HBO new show ‘Lucky Louie’ premiered Sunday night after the season premiere of ‘Entourage’. While ‘Entourage’ once again managed to deliver another witty and laugh-out-loud episode, I can’t say the same for ‘Lucky Louie’. The concept of an uncensored sitcom definitely has potential but in order for it to work, all of the other ingredients of a successful sitcom have to be there as well.
I realize that as a female, its possible that I just didn’t “get” ‘Lucky Louie’ (the show’s target audience is male viewers) but I’m not sure that’s it. ‘Louie’ began with the daughter and father sitting at a table. She asks her dad “why?” to everything he says and he eventually confesses to her that essentially he’s a failure at life because he smoked too much pot and that god is dead. This satisfies her and the live audience chuckles. In theory, the joke by itself was pretty good but there was no flow to it. It went on a few moments too long and almost felt like sketch comedy to me. The entire show seemed to go on like this. It felt like a series of not-quite-funny scenes patched together rather than a complete episode. I didn’t feel like the characters were connecting with each other as much as they were performing with each other and in the end, I didn’t really get what the show was supposed to be about.
One of the perks of making a show on HBO is there can be nudity and swearing. The show didn’t waste any time before they started exercising that freedom. I’m not offended by four letter words but when they’re used unnecessarily, it just seems silly. There’s also something to be said for subtly when dealing with situation comedies. Take for example, ‘Seinfeld’ (easily one of the best sitcoms in TV history). In the episode where they talk about being “masters of their domain” is the subject of what they’re actually talked about ever referenced directly? No. The subject is implied over and over again in various ways throughout the episode and that’s part of what makes it funny. It shows that the writers realize viewers are smart enough to catch on to the joke. That’s half the reason ‘Seinfeld’ was so successful.
I wont say that ‘Lucky Louie’ was a bad show. It was just sloppy. The humor was there and they have a lot to work with but they need to have cleaner transitions from one scene to another and they should limit the R-Rated moments to the ones that really count. Its possible that ‘Louie’ is suffering from a bit of the new-show awkwardness that some programs start out with. Perhaps it’ll take a few episodes to hit its stride. Only time will tell. Another benefit of being an HBO produced show is that shows are rarely cancelled after only a few episodes (unlike network TV) so if ‘Louie’ is going to find its place on HBO’s hit show list, it’ll probably have at least half a season to do it.
