[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-55wC5dEnc]
Sometimes I have very old-mannish tastes in things. For example, I’ve been really enjoying Louis C.K.’s new FX show Louie a lot, and the target audience for the show is clearly middle-aged men. At the same time, it’s also really funny. I don’t watch Parks and Rec, and wasn’t previously aware of C.K.’s stand up, but I started listening to it after watching the show. The man is funny. His cynical and jaded, yet optimistic tone matches the way I feel most of the time better than the usual stand-up angle of scorn and ridicule. He has a way of despairing at the way that things turn out in life at the same time as he affirms the hopes and desires that cause the disappointment.
The show is very loose. Many TV writers have described the episodes as collections of short films interspersed with stand-up clips. That’s pretty accurate. The “short films” are basically a filmed version of what could be a story told on stage; “So, I signed up to chaperone my daughter’s field trip” becomes a 10 minute segment that shows what happens. The events and characters in the show are clearly products of C.K.’s mind and world, however the dialogue is pretty naturalistic. Every once in a while, the show abruptly breaks with the reality it has established, and that’s great too.
The whole series to date is up on Hulu. I recommend it.