker and weirder than this

xpost I also don't get what would be pandering or opportunistic or whatever in that scene. People like food in real food, and sometimes they stumble upon something new and really get off.

Bagels and herring are supposed to be hip? I can see if they went to some black market artisanal pickle place or whatever, but

like food in the real world

real life whatever argh

The other half of the MPDG cliche is the starry-eyed dude who is able to self-actualize thanks to her. There was absolutely no risk of that here.

eh, look, i'm not losing my shit.
this was just a weak episode in my eyes

black market artisanal pickle place

most fav display names

yeah that's okay, & sorry 'lose my shit' was hyperbolic. i didn't even think this was an amazing ep. but i think it's super interesting & not lazy & valuable for its direction & doesn't succeed or fail in relation to how amusing it is, i get a lil defensive.

All ignoring his biggest failing. Russ and daughters open late? Closes at 8 pm. That was not shot in the dead of winter. I'm never watching again.

It's gonna become Seinfeld except instead of obvious lols its gonna have obvious bummers

the 'depressive jerry' ep is a classic

All ignoring his biggest failing. Russ and daughters open late? Closes at 8 pm. That was not shot in the dead of winter. I'm never watching again.
--dan selzer

Lol, I thought this too

I hate how everyone is referring to this as "Manic Pixie Dream Girl"...outside of maaaybe something I once saw in a Woody Allen movie I don't think Parker Posey's character here has anything to do with awful characters like Natalie Portman in Garden State; this was less "self-consciously unique" and more "psychotic and maybe a danger to herself and others"

the piece on the roof w/the female vocals, so good.

You mean...?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2KvM2T40RQ

Thanks for that!

No prob. I recognized it right away -- it's on a Best of Blue Note comp I've had forever.

(And, of course, a great piece of music.)

I am jazz-ignorant so I had no idea. Not to totally derail, but is there a ton of other jazz that hits that kind of extended, melancholic vibe, with that sort of vocal approach? I'd like more of that in my life.

she is manic
and a pixie
and a dream girl

Wait, was that Cristo Redentor? I thought it was a similar-sounding piece.

Yeah, just did a comparative listen; v similar style, but not the same piece.

Ah, sorry, then.

no, thanks! that's great, i don't know a lot of donald byrd, this kills. the music for this show is new recordings, so it could be a take on it. i am still frustrated by the slow horn thing i mentioned that recurs throughout this series - it sounds a lil like miles' all blues, i can't quite place it.

I did think manic pixie...but I also thought back to when I was single and would meet random girls randomly and think they're cute then start talking to them and be like wow, this woman is crazy and wacky and annoying and thinks she's really unique and interesting but really she's just damaged and annoying. Men are like this too of course. I think NY has a lot of people like this. I'm sure they're everywhere, but I'm also sure NY particularly attracts them. It's hard to tell if the PP character is just wacky fun or wacky crazy, definitely walking that edge.

yeah I thinks a lot of this pixie business is the energy/physique that PP brings to the role

Renewed btw

I thought of this as a quite deliberate critique of the "manic pixie dream girl" cliche.

yeah we had a pretty decent understanding of why PP was the way she was, and it wasn't solely to shake Louie out of his rut. If anything, this was primarily about PP.