Louie might have given us my least favorite episode of the season this year as all the shorts, 3 of them, seemed rather half baked.
We start off with the return of Delores, she wanted Louie to spank her then get her some groceries in season 2, and she originally propositions Louie to go to therapy to discuss their night together; before settling on an IKEA trip instead. It is fun to see Delores weasel Louie deeper down her rabbit hole of being a fake husband to her and the fight over the rug is really well executed, but I can’t help but notice that there is nothing new brought to this story. Delores is an interesting character, for sure, but C.K. sort of takes us down the same joke we saw before. Maria Dizzia is great again as Delores, with their moment in the van being genuinely sweet, but it just didn’t do it for me.
There are more half baked ideas in Part 2 as Bamford calls Louie to tell him that either he or she gave each other crabs, "Fuck you, or sorry," ruining Louie’s first piano lesson. Louie races to the drug store and embarrassingly has to ask where the shampoo is for his ailment; props to the editor for this sequence by the way. C.K. gets his best moment of the night here when he pulls a fast one and has an old lady customer be the one that gets the big embarrassing scene we thought Louie was going to have. The conversation and line of questioning by the pharmacist is delightfully bizarre, hilarious, and I think this segment easily gets the win for the night; pharmacist FTW.
The final segment is a cameo-filled blast to the past as we start off with an almost unrecognizable C.K. on an old stand up TV special. Before the shock of seeing a full head of hair and skinny Louie wears off we get to our first cameo with Sarah Silverman. She is also on the video and the two reminisce, and it is fine, but nothing really happens other than the obvious comment on Silverman looking better now. Next on the video is Marc Maron and we soon learn that Louie and him haven’t spoken in ten years. Louie quickly realizes that this is all his fault and goes to meet Marc in his home to apologize for the wedge he wrongfully drove into their relationship. The joke is that Louie already did this five years ago and then never talked to Marc again after this. Maron gets a couple good lines in there and the joke is a funny concept, but again C.K. fails to give the piece any weight and I don’t think it works well enough to call it successful. Having Maron being the one who is being apologized to is also a little “inside baseball” and why have the guy on if he isn’t going to talk the whole time?
All in all Louie was very watchable this week, but not one of its finest episode. There are some good ideas here, C.K. just wasn’t able to execute as well as he is capable of. This isn’t a problem, we can’t hit’em all, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t seen far better pieces from the show.
Ramblings in the Night:
-That was a rough first date.
-"If you go to Ikea with me I promise to give you a blow job."
-Why did he say her full name?
-"It's not covered in AIDS and it's not a portal to a nether place. It doesn't make me cum..."
-Delores is an odd duck.
-A scene from a fake marriage.
-"If we kept it out there no one would ever pay for it."
-"How many times did you urinate today?"
-Who is this guy with the questions?
-Is that Louie?
-Marc Maron or Louie has added on more age?
-Silverman is hotter now, like she said.
-Is that the cat ranch?
-Where are Maron's pants?
-The answer to that earlier questions is Louie.
-This segment is a little inside baseball, have to know WTF.
-"Great, or we can do this again in five years."
-"Richard Nixon." "Aww."
