Louie S2
Louie, along with Breaking Bad, has been this summer’s darling. It has been at least as strong as Season 1’s breath of summer fresh air, and Louis C.K. actually was rewarded with an Emmy nomination for S1, which he will surely lose this Sunday to the entire cast of Modern Family. The critical discussion has been all over the place, probably fittingly, as the show itself is scattershot as well. But it’s scattershot in the best way possible, and because of this, I find episode-to-episode discussion of the show very difficult.
Louie is one of the only shows I watch that’s not serialized at all. Maybe there’s an argument that Louie’s relationship with Pamela is a continuing storyline, but I think it has a whole lot more continuity thematically than plot-wise. I think the final part of the finale could’ve worked just as well without any build-up anyway. It doesn’t take much to see Louie’s faults and traps he sets up for himself. She isn’t the exception to the “if you show Louie affection, he’s going in to kiss you immediately” rule.
But it always surprises me how little continuity the show has, and how that translates into a difficult week-to-week conversation about the show. The episode that best relates is “Niece.” At the end, Louie is supposedly given a tween to take care of, and the episode’s build-up is to see if, in the coming weeks and months, Louie will admit to himself he has the fortitude to do this good deed. And there’s no mention of it at all in the finale. Nor will there be ever, nor did I expect there would be. Those are the things I think about when people talk about how daring the show is, or how C.K. has carte blanche over the production of the show. Sure, he talks a lot about masturbation, but so did Seinfeld. This is a true breaking of the current TV mold.
Most shows would use that as a plot point for the entire season, or at least the finale (which was, conveniently, was the very next episode). Nope - Louie’s finales seem to linger on the show’s thematic elements, rather than any plot points. There’s still no real closure, as Louie’s relationship with his children continued to be a point into S2, and his destructive ways with women will continue into S3 (which - yeah, it’s amazing there’s already a S3 on the way. This seems exactly the type of show to end in one or two seasons).
Thus, on Twitter and blogs, it’s been a weird animal to talk about Louie all the time. Most discussions focused on how good the episode was on the Louie scale, but there was little talk of thematics or plot. Any remaining discussion focused on just how weird of a show this is.
It’s classified as a comedy, but it certainly isn’t - it’s more of a drama about comedy, as this would explain the laughs in his stand-ups and the numerous masterful episodes where I haven’t laughed once. But it’s also kind of pointless to try and shoehorn it in the drama category as well. This is like a virtuoso performance of a rhapsody, with a bunch of disconnected parts coming together as a whole by the end.
It’s undoubtedly a great show, but because of its sheer strangeness, it’s difficult for us to discuss. The reason why, I think, is because we don’t know how to discuss a show like this. We all know how to dissect a Lost, or even a Boardwalk Empire. What’s coming next, the significance of past episodes, and thematic points upcoming in the plot are all main courses of discussion. With Louie, I think, the show isn’t even episodic, as many episodes are broken into two or three disparate parts. Even then, a lot of times it’s difficult to put what I feel about an episode into words.
Let’s take “Duckling,” probably the best episode of this season. Really the only thing I could think to say after the episode was: I can’t believe I liked that guy’s music! I thought plenty about the episode for sure, but there wasn’t terribly much to discuss outside of, “Man, that was awesome - how’d he do that?” Some discussion around that particular episode hinged on the length and what that allowed Louie - but almost everything else was about what other type of show could do a “Duckling,” and the answer - none - had been given in response to many episodes since S1.
And I picked the best, most discussable episode of the season. This certainly isn’t a problem for the show, or even the audience - just a phenomenon I’ve noted. This impacts the episode-based discussion of the show, but there’s a real conversation to be had on the merits of a season, or the series, I think. The show is as thematic as any on television, and almost everything I think about the show is based on one fact: the show is a part of C.K.’s wish-fulfillment fantasy that gets shattered by the cold realities of life every time.
A pattern has emerged: something awesome shows up, the something awesome literally tells Louie it’s not as good as he thinks it is, and things completely break down from there. In the first half of the finale, Louie strikes out at the bar, as he expected. Then the strange, easy sex appears; on the bridge he gets doubts as he learns of his destination, and she begins to get weirder; and F. Murray Abraham kicks him out as Louie learns the whole thing was a mistake. This happens all the time, particularly with women. Louie does one good thing, and everything looks up; then something happens, and the character yells at Louie.
It’s a type of masochism, to be sure - he seems to be writing to himself in many of these situations, although it’s probably good he’s getting it out. To be sure, it’s a feeling many have felt, and a 41-year old stand-up comic divorcee has probably felt more than most. But I can’t help but find the show as a series of letdowns for Louie the character, even as he dreams of mysterious newswomen who want to have sex with him.
The final moment of this season, as heartbreaking as it was, still makes it difficult to feel bad for Louie. I’d argue because he doesn’t want us to feel bad for him - as he says, this is an awesome time we’re living in, and people find ways to bitch about everything and anything. This goes back to the masochism; he knows he’s being dumb when he does these things, yet he continues to do them. It’s a weird cycle, and as Pamela Adlon says, she’s never given him even a hint of a long-term relationship. It’s Louie’s fault, and Louie and C.K. know this.
There’s a lot of dark themes in the show, and most of them have been talked about over the past week. One surprisingly nice note that Louie always hits on is the redeeming impact of children. I think it was mentioned in a stand-up from S1, but I’m not sure why Louie would still be alive if he didn’t have his kids to care for. This is a happier thought than it seems. To him, they’re almost giving his life some type of meaning, some sense of forward movement that we can’t see in the show. Surely in C.K.’s actual life he feels a sense of movement - the acclaim he’s gotten the past two years should count as something. But Louie the character trudges along as a under-appreciated stand-up, and his children give him constant troubles to solve.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we looked back on the show, whenever it’s done, and saw the prevailing theme in a single image: Louie and his kids basking in the sunrise in the S1 finale. I’m not sure there’s been a better image of the man and the character - alone on his side of the booth, doing anything for his kids. And it’s not out of some urge to placate them - by doing this, he’s saving himself as well.
