Louie: The Road part 1

May 24, 2015 4:52 PM - Season 5, Episode 7

Louie goes on a business trip. Vulture recap
posted by bleep (9 comments total)

People don't seem to be feeling this season. It doesn't seem like that much is happening. But that Vulture recap was interesting to me because it pointed out how Louie was bored with the mundane boring stuff, but pleased when something out of the ordinary happened, because he could use that. It makes sense and is interesting, Louie is like a machine that takes in life and outputs comedy, and isn't interested in anything that can't result in comedy.

Personally it was all fuel for my ongoing Louie/Doctor Who fanfic I'm writing in my head so I'm good. The monologue about how he's seen everything, met everyone, etc.
posted by bleep at 4:55 PM on May 24, 2015

I still enjoy this show and think it was a good episode. I like Louie and I like Louie. Even the dud episodes are good to watch over a cinnabun.
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:32 PM on May 24, 2015

This hasn't been the greatest season so far. And this episode? We get it, you hate being on the road, Louie. boo hoo. (Though I really like the actor playing the driver, who is excellent in Blue Ruin.)
posted by Catblack at 7:07 PM on May 24, 2015

Like me, Louie is an introvert. The world, & especially all the other people who live in it, are an imposition into our lives. One of the main sources of Louie's comedy is how he deals with that; will he be polite & accommodating at a cost to himself or will he put up his barriers & close the world out?

So it was with great satisfaction that I watched Louie handling the overeager driver, shutting down his misguided attempts to be social. When he found the driver outside his room staring at the curtains & just pulled them closed again it was for me a triumph both of comedy & introversion.
posted by scalefree at 8:58 PM on May 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

I feel like the show may be getting the criticism it was due a few seasons ago. To be clear, I really liked the show and still do. But while the first season or two were more comedy than drama (IIRC) it's been a much darker, pricklier, more melancholy, eccentric and arty show for a while now. The last few seasons it scored rave reviews, even from people I assumed would be offended by it. (The women he depicts are so consistently neurotic that I kept expecting a big feminist backlash, but it seems like it's only starting now.) Now it's like people are somehow kind of seeing this stuff for the first time.

I don't agree with a lot of the criticisms, or don't agree with them strongly enough that it keeps me from enjoying the show. But a lot of the criticisms are things that I wondered about years ago. Is this season really less funny than the last few seasons? Is it really darker? Has CK's portrayal of women become less sympathetic? I really don't think so. This season feels like a very natural outgrowth of everything that's come before. If anything, I feel like this season the focus has been tighter. Last season was good but it had the Chloe Sevigny stuff and the hurricane and a lot of other things that felt kind of random or extraneous. This season, the episodes don't feel as first draft-y to me.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 11:00 PM on May 24, 2015

Is it me, or is Louie steering towards a dramedy of the mundane? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if next season there's an episode of Louis falling asleep on a bus terminal, a lot of things happen, around him, and he wakes up, 25 minutes later, looking as bored as ever.
posted by lmfsilva at 5:45 AM on May 25, 2015

Plus, how could you not love when he was about to commit to getting a face full of bun drizzle before the cashier told him she was joking?

Oh, gods, the look on his face as he tries to be grossed out but realizes that he desperately wants to do that, then he really wants to walk away, but he... just... can't... And you know what really makes that joke work? The "Hot Pour Bun" is on the fucking menu board behind the cashier.
posted by Etrigan at 7:42 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Interesting that people are disappointed with this season; I've liked it far more than the previous ones. That indicates that something must be different, I guess, but I'm not sure what it is.
posted by something something at 8:16 AM on May 25, 2015

And you know what really makes that joke work?

Also that the place is Jizzy Buns.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:26 AM on May 25, 2015