8.19.11: I really did not want to enjoy Wilfred. In fact, I didn't even know this show existed until accidentally catching the final few minutes of an episode before maybe the 2nd or 3rd Louie of this season. Confession: I don't tune into FX on a regular basis. Although they have certainly put together a nice lineup of original half-hour comedies: these two, The League and of course Always Sunny. So good job FX for doing that.
At first glance, Wilfred seems like it is a bad TV show. It's slow-moving, possibly too weird for its own good, Elijah Woods. Each show begins with a quote and then all but one word fades away revealing an emotion which that episode will try to tackle. This seems like a heavy-handed trope (the fact that Wilfred the dog will, at some point during the show, will reference the emotion by name also seems overt). But it works. The straightforward nature of this approach pairs perfectly with the absurd nature of basically everything else about the world Wilfred exists in. Its using a crazy, unbelievable idea to make the viewer feel something real. Conversely, Louis CK is taking all the real stuff and making it less relatable by piling on a bunch of weird, 'artistic' shit.
Last night's episode's aside*, Louie is not a bad show. It's disjointed for sure (why do we have 2 or 3 mini-episodes per half-hour? I thought this aspired to be something more than a standup comic's filler in between live audience stuff), but it's also really funny on occasion. Worth the praise some people have "granted" it? (Get it, Grantland. You get it.) No, not in the slightest (imo).
The structure of Louie is very original. Even though its roots are really planted in what Dave Chappelle was doing years ago (think about it: just replace "sketches" with "hyper-realistic narratives"). The show has a feel to it that is difficult to relate/compare to anything else. My theory is that, because it 'looks' so different, and its creator/writer/director/star is such a noted, talented guy, that viewers are willing to ignore some pretty big flaws. For instance, what I see are its two major issues: it being way too boring at times (especially for a comedy), and the fact that its attempts at stark and artistic, far too often come off feeling forced and choppy. Clearly, Louis CK has lofty ideals re his show's mood and atmosphere (See the comical opening credits where Louis CK is listed as doing everything). It's missing probably the last thing you'd consider: consistently good content.
*But jesus christ was last night's episode bad. Probably the worst from either season. It starts of with some of his stronger standup--your non-struggling white children don't know how good they have it haha--but what the fuck was that Halloween sequence? First off, Halloween? In August? OK! But secondly, that was just bizarre. If his point was that, despite their being 'well-off possibly spoiled' white girls, his daughters still might have to deal with real dangerous situations (like Finn from the Sopranos dressed up as a goblin?), well OK sure, thanks Mr. Louis CKobvious! You live in NYC, bad shit happens to innocent and mostly good people all the time, as it does in any city, regardless of said people's socioeconomic status. Bad shit even happens to have children--crazy, I know. So what was the fucking corollary? If anything that whole sequence weakened his original point. Oh yeah, it also wasn't funny at all.
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