There will always be moments in life that let you down. That's been one of the key messages in Louis C.K.'s award-winning show Louie. And while I've enjoyed it's run over the last three years and have enjoyed sharing in the misery of my favourite red-haired comedian (sorry Carrot Top), I couldn't help but feel let down by the latest instalment, 'Ikea/Piano Lesson', the seventh episode of season number three.
Louie has hit a lot of home runs deep out of the park over the last couple of episodes. The two-part 'Daddy's Girlfriend' series about him trying to date the cute bookstore clerk Liz aka Tape Recorder played by Parker Posey was fantastic and some of the best television you'll see. Even last week's episode 'Barney/Never' when he had to take care of Doug, the kid who liked to eat bowls of raw meat was a downgrade from the previous two-parter but still had some really funny moments.
While 'IKEA/Piano Lesson' too had some funny moments in it's first act, it just felt like the show was trying to fit way too much into one 22-minute episode. While a lot of comedies will try and stretch one joke out for way too long, perhaps Louie went too far the other way.
The episode started off with Louie dropping his kids off at school and being confronted by Delores (Maria Dizzia), with whom he had an interesting moment in the season two episode 'Bummer/Blueberries'. Well, Delores has been talking about the events that transpired that night with her therapist and wants Louie to come to her therapist's office so she can say some things to him. He rightfully declines. After that, Delores requests another favour. Louie is slow to accept her offer of driving to her IKEA in exchange for a blow job, but eventually he accepts despite the awkward sexual encounter they had. A favour he will rightfully defer to another time later in the episode. When he did this, all I could think of was how funny it will be if they wait until season five when everybody's forgotten about their deal and Louie gets desperate years later, calling up Delores for his favour which she's long forgotten about.
Things go predictably horrible at IKEA with the emotionally unstable Delores and it's all triggered by a rug. This was the best moment of the night as Dolores wanted Louie's input on a rug and wanted him to be more involved in the process despite the fact it's not going anywhere he lives and he's really just along to be helpful and to likely get fellated at some point. At the request of Delores to give his feedback beyond 'its fine', Louie tells her he thinks the rug is okay based on a few ridiculous statements such as that it's 'blue', 'doesn't smell', it's not a portal to another place' and the best of all, because 'it's not coated with AIDS'. While Louie and Deloroes argue about this rug that doesn't transmit AIDS, there's a funny cutaway to a young couple who see the two fighting and promise to never become Louie and Delores. After Louie's outburst, Delores goes into full-on breakdown mode, sobbing loudly and forcing Louie to lay her down in a bed in the middle of the store and tuck her in as he tries to sort of half-assed console her. This is why he defers the oral favour in the van on the way home.
From here the episode slowly goes downhill. Act two features Louie taking his first piano lesson at age 44 because he bought a piano for his kids, but after they didn't want to play it, he thought 'well screw them, I'll learn piano then'. As his piano lesson with Doris the instructor is set to begin, Louie gets a phone call from previous sexual encounter Maria Bamford telling him either she gave him crabs or he gave her crabs, so 'F*ck you, or sorry.' Louie thought he was itchy because of laundry detergent. After learning he likely has crabs, Louie rushes Doris out the door and we cut to him in the bathroom taking a photo of his nether regions with his phone to examine his crab-infested parts, much to his horror as he lets out a loud scream. As if learning you have crabs in front of your new piano instructor isn't bad enough, Louie heads to the pharmacy to get shampoo but can't find it on the shelf so he's forced to tell the clerk that he indeed does have crabs and needs the product, knowing it works because he's had to use it once before. While Louie awaits his shampoo kit, an old lady comes to the counter and is forced to answer awkward questions in front of the comedian about her urination habits and her bowl movements. It's an okay bit but you expect more from Louis C.K. and this show than to resort to old ladies suffering through uncomfortable poop jokes.
The third act starts out on a nice bounce back note as Louie gets out of the shower and sits down to watch TV, seeing the finale of 'Money House' where the winner gets a $1740 prize and there appears to be someone dead/passed out on the floor in the background. He changes the channel to an 80's stand-up comedy channel featuring a younger, thinner version of himself with hair telling jokes about having red-hair and getting burnt at the beach. Wallowing in his own sadness is something Louie has excelled at over the three-year course of the show, and it continues here as he turns on his webcam so he can watch his younger self on the TV, and the fatter, balder present day version on his computer screen below (banner image). More cameos come our way as Louie calls up Sarah Silverman when he sees her on the 80's special, later prompting him to remember a confrontation he had with Marc Maron years ago when they see him perform. Realizing it's actually all his fault and that he's been mad at Marc for 10 years over something he did, he sets up a meeting. Only at this meeting, Marc reminds Louie that they had this exact same talk five years ago, except Louie cried that time. For the uninitiated, we weren't told what the conflict was and this just felt like another attempt to jam way too much into the episode and get as many characters and cameos in as possible.
During the end credits we see Silverman and Louie on the phone again. Silverman feels bad because she thought a comic was dead, prompting Louie to remind her he's not dead at all and is actually a writer on Family Guy. Silverman is disappointed because as she says 'it feels good to be sad for somebody.' When she asks who else is dead, Louie tells her Richard Nixon which elicits a sad 'awww' from the comedienne. Unfortunately for us, this episode has mostly been dead and lifeless for 20 minutes as it just felt like a shambled, hodge podge of ideas that were jammed into way too tight of a time constraint. Where this show really shines is when it gets into the gritty, depressing areas of Louie's life and we're able to see every incredibly sad, soul killing moment in all it's glory, not bouncing from one crazy occurrence to the other.
Critic Ken's Grade: C+
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