No sophomore slump for “Louie”

By Stacey Harrison

I’ll admit going into the second season of Louie with a fair amount of trepidation. As a longtime fan of the acerbic, brutally honest comic I wondered whether his style would fit a network show. Even on FX, where he would be relatively free of the pressures regarding content and viewership that come with a slot on broadcast TV, there was no guarantee. But it turned out that the first season of Louie perfectly captured C.K.’s sad-sack shtick, managing to tell often absurd vignettes that nevertheless contained profound truths about everyday life and became something completely unique on television.

But would there (could there) be anything in Season 2 to equal last season’s episode where a kid Louie learns about Christ’s crucifixion in one of the most bizarre, guilt-inducing ways possible? Or the one where Louie is out on a date that is going pretty well until he is humiliated by a group of teenage bullies, leading him to follow one of them home? Perhaps C.K., who told me in an interview last year that this was the show he always wanted to do, would start reading a few too many of his show’s glowing reviews and lose some of that underdog, self-critical edge that makes the show work.

Judging from the first four episodes, that isn’t the case. In fact, the show seems to be picking up where it left off, following through on its strengths and cutting back on its weaknesses. Any worries about going soft or conventional disappear in the opening moments, when Louie goes from being a loving father, dutifully combing his daughter’s hair, to flipping her off behind her back after she innocently says she likes staying at Mommy’s house more. That’s the only joke I’ll spoil (really, though, how can you spoil the sight of a dad flipping off his little girl?), but rest assured Louie Season 2 — debuting Thursday on FX — is filled with those kind of moments that are the perfect combination of gut-busting and gut-wrenching.

If anything, Louie is more surreal this season, and may remind anyone familiar with C.K.’s previous work of his truly weird short films. Pamela Adlon, who played his wife in Lucky Louie, returns as a single mom with a kid in Louie’s daughter’s class. Her brash, tough-love approach makes her such a perfect foil for him that I don’t even mind that her character’s presence in Louie’s life doesn’t really feel that organic. The payoff is worth it. Also welcome is the slight change to the format that now has some episodes consisting of just one story as opposed to always being broken up in two.

It’s easy to lump Louie into the nebulous category of cringe-inducing TV, along with the likes of The Office (both versions) and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But the  character is different in that he isn’t blissfully unaware of his social status and overall awkwardness. He’s painfully aware of it, in fact — “painfully” being the operative word. He doesn’t believe there’s much he can do to change it, short of suddenly becoming a fitness nut and a Hair Club for Men client, but even that wouldn’t alter anything at his core. These desperate thoughts he has about his life, and the severe frustration he suffers at being a parent, which is only surpassed (most of the time) by the sublime joy it brings him, is intensely relatable and makes watching Louie one of the best ways to spend your time in front of the tube.

Photo: © 2011 FX