Louie: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray + DVD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Jun 10th, 2011
Starring: Louis C.K., Pamela Adlon, Robert Kelly, Ricky Gervais, David Patrick Kelly, Nick DiPaolo, Todd Barry, Jim Norton, Rick Crom, Eddie Brill, Hannibal Buress, Godfrey, Matthew Broderick
Written By: Louis C.K.
Directed By: Louis C.K.
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Buy On Amazon.com
Louis C.K.’s latest comedy series on FX is unconventional, extremely funny and quite cringy. But with that said, fans of his stand-up act will really appreciate this but not sure everyone will. Louie sometimes borderlines on drama, but I find this series really, really funny!
Louie is a loosely based on Louis C.K. life. Louie is a recently divorced NYC based comedian with two daughters. Louie tries to cope of what his life has become. His stand-up act provides the set-ups of the episode or helps changes gears in the storyline. Sometime the episodes feature some quick sketches like Louie taking his daughter on a school trip, having a one night stand with a younger woman, and traveling on a rough plane ride. Other episodes deal with play dates, trying to act with Matthew Broderick, confronting a bully, heckling at a comedy show, religion, and other things you might hear Louis C.K. talking about it in his stand-up act.
Like I said above, the show is sort of unconventional and very original. There are stand-up sketches that last a few minutes, there might be story lines that take place throughout the entire episode, or there might be some random sketches in the beginning. That’s one thing I love about the show, is that you never know what you’re gonna get. Each episode is set up differently. I particularly liked the 2nd episode where you just watch a bunch of comedians playing cards together. You just see comedians being comedians, being ball-buster and hope we get to see more of that in season 2. I also hope to see more of Ricky Gervais, who stole the show when he was on it. Although, the guest spots from Stephen Root and Matthew Broderick were funny as well.
The way the series was shot was cool too, and that would be because Louis is also a director & writer. The only thing I don’t really like is the music in some of the episodes. It’s like depressing jazz, or slow quartets that makes the episodes drag sometimes. I don’t know what to have in replace of it, but think something else would work better. I like when the episode is sort of a gypsy jazz, upbeat type of music that sounds like its from the early 40s. I think it works then when that style is being played.
The reason this show works so well is because Louis C.K. is so miserable at being in his 40s. He covers things that people don’t want to talk about or show on a TV show. The episode where is mom comes out of the closet was awkward but sort of comical the way the episode turned out. The bullying episode wasn’t really that funny, considering that I’ve been in situations like that where you just want to walk the other way. Instead Louie goes to the place where the bully is. The god episode was really weird, but again, not that funny. I still liked what the episodes had to say in them though. Even if the stuff isn’t laugh out loud funny, it’s still a very good TV series.
Since I saw the episodes already, I listened to the audio commentary on and off. The commentary isn’t available on all the episodes but most of them. Louis C.K. would talk about the technical stuff of the episodes, and give us info about what happened behind the scenes, or during certain scenes. There’s deleted scenes or extended scenes to watch, and some un-aired comedy sketches as well. One thing that will anger Blu-Ray owners is the discs have Blu-Ray on one side, and DVD on the other. It makes it a pain in the ass to deal with it, and probably be kept separate from each other.
Louie contains all 13 episodes, but they aren’t uncensored which is weird since Louis uses curses in the commentary. Hopefully the second season Blu-Ray will be all uncensored. The TV series is a funny one, but is an acquired taste. Watch an episode or two to see if you dig it before purchasing the Blu-Ray.
Features:
Deleted Scenes
Unaired Comedy Sketches
Commentary
Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color
Audio:
ENGLISH: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French
Bottom Line: Awkwardly funny TV series!
Running Time: 282 mins
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
