Louis C.K. has found his voice. He's always been unaffected, without gimmicks, both as a stand up and as a comedic actor, but he now speaks and acts with near elegant confidence. His old HBO show "Lucky Louie" was original, edgy and often hilarious, but it was basically a sitcom, and even though it thoroughly mocked its own premises, it felt constrained by its traditional format. He was also quite raw as an actor and his rhythm was often awkward and rushed. But this latest project has him portraying a much more genuine version of himself and it takes its sweet time setting up and delivering its original punchlines. The humor now is very organic, arising not from slapstick absurdity but from honesty of character. Integrity is a word that just might pop up in a more competent review.
Like Seinfeld who inter-cut his show with staged fragments of his live routine, Louie uses his nightly club sessions to vent his daily frustrations, but the mood and feel is very different because Louis C.K. is not just riffing on airline peanuts and oddly buttoning shirts. He's also describing his complex, often extreme reactions to being alive. His carefully argued opinions on the inane and demoralizing nature of modern urban life are brilliant. Taboos are the targets at which the better comics aim their lacerating wit most emphatically, and the taboo that Louis mercilessly eviscerates most is fatherhood. If his frequently profane and sinister comments on parenting weren't so poignantly true and uncomfortably familiar they'd qualify as grounds for denial of custody. His honesty in expressing just how tedious, cold, and bland so much of his waking time actually is only works to heighten the comedic impact of his concise eloquent rants. His pacing and timing are at expert level now, as he has relaxed into himself; his aging, decaying, disappointing self. That's the kind of truth that "reality" TV could never pick out of a police line up.
The supporting players are all sensational and equally genuine. His friends, cohorts, and sociopath side kicks are marvelously candid and natural. Together they have some of the most entertaining, informative and enlightened discussions on life's more sensitive subjects. And they do it while exchanging great dick jokes. Pamela Adlon, who played his tough, often stressed working wife on the old HBO show, joins him again but now as a more crass and disillusioned fellow single parent. And the recurring visits of Ricky Gervais' maniacally demented doctor are sublimely outrageous, positively some of the most excruciatingly intense laughter I've ever experienced. That pudgy Brit is deranged!
What else can I add to this near solemn memorial I've contrived for this most enjoyable, most satisfying show? Just the fact that it is without a doubt the quickest passing twenty two minutes of quality comedy I've ever enjoyed. Yeah, it flies by way too fast.
