6A — Monday, April 13, 2015
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Louie C.K.’s FX
series is unlike
anything else on TV
By ALEX INTNER
Daily Arts Writer
There’s
something
amazing
about “Louie.” From the moment it
debuted in 2010, it separated itself
from
every-
thing else on
television. The
series
oper-
ates on a dis-
mal budget as a
way to make it
financially via-
ble for FX and
give its creator,
writer, director,
star and edi-
tor Louis C.K.
(“Lucky Louie”) the ability to work
without
network
interference.
This leads to a show that is about
whatever the comedian desires.
Sometimes, the stories are hys-
terically funny (like the Season 2
episode “Pregnant”). Other times,
the series tells thought-provoking
stories (like last season’s “Into
the Woods” and “So Did the Fat
Lady”). Four episodes into the fifth
season, nothing’s changed for the
show. It continues to mix up its
tone in a way that creates a fasci-
nating series.
As usual, “Louie” follows the life
of a fictional version of Louis C.K.
(referred to as Louie). He performs
stand-up, dates Pamela (Pamela
Adlon, who played his wife on
“Lucky Louie”) and raises his two
daughters. Louie’s various roles
are built into the first four episodes
of the new season, which include
Louie attending a potluck, going
to a cooking store, running into his
sister’s ex-boyfriend and spending
some time with his brother.
Within those stories, “Louie”
shows exactly how funny it can be,
and how it can tackle some more
serious topics as well. The first
episode, “Potluck,” falls under one
of the funnier ones in the group.
Louie’s scene where he has sex
with a surrogate (played by Uni-
versity alum Celia Keenan-Bolger,
a Broadway veteran) is incredibly
uncomfortable, but C.K., per usual,
finds humor in that discomfort.
However, the season’s third episode
features two of the show’s most
intriguing stories. In the cold open,
Louie talks to a millennial, and the
result is a scene that is both hysteri-
cal and makes Louie look sad in a
new way. The second half of the
episode has Louie running into his
sister’s ex, played by Michael Rap-
paport (“Justified”), an unlikeable
man. Rappaport and C.K. are bril-
liant in creating their relationship,
in a turn that could easily earn Rap-
paport an Emmy nomination for
Guest Actor in a Comedy.
However, “Louie” ’s storytelling
doesn’t just shine in the stories-of-
the-week. It also does a wonder-
ful job of telling the ongoing story
of Louie and Pamela’s relation-
ship. Though the show did multi-
part episodes in the past, it didn’t
really approach serialized stories
until last season, which ended
with a three-parter about Louie’s
unfolding relationship with his ex-
girlfriend Pamela, and two of the
four episodes continue that story-
line. Adlon and C.K. have fantas-
tic chemistry, and C.K. uses that
to construct some brilliant jokes
(look out for a scene in a movie
theater). However, it’s the dramat-
ic aspect of this arc that is more
notable. In a way, these stories are
sad in the manner in which they
play out, but on the other hand,
they show two people who genu-
inely have feelings for each other,
which makes the end of the fourth
episode that much more powerful.
There’s
nothing
else
that
matches “Louie” ’s perfect bal-
ance of tones on television. While
a few other shows have tried to
copy the model (most notably
“Maron” at IFC), none have come
close to matching the pitch-perfect
mix that makes the series special.
Hopefully the low premiere rat-
ings are still high enough for FX
to continue to support C.K.’s vision
because what he’s turning out is
truly great.
‘Louie’ still stuns
in fifth season
TV REVIEW
FX
“We’re not mad, we’re just disappointed.”
A
Louie
Season Five,
Four Episodes
Screened
Thursdays at
10:30 p.m.
FX
Coachella: The best
and worst of times
By RACHEL KERR
Daily Arts Wrtier
This weekend, my Instagram
filled with photos of friends –
you know those friends you used
to get drunk with in high school
but, like, not actually hang out
with? – as they ran through the
California desert wearing flow-
er head bands and flash-tats.
Because they’re at Coachella.
And I’m not. For the first time
in three years. If I sound bitter,
it’s because I am. Still, those
days in the Indio heat hold some
of my fondest memories: my
best times and my worst times,
filled with some wise decisions
and some foolish ones.
It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times. Best when
you’re approaching the scorch-
ing desert, your car equally
packed with sticky limbs and
stuffed luggage and some Drake
song blaring through the speak-
ers, worst when you reach the
sprawling polo field a little
after midnight and have to wait
hours in a line of cars rang-
ing from Mercedes to Mazdas,
Camaros to Camrys, before
you can unload; best when
those hours lead to the forma-
tion of unconventional friend-
ships, worst when some of those
new friends wear “GYM, TAN,
LAX” T-shirts and eat all your
flavor-blasted
goldfish;
best
when your feet first touch the
field’s floor, worst when your
feet get run over moments after
they first touch that dead grass
(though you miraculously don’t
break any toes); best when you
cry watching Jeff Mangum,
worst when your friends make
you stand through a Skrillex
set; best when you’re laugh-
ing as you hold a heavy-duty
garbage bag for your friend to
vomit in, worst when that same
friend has to hold your hair
back as you throw up publicly
in an aluminum trash can; best
when you watch A$AP Rocky
perform before you even know
who he is, worst when a naked
woman starts dancing on you in
the crowd; best when you watch
the sun kiss the desert moun-
tains around 7:00 p.m, tinting
the sky with a pale pink and
purple, worst when you feel the
sun rise at 6:00 a.m and with
it, the temperature approaches
100 degrees.
It was the age of wisdom, it
was the age of foolishness. Wise
to finally begin setting up your
campsite at 3:00 a.m, fool-
ish when your lack of camping
experience causes you to break
the tent; wise to bring an air
mattress for the tent, foolish to
accidentally poke a hole in said
mattress; wise to befriend your
car-camping next-door neigh-
bors who offer you absinthe,
foolish to willingly drink it;
wise to buy a few disposable
cameras, foolish to think you’ll
want to carry them around all
day; wise to bring a reusable
water bottle, foolish to forget
to apply sunscreen to your fair,
freckled skin; wise to fill your
friend’s whole camelback with
vodka, foolish to drink it all
before Shlomo’s afternoon set;
wise to eat a piece of Spicy Pie
pizza, foolish to eat four pieces
of Spicy Pie pizza; wise to take
some time off in the shade,
foolish to fall asleep and miss
most of Kurt Vile’s show. Wise
to try and forget the festival is
only three days, foolish to think
you’ll be able to go again after
you become a college student
and move to Michigan.
COACHELLA
“Brah, I’m totes stoked for Skrillex.”
ARE YOU STAYING IN ANN ARBOR THIS SUMMER?
DO YOU DREAM OF DOING CREATIVE WORK
FOR SUB-MINIMUM WAGE?
THEN WRITE FOR DAILY ARTS!!
E-mail cmkenn@umich.edu for information
on how to apply.
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