The FX show “Louie” Has been some of the most impressive I’ve ever seen and it seems like not many people are watching it. When you consider that it’s on the same network that bought up shows like “Archer” and “Always Sunny” you would think that it had the kind of support from other comedies that could catapult it into being the kind of thing people are talking about at work the next day.
After the episode last week, entitled So Did the Fat Lady, I’m starting to think I know why there’s not a more prominent following behind “Louie”. The show is staggeringly brilliant, but it’s brutal. Not in that fantastical Game of Thrones way so that people can’t look away, but in a way that the show is being so real with you that you want to look away. You only don’t because it’s such a good well written show. You feel for characters, even ones that you just meet some of the time and you get to walk this awkward line between surreal and realism that’s not the kind of thing that I’m used to seeing on TV.
It can be hard to watch a show that points out faults in something that you’ve done or a way you’ve behaved. This show can do that and does it really well.
The episode tackles the way men are about dating overweight women versus how things are for overweight men. It’s an interesting and brave commentary and it will probably make a lot of people mad (bring up overweight women or anything to do with them in some circles and watch the anger it provokes).
It’s good that a show has the courage to do these kinds of things and even point the finger at it’s audience. It’s for the best that this show isn’t on Comedy Central too, because the network seems to have very little patience for smart comedy these days. And while Archer and “Always Sunny” might technically be the same genre of show as “Louie”, they’re not hard hitting and watching them isn’t going to shine a spotlight on you.
We need more of this kind of thing in media. We need more out there that can entertain while making you think.
Pulp & Fiction 