Comedy, Must Watch, News
Louis CK Returns to TV With “Louie”
Danielle Johnsen :: Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 11:31 am
Last year I turned to this site to offer an apology to the brash comedian and now I’m here promoting his new TV series “Louie“, which premiered last night on FX. Since no one from FX’s marketing department were nice enough to send me screeners, I caught the show last night and the critics were right - its fantastic.
“Louie” is part real-life, part nouveau sitcom - allowing Louis CK to ‘play’ a character, who happens to be a recently divorced comedian named Louie. The show doesn’t veer too far from CK’s real life, including his awkward return to dating and his bizarre attempts to make his daughters ‘like’ him and much of the plot comes from his stand-up routine. Think an HBO version of “Seinfeld” but circa 1995, with the stand-up material acting as a bridge to the plot not an introduction. And you can’t forget that this show is about an actual NYC comedian because within the first two episodes, which premiered back to back last night, there have already been cameos from half of the NYC comedian population. Its an evolved version of the stand-up to sitcom premise we are all so familiar with, both in its tone and its settings. The show carefully straddles the line of real-life for Louis CK and has moved beyond the studio settings so popular for sitcoms and uses New York City as its actual backdrop.
This is not the first TV project for Louis CK - his overtly realistic sitcom “Lucky Louie” ran on HBO for a season back in 2006 before getting canceled due to low ratings. And “Louie” seems like an obvious evolution from “Lucky Louie”, where the jokes allow us to laugh at the uncomfortable aspects of every day life, especially as an adult. CK’s standard themes - aging, curiosity over sexuality, fatherhood and dieting - are still weaved throughout the show, but now we can actually laugh with the comedian as opposed to just feel plain old bad for him. Much like CK’s material, “Louie” sometimes loses its main focus and there were a few very “STELLA” moments, like when his date just left in a helicopter, where the show goes almost too ‘next level’. If you are familiar with CK’s brand of comedy or if you appreciate a comedy that is far from cookie cutter, then you will find this the show more than refreshing. FX continues to bring a new style of comedy to the small screen, like its hit “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, a program where the main characters are so dysfunctional that you have to laugh at them. Check out a promo for “Louie” below and if you enjoy awkward comedies, in the vein of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “IASIF”, make sure to tune in every Tuesday at 11PM on FX.
