LOUIE, SEASON 1
Louie is very much unlike any other show I’ve ever seen. But, there are certain elements that are typical for a 30-minute comedy. It is certainly not the first television program to address the difficulties of dating or raising children. Nor is it the first to feature a schlub as the protagonist. Louie also uses stand-up comedy interludes, like Seinfeld, to give the show structure.
But Louie is unlike any other show I’ve ever seen, not because of anything in its form or content, but because of how it’s made. Louie is the only modern television program that is, at its core, a one-man show. Louis C.K. writes, directs and stars in every episode. In an interview, C.K. said that making the show taught him that he did not need a team of writers to help him generate content.
And it’s interesting to see the effects of a show made almost entirely from the ideas of a single person. You’d expect that it would make the show, at best, more focused and intentional, or at worst more repetitive and homogeneous. Instead, Louie is incredibly scattered. It’s clear that the show is as varied as C.K.’s mind, and also just as twisted. As a result, the show constantly defies expectations. Every new sketch or segment is different than the last. This can be jarring, but it also creates constant opportunities for comedy and, at times, poignancy.
Although the content of the show clearly centers on C.K.’s real-life biography (it is about a divorced comedian named Louie C.K. with two kids, after all), no two episodes are even remotely alike. Some are absurdist and self-deprecating sketches, like the pilot and Heckler/Cop Movie. Some are buddy comedies, such as Poker/Divorce, which is actually like two completely separate 15-minute buddy comedies. And some of them are not very funny at all, but contain captivating monologues that are delivered by supporting characters (Bully, God).
Additionally, the show is more edgy (though some may prefer to say lewd) than anything I’ve ever seen attempted on basic cable. A dentist puts his dick in Louie’s mouth while Louie is under anesthetic, for one example. This is moments after the hallucinating C.K. stumbles across Osama bin Laden in the desert and says that, though it may be oversimplifying the issue, 9/11 was a bullshit move.
There’s an auteur element to Louie as well. In numerous sketches, drugs or dreaming affect C.K.’s consciousness in a way that is represented using cinematic techniques. He gets high at a neighbor’s apartment, cuing a series of rapid cuts and continuity errors that mirror his suddenly fractured perception. Also, the childhood Louis C.K. is represented by no fewer than three different young actors across the first season. The actress that plays his date in one episode plays his young mother in the next.
By utilizing such artful methods, C.K. conveys the impression that these little bits and sketches are meant to be more than just a sitcom. The show strives to do more than entertain. It makes a statement about how bizarre and difficult just ordinary living can be.
Possibly the most incredible thing about Louie is not its original style, but the fact that it got picked up for a second season. Perhaps it will suffer the same short run as other breakthrough series, such as Arrested Development, whose genius are only realized by an adoring public just moments after they are taken off the air. But maybe not. After all, Louie is made by only a single man who does just about every job and only draws one salary. In essence, it is a high-budget YouTube video, a student comedy film made by a master comedian. Far be it from me to speculate on what may be “the future of television” in an era when the network prime-time dramedy is becoming less sustainable. But, at the very least, Louis stands as an example of how modern television can be brilliant with just a camera, a few crewmembers and one very funny man.
