Oh my god! I thought the second half, Never, was the funniest episode yet. They mentioned him in an earlier episode, the mother appeared at a PTA meeting begging Louie and Pamela for a playdate with her kid. They both kind of ignored her, and Louie said he felt bad to do that. But then Pamela said, “I don’t. That woman’s an asshole. And have you meet Never? That kid is a piece of shit”. He turned out to pretty much be exactly as I had pictured him: dumpy, weird, anti-social, future psychopath.
And I know this will sound bad but after Louie agreed to watch him and then he’s arguing with Lilly who really really doesn’t want to, the very first thing the kid does is just push a fucking baby carriage out into an intersection, causing a big accident complete with a hazmat truck spilling! So over the top I couldn’t stop laughing!In Barney, I loved how you could never be sure if Robin Williams was actually playing himself. He was a fellow (older) comedian, named Robin, and he mentioned how much money Barney had lost him (half a million) but that he just let it go (meaning he clearly was well-off financially). In the end, it really didn’t matter.
I loved Never’s mother’s emergency. “I’m having my vagina removed”.
Most people would say, “I have to see a doctor” or, if they really want to be frank and offer too much information, “I’m having sexual reassignment surgery”. Nobody says "I’m having my vagina removed’.
And then she says “He can’t eat anything containing carbon”. WTF does that mean? All living things contain carbon, which means all food contains carbon (unless you want to count salt as food).
Okay. I might have misunderstood it. The way she said that it was elective and that she had to stay on schedule and that she wanted it removed by Easter made me think it was what I said. It’s believable she was confusing “vagina” with “uterus”, and the business about staying on schedule may have been just been her general weirdness.
The first two seasons were so dead-on as far as balancing comedy (tragic and surreal), navigating middle-age (divorced & with children), relationships with girlfriends and platonic friends, career, notoriety and having a blindinly honest but deviant/nothing-sacred perspective on life with a person who has a genuine heart, goodwill and capabile of unconditional love.
That’s a lot to juggle in a show like this, and the first two seasons explored it perfectly, in a surpring and refreshing way.
But with season three, so far it seems to be missing that core introspection. The episodes have been interesting, amusing, and funny to a degree, but somehow it seems to be missing what the other two had; it’s difficult to pinpoint.
Take the opening of the first episode of season two, with his youngest daughter innocently saying she likes mom better, as he’s taking care of her (brushing her teeth?) and taking her hurtful words all in stride. When they’re done he “lovingly” sends her away, and flips her off behind her back. That middle finger he gives her was so genuinely funny and rings so true on the dichotomy of truly loving your kids, but those times where their unmitigated honesty just pisses you off, but you can’t hold it against them due to their age and naïvety.
It was just so efficient, brilliant and simple. There hasn’t been anything close to this so far. It seems more scattershot. The Parker Posey date was very interesting, disconcerting and endearing even, as well as the other sexual freaks he’s delt with, but they seem more like modern, big-city anthropological vignettes than a running narrative thread or theme. Plus he’s coming across as a different sort of passive-aggressive bumbling idiot (as in the first couple episodes).
I really hope it finds its core again that made the first two seasons so spectacular. So far this one just seems sort of cut & paste.
That, of course, is the joke. It would be hard enough to deal with a child that has a restrictive diet, but now Louie has to deal with a child that can’t eat carbon. Try figuring that one out.
“Also, I need you to know that I don’t say ‘no’ to him.”
It was entertaining to watch Louie trying to be diplomatic and understanding in the face of such a ridiculous statement, and being torn between not really believing it and not wanting to risk the health or even life of a child.
He pretty quickly learned that diplomacy was not the right way to handle the whole situation and that brutal honesty was unfortunately the only responsible adult response. Something his young daughter was trying to tell him!
Well, to be fair, what his daughter was trying to teach him is: don’t do a favor for an acquaintance if it inconveniences me. Never and his mother were certainly portrayed as cartoonishly weird, but his daughter was behaving her age, rejecting any interaction with the unpopular kid. She wasn’t being mature beyond her age, she was acting her age.
