The hour-long USO special of Louie was beyond brilliant. Funny, emotional, poignant. Just very, very well done.

Outstanding episode. My only minor complaints were the Aerosmith/Zeppelin/Van Halen conversation is a pretty big cliche and that Louie's pratfall was shot pretty poorly and didn't work for me as well as it should have. Though I did like the logical progression of the Louie mentioned younger bands, until the cheerleader finally had a, albeit a small cultural touchstone.

I loved everything except the pratfall, thought it looked really fake and also don't really buy that it could change everything from super intense to super hilarious and friendly so instantaneously. I thought they were gonna think he was making a move on them and shoot him or something

thanks for the link to that blog, really cool reading it after watching the ep. too bad he didn't berate the buffalo guy in real life, haha

I bet they dont see many ducks in afghanistan!

edit: **** im about to get shutdown on my wrong facts

they were clearly laughing at him falling though, not just like oh thats a cute duck!

When he was naming those bands it was a bit cringeworthy. You figure he's self-aware enough to know that trying to make a connection referencing bands that peaked 10+ years before this girl was born wasn't going to work.

But, it's the stink of desperation that's one of the show's unique qualities.

He said his 7yo daughter gave him the duck idea for the episode on twitter.

I'm just recently getting into this show, it's incredible.

I cannot, however, figure out the love for the Bully episode. Would someone mind explaining why they thought it was so great, or link me to a previous post? Thanks.

I respect a lot of your opinions, and feel like I just "didn't get" that episode or something because I currently view it as one of the worse, but pretty much agree with everything else everyone is saying.

Yeah, but it's not like Louie is gonna know any of the more current/popular artists she might like. And it wasn't that long ago that kids still enjoyed the classic rock of earlier generations, before the constant bombardment of media meant always having something new etc. etc.
Yeah, the credits mentioned that too.

Well, for starters, the show built an amazing tension when the bully put Louie on the spot.

For me, though, the end of the scene was the high point of the episode. It's an honest moment. Exaggerated to a degree, sure, but there's truth in what his date is saying in regards to "mind saying yes, hormones saying no." Louie did the "right" thing, but not the right thing.

And, it's funny. That moment releases the tension in a fun, humiliating way, which is what comedy is all about.

If someone asked me for one scene that epitomized this show, that would be it.

louie's a deeply personal show - sometimes it's just not going to resonate.

imo bully is not a great episode - it's very good, but it was kind of an 'oh [censored]' moment for people watching the show closely, because it was really different than anything the show had attempted, and a very unusual episode of TV.

here's where the discussion from last year's 'louie' thread starts on 'bully' - there are a lot of people who didn't like it: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=291

just kinda hit home with me, but perhaps a bit of it is the 'oh [censored]' moment Triumph mentioned.

i've enjoyed this season at least as much as the last one.

also, did anyone else presume he was just lying when he told the teacher that he couldn't take the ducks because he had to go to afghanistan in the morning?

i like how they never do the obvious thing on this show.

haha I knew in advance it was gonna be a USO thing, but yeah I probably would have assumed that if I hadn't

yes! I was cracking up at the excuse as if he was being deployed.

I love all the responses ITT that go along the lines of "THIS SHOW TRANSCENDS THE BOUNDARIES OF REALITY OF THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION" or "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO COMPARE THIS SHOW TOO"??

Really?

Come off that high horse. Louie is becoming a great show but the first half of the season was a total dud ESPECIALLY when you realize how great the show can be. You guys really need to calm down about this show. It's really hit and miss and yes when it hits its great.

im just cracking up at the ridiculous posts going here.

now onto business - the lion standup was hilarious but someone here mentioned how beautifully louie tied the joke into the show. Can you elaborate on how that happened?

even if you don't think it's that great, I don't see how you can argue that it's similar to anything else on television, or that it doesn't transcend the boundaries of television. what show does it remind you of?

Well it has elements of several different shows but in its own unique way. but i think the whole concept of a show that doesn't necessarily have a direction that conventional shows do was covered by seinfeld in the early 90's. Obviously Louie is much different but conceptually they seem similiar.
His brand of humor is very similiar to woody allen re: a very unique attitude and perception of the world combined with a heavy emphasis that lifes fulfillment comes from his children and woody allen has heavy jewish guilt (some call him a self-hating jew) and certainly we can agree that Louie goes overboard with his white guilt. it may perhaps just be for comedy but its a pretty recurrring theme so it must have some truth.
bits of curb your enthusiam are sprinkled throughout, but louie brings a certain darkness that is very original.

I suppose my point is the show is unique but not more so than seinfeld was in its time, or woody allen in his, or even larry davids reserection of the seinfeldian humor.

extremely enjoyable but it seems to me that several posters ITT put it on a pedastal that is underserved

so your evidence that it's being put on an undeserved pedestal are that it is 'no more unique than seinfeld was'? what do you think the OOTV thread for seinfeld would have been like?

Originality has been done before

Thanks for the link to the discussion about the Bully episode.

What I meant is that seinfeld pioneered the concept of an episode requiring no personal growth, no lessons learned and in fact sometimes the characters took step backwards in life. So Louie's meandering nothingness that several episodes consist of where everyone here writes how powerful it is, that is the component I am comparing to seinfeld and therefore does not deserve to be lauded. Like I said before it's not an exact comparison but good enough to illustrate my point

This conversation is pretty bad

yeah ill stop

Yeah, it was fun to go back and read that.

The perspective of hindsight has allowed me to see what Dids and co. were talking about back then. That's not to say that I've done a 180 or anything on my own opinion, just that I can see much more clearly where the other side was coming from.

I thought you were done with the show? What happened, you woke up one day and realized that you actually are an unhappy 40 year old man?