Louie (TV Series) Bummer/Blueberries (2011) User Reviews

Real Life is Deep

[jeff-teach · 10/10 · 10 August 2020]

Louie is shocked out of his everyday self by a horrible traffic accident he witnesses on the way to a date. He proceeds to let go of his insecurities and contacts a deeper awareness of the fragility of his own life. "Why hold back? Why not own his real self?" he realizes.

On his first date with a woman who he considered out of his league, he reveals his true self in several empowered and passionate philosophical statements. These impact his date so much that she begins feeling attracted to him. Following his new sense of seriousness, he kisses her and she becomes even more drawn to him.

When she asks him how he's become such a deeper person in her eyes, he tells her about the traffic accident. But instead of bonding with him even further, she recoils in narcissistic shock and hurries away from him. To his surprise, Louie is alone again, seeming to prove the series' theme - that he just can't win in this crazy world with women - even when he sometimes deserves to.

That theme repeats in "Blueberries", the second part of this episode, when Louie seems to luck out with an attractive woman he meets at his daughter's elementary school. She quickly invites him over to her apartment to have sex, although this is the first time he has ever met her. That night, she sends him out for birth control in advance of going to bed with him. She also insists he pick up some blueberries.

Once they get into bed, she insists he spank her, wherein she begins to call him "Daddy" and act out some sort of childhood memory of getting abused. She breaks down in tears afterward and Louie's hopes of casual sex fade away.

Although her actions were not his fault, he is now emotionally obliged into staying with her for a while as emotional support. It seems Louie just can't get a lucky break!

This theme suggests that we love in a harsh world of cold Existentialism, where even the good people are lost in this uncaring world. While that may feel true sometimes, for many of us, it's not the whole truth of life. In these 2 episodes, Louie seems to warn us to be prepared for the down side of life, but conversely, to also really appreciate the good times when they happen.

Bummer/Blueberries

[lassegalsgaard · 10/10 · 13 June 2023]

When you've reached the peak of the fun mountain and have provided existential storytelling like none of your other peers, where do you go then? With the first season of "Louie," he tackled a lot of major themes and immediately grabbed the attention of the audience, which resulted in his new show becoming one of the most fascinating things to watch on television, and Louis C. K. gaining more fame and notoriety by the day, solidifying himself not just as a genius comedian, but also as a great writer/director. He has an unmatched style that seems to have found the home that it needed to succeed with FX, who has been clear in how much creative freedom they actually gave C. K. on this show. With this second episode, it's the first of the show that wasn't entirely thought out by C. K. himself, as his consulting producer and sometime co-star Pamela Adlon is also credited with a "story by" credit. The episode in general focuses on relationships and how that blurred line that we call feelings can come in the way of simply having a good time. But that's not enough to make an episode of "Louie," so C. K. infuses it with more existential questions, this time literally putting his character face-to-face with death in 20 minutes of television that once again levels the playing field and gets right to the bone, showing that life is too short to not just have some casual sex at least once in a full moon.

As usual, C. K. likes to put the themes of his episodes in a dark perspective. His show has always taken shots at relationships and tried to put into concrete why they don't work. Here, he's given up on that real part of this idea and just gone straight to the bone of it all, which takes the form of having some casual sex with a parent of a fellow student, which ends in a moment that's both extremely sad and funny at the same time, just like the very best moments of this show likes to be presented.

All of this surrounds the episode's real big idea, which is that life is meaningless. Louie witnesses something that makes him question everything and every reason he has for living, and he can't really come up with any. If this is the case, why not just have it casual? You're not getting anywhere in this world, so why should you even try. Louie seems to have embraced this idea very early on in the show, so why the revelation came to him now is a bit of a mystery, but it's also a welcome one as it really brings the laughs.

The episode is also very sad. It tries to present its lead character as someone who has given up on it all, but underneath it, it's so clear that he's still looking for that special connection. Throughout both of the episode's vignettes, he initially meets up with these women, fully knowing that there's nothing serious going on, but with the underlying hope that something could potentially happen. It's sad to see someone try so hard to make themselves believe that they don't need that connection, yet so desperately seek it, which just goes to show the powerful writing on display.

C. K. Is very much left to the devices of the script here, and as usual, C. K. writes great material for himself. He's funny as always, and his gift for the best reaction shots is still unmatched. He acts opposite comedic geniuses here as well, with both his co-stars Maria Dizzia and Kelly McCrann delivering very funny performances, especially Dizzia who quite literally changes on a dime in this episode, which prompts those aforementioned golden reaction shots from C. K. Normally, these characters don't return, but here's hoping that we'll see just a bit more Delores in the future.

"Bummer/Blueberries" is a rather sad episode that looks at life in a very nihilistic way, but gets the humor out of it quite perfectly. C. K. Tackles the big themes of life in this, but adds the humor with the two vignettes that are perfectly connected and wonderfully realized by the great guest performers.