When Never pushed the stroller into the street causing the chain reaction accident, and Artie Lange jumped out of the truck and yelled “RUN” I had to put the show on pause I was laughing so hard…
I saw Artie Lange in the credits and assumed he was doing one of the idiot radio guy voices. I’ll have to watch that again.
The best part was Louie and the radio guys. Those morning zoo doo crews are a blight and I have no idea why anyone listens to them. I’m with Louis C.K. on this.
OTOH, this is the first episode of the season that didn’t do it for me. Robin Williams was wasted. I don’t mean he should have been allowed to go all wild and zany, but he barely contributed to the episode. Maybe there wasn’t much that could be done.
I don’t understand how someone with Louie’s personality would agree to take the kid. Especially after the reason was given. He is just not that kind of guy. Too forced of a set up.
I think he’s exactly “that kind of guy”. He tries to get along with people and help them even though he really doesn’t like most people and would rather be left alone most of the time. He’s just trying to be a good person. And he gets screwed over almost every time.
“He can’t eat carbon” is funny. It’s an extreme example of the stupid shit that parents say. There are lots of parents who think that their kid has his own personal kryptonite, such as peanut butter or strawberries. The whole story was about making fun of those parents and the shitty kids they are raising.
According to the credits I think the radio DJs were none other than Opie & Anthony. That scene was great, the wacky morning radio guys ***literally ***speaking their own language, and it not mattering because Louie doesn’t have to pay attention anyway, he just gives standard, pat answers he’s given a thousand times before. I’m not sure if I got it right, but I think the idea was Louie got mixed up about the city names and confused the city’s rival with the one he was actually talking to, so when he said ‘I hate those guys’ the DJs just said, “Ah, ok” and hung up.
I think he used Robin Williams perfectly. Williams can be an incredibly subtle, nuanced, serious and comedic actor and I think this showcased that well. I was sick & tired of his manic man/boy routine by the end of Mork & Mindy.
Never’s mom was as perfect a stereotype as Never was. The modern, ridiculously over-protective, and completely ignorant & moronic parent. When Louie asked her back, “Carbon?” she said something about, “It’s all from China!” Plus how she casually also said, “Oh by the way, I don’t ever say ‘no’ to him” like it was the most normal thing in the world. And the very last scene when Louie asks Never way he acts the way he does and the kid says, “My mom says it doesn’t matter what others think, as long as I love myself”. And Louie just says, “Yeah, well, your mother’s wrong!”
Still running a week behind (but not as far behind as this thread).
So, “Late Show: Part 2”. Holy Moly. David Lynch with his “regular” almost Eraserhead-style hair. The thing with the receptionist(s). The two views of Lynch taking applause, with and without sound.
Very nice. (Of course Mulholland Drive is one of my favorite movies.)
These are wonderful little half-hour movies in a variety of styles. Nothing else like it on television.
Will he get the show? Will he not get the show? Will he get the show and fail? If he doesn’t get it, or if he gets it and fails, will he then consider himself a failure at his career? Will he then try to find a different career?
I’ll make a guess. With all of the abuse he’s taking, he may decide to take Leno’s self-serving “advice” and turn down the job.
I’m also wondering if he’s going to face some kind of legal trouble for blabbing to everyone about Letterman in violation of the confidentiality agreement.
Firstly, apparently interest in keeping this thread up-to-date is falling off.
Secondly, I have a DVR and it takes me a while to catch up. There’s a get-around-to-it disease that strikes when you have one of those. I haven’t watched the last two episodes of Boardwalk Empire from last season yet, and a new season has started. And that’s not even the worst case. (1TB HD in the DVR plus copying shows to the server induces a lot of laziness.)
I’m going to be busy for a while and I probably won’t be able to watch last night’s episode for ~2 weeks.
All living things contain carbon, which means all food contains carbon (unless you want to count salt as food).