Let me just start off by saying how glad I am that summer shows are starting to return. With the return of Louie, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Futurama, Leverage & Burn Notice I can finally find something else to watch besides So You Think You Can Dance. Sadly, this summer there will be no Mad Men. Anyway, let me get back to the return of Louie with the episode “Pregnant.” This was a very Louie episode, format and whatnot, that we have come to enjoy from the joys of last season. The episode does not focus so much on pregnancy but on what it leads to and what we deal with as people from its outcome. We get the usual setup of a two part episode this time with a overarching storyline broken up into segments by Louis CK’s standup.
The episode opens with Louie brushing his daughters teeth. Like last season never ended, we are plopped into what will of course be a hilarious Louie situation. His daughter keeps interrupting him trying to brush by going on and on, ad nauseam, about how great their mother is and how much she loves it when she is at her mothers more because she cooks great food and she just plain out loves her more than her father. Louie handles it in his usual way by buckling down and not saying anything and once he sends off his girl to go to bed he gives her the finger behind her back. Like I said, usual Louie fare that would not be as hilarious if it wasn’t for what Louis CK brings to the table.
After a break and some standup we are brought back to Louie who is going all out to making dinner to upstage the girls mother. We wouldn’t expect less from Louie who even makes his oldest daughter a mango pop, basically a slice of mango on a fork. His younger daughter immediately questions him on why she didn’t get one and although he tries, very convincingly in fact, to explain why life isn’t fair and she wont always get what other have he still buckles and gives his girl a calcium chocolate, of what I am guessing is some vitamin enriched chocolate for kids. Next thing we know the doorbell rings and its Louies very pregnant sister who brings the levity to this episode and specifically this first part of the show. She goes on about how Louie is being the upstanding un-sunday dad for the girls and commends him for it while she also tears into his ex-wife with some great material. In fact they work together even better than Louie and his brother last season just with their back and forth timing.
We are brought back from the joke world when it is laid down that Louie’s sister is having the child on her own due to the splitting up between her and her ex boyfriend. Thats when we are really laid out with the fact that they split due to losing a child during pregnancy and how she really just wants to be a mom. The way this final scene is played out is what really makes Louie one of the best shows. You get these amazingly humble moments where comedy doesn’t always have to be gag jokes, although they can be high entertaining, and bring some real levity to it as we see here.
In part two after an aside by Louis CK's standup we are brought back to Louie being woken up in the middle of the night by his sisters screaming. She tells him flat out in between screams that it hurts in a different kind of way, like her baby is dying. The viewer is put into immediate anxiety with Louie as she is screaming and he is trying to dial 911 and someone starts pounding on the door. He opens it and its his neighbors, one being a blast from the past in Seinfeld, who are not there to complain to him but to help him with the situation. Former Seinfeld street tough, Bob/Yul Vazquez, tries calming Louie down and telling him he is there to help and thats what neighbors are for. Playing the straight gay man to Louie, who is anxious and out of control, he helps get Louie’s sister all the way to the hospital by hailing down not a cab but a random driver. Once she is in a hospital bed still screaming and in a room with everyone around her she stops and there is just a long fart noise. Yup, a fart noise. What made it so great is that you were put in the moment so much you really couldn’t see it coming. Like “The Aristocrats” joke we are drawn through this crazy story to end up at a straight punchline.
“Pregnant” is just a great return for Louie and this episode makes you feel like it never left. Afterwards though I can only wonder if Louie can surprise me like it did last season. Yes, this episode was a return to form but this shows form was breaking the molds of other sitcoms and not it has its own. Of course it could hammer out a couple of seasons with this formula but I would love to see it take the risks like it did last season with episodes like “Bully” so heres hoping this is just the begining.
Grade: B+
"That pasty, big titted, black eyed, ginny bitch can suck my dick."
"An unbroken chain of shitty marriages."
"911 is for shit"
