Why 'Louie' is the greatest show on TV

You have seen sitcoms before, you have seen Friends , Seinfeld, you know how comedies are supposed to work. You might have even seen Curb Your Enthusiasm and thought just how unique it was and enjoyed it’s off-the-cuff attitude and laugh-at-itself attitude. But, you have never seen a show like Louie. This show is the greatest thing that has ever been shown on television, and I will tell you why.

The Humor:
This is not your everyday, run-of-the-mill humor. These are not quick poop jokes or shameless sex jokes, these jokes are not for shock value. These are incredibly thoughtful perspectives on those types of jokes and delicate observations on life as a whole. It’s dedicating an entire episode to one single, heavily built up fart joke. It's seeing the weirdest people say the weirdest things at the most inopportune times. It’s watching a brutal, horrifically honest episode that has no hope of humor and then seeing Louis C.K. at the end on the microphone; finding pleasure and humor in the smallest things. It’s the humor that is so hard to receive sometimes within the show that it must be fought for, that you are forced to find the smallest details hilarious and that’s what makes it that much more special, that more much beautiful. It’s listening to a man try to honestly figure out life in his 40s and find humor in sometimes just everyday things. It allows the watcher to do the same, to laugh at everyday possibilities, it lowers the stimulus bar for humor by enlightening the life around them.
And the humor is so intertwined with some of the most serious stories you could possibly see, it is almost ambivalent, that it seems seamless. It’s like during a Shakespearean play where depression sets in for a while and then the “comic relief” can sometimes be just a normal conversation or something that has nothing to do with the story.

But yet the humor is what holds down the story, it is what keeps the listener from losing pace with the show, it is what makes the show so good because this is not "laugh-track' humor, this is not "slapstick" humor either. This humor is genuine, it is beautiful, it is sometimes even painful to watch.

The structure: Whether it is three-episode stories, six episode stories, or a season full of shorts, the show keeps the watcher on their toes throughout the entirety of the season. The show contains everything from realism to mystery to drama and then back to comedy. It contains long periods of basically no dialogue sometimes. The structure forces the watcher to interpret for them-self what this episode really means.

The discussion:
Whether it is masturbation or public vs. private school, the show does an excellent job of showing both sides in a fair, honest, and hilarious manner. It casts judgment on both, while overall flooding the episode with altruistic themes. However, some of the best discussion happened a few weeks ago with “So did the fat lady.” Not only was the ending incredibly poetic and introspective, but the episode managed, in only five minutes, to summarize female and male relations. It was incredible and it ended in the best possible way. There are so many more discussions as well, sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle. Like the discussion about derogatory language against homosexuals in the first season. However, the show discussed the subject so well and so fluid that the discussion ended up being genuine and extremely relevant by relying on a fellow comedian and not Louis C.K. himself. And recently, in season four, there was an incredible break-up scene, not to spoil anything, but the break-up scene involved a lot of misunderstandings and yet it ended beautifully, it ended magnificently.

The Acting:
Louie C.K. is the best actor you could possibly peg for this position because he is, in a word, himself. But, it is the people around him who liven up the atmosphere as well. Amidst the buttloads of comics, there are also some star-studded guests like Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Amy Poehler, the list could go on. But the acting is not reflective upon itself, and what I mean by that is that the acting stands out because it seems so natural, so everyday, so documentary style sometimes that the acting isn't acting at all, it’s conversation.

Note: One of last week's episodes, entitled "Pamela Part One" is a doozy of an episode and a meta-analysis of alpha-male behavior, it is an amazing work of an episode because it is so controversial, pertinent and important.

I could go on and on but all in all, the show is so damn beautiful, so damn introspective, and yet it maintains this hilarious aspect. It is still hard-hitting, one that forms questions and creases smiles within the daily life of an individual, but it is hard-hitting with a soft and delicate touch. But more than ever; the show, and Louie C.K., force you to find the good in everybody, in everything, in life, in pain, in happiness, in shame. This show will radically make you reevaluate what sadness is as an entity and question why it is there in the first place. This isn't an endeavor that just constantly talks about the greatness of life. It, in fact, does the opposite, it details the hardness, the difficulty, and sometimes adds just the smallest silver lining of laughter by getting through each and every day.