Louie can be
puzzling the first time you watch it. Louie
is not a sitcom. It’s not a drama, it’s not a stand-up concert, it’s not an art
film. Louie is just an experience
like few others on television right now.
I have to admit that when I watched the first couple of
episodes, I felt let down. Louie did
not act like other tv shows I was watching. The comedy club footage made it
seem like it was going to be like Seinfeld,
but the stories weren’t really stories and they didn’t have jokes. The character
of Louie wasn’t even always likeable, with his excessive profanity and
extremely harsh and out of left-field “I’m just telling it like it is”
observations. I wanted this Louis CK (star, director, writer, and editor of the
series), but instead I got a guy who calls a kid who can’t open his milk “a little
b***h.” Not to his face, mind you, but it still put me off a little.
I’m not sure what made me give the show another chance. I
think it was because I wanted to watch a little tv, and Louie was the only short tv show in my Netflix queue. Something hit
me when I watched “Playdate,” and that was that this show wasn’t trying to be
tv, with some contrived plot and wacky neighbor – the kind of show Louis CK
deliberately shows us he rejected in the second season episode “Oh, Louie.”
This was a show where the stories are little filmed observations, sketches of
moments, scenes of everyday life. Louie
wanted to show life as it is – fragmentary, funny, puzzling, alienating,
touching, evolving. It was TV not tv.
Of all which brings me to “God.” While the opening scene in
the men’s room and the stand up about God’s relationship with Abraham were
funny and set up the episode nicely, I want to focus on the main story. (I’m
also skipping over these sections because they’re primarily where the rated R
stuff comes into play.) In the main story – and there are spoilers ahead – we
see nun teaching a young version of Louie learning about the torment and
crucifixion of Jesus. He and his friend are not taking this discussion very
seriously, which leads the nun to bring in a medical expert the next day to
discuss in precise and graphic detail the physical suffering of Jesus. Louie’s
friend is brought up to be the stand-in for Jesus, and at the end of the
lesson, the doctor asks Louie to help him to crucify his friend for real.
It was at this point in the episode that I got very nervous.
By this time in the season, grown-up Louie has been enough of a wise guy and
had enough weird experiences that I honestly thought there was at least a
possibility that young Louie would go through with it. Maybe he would think it
was all a big set-up or that it was going to be some kind of magic trick. In any
event, he doesn’t do it, at which point the doctor asks Louie why, if he can’t
torture this rotten little kid, does he torture Christ with his sinning?
This question gives Louie nightmares as he remembers all of
the sinning that he has done. In a moment of religious epiphany and sympathy he
runs to the church, removes the nails from the crucified icon of Jesus and
cradles it in his arms, begging for forgiveness. This moment was one of the
most touching and deeply religious things I have ever seen on the television. You
can see how, if you were expecting a traditional sitcom, you would totally be thrown
for a loop.
In the morning, the nun cannot see Louie’s intentions, only
his actions. She tells Louie’s mother that he has vandalized the church and
suggests he be punished at home. Later, when Louie explains to his mother why
he acted the way he did, Louie’s mother is horrified that the church would
terrify her son that story in such a manner. She herself is not a Christian,
but she recognized the importance of religion in other people’s lives and
didn’t want to deprive her son of that aspect of his life. She doesn’t believe
in Christ, but she does believe that his moral message of treating everyone
kindly is the best path to follow.
So at this point, this episode has shown how a boy found
his faith, how his faith was summarily dismissed by church leaders, and how his
faith was replaced by a kind of humanism. How then to wrap all of this up?
Louis CK leaves us with two small ambiguous endings, and this ambiguity makes the entire
episode even better. After telling her son that there is no God, that it's
enough just to be good to people, Louie's mom decides to take him out for some
donuts. Except the car won't start, and they’re forced to sit there outside of
the church. Just a coincidence? Another crappy event in an already crappy
morning? Or is it some small sign from the petty God that Louis C.K. describes
in his monologue that Louie and his mother cannot leave Him?
The second interesting coda is a very short shot where a
volunteer nails Jesus back on the cross. Why include this shot? Does Louis CK
just want to show that the statue was fixed after he tore it down? Does he mean
it as a commentary on all of us, that we still willingly crucify Jesus? Is he
participating in the debate of whether the appropriate symbol for the Christian
church is one of Christ suffering (reminding us of our sinful nature) or of an
empty cross (reminding us of absolution and the promise of rebirth)?
I think the answer to all of these questions depends on the
person viewing the episode. Louie (and by extension Louis CK) comes across as
agnostic, deeply suspicious of religion but not discounting it entirely. At the
beginning of the episode, the questions he asks the man who is about to risk
physical injury for “heaven” are the same questions any agnostic would ask a
devoutly religious person: “Why would you do that?” “Why would you take that
risk?”
These questions get at the heart of religious doubt. What
purpose does religious worship serve? What happens if you devote a life to a
God who ultimately doesn’t exist? What if you discover you’ve worshipped the
wrong god or followed the wrong teachings or tried and failed to worship in a
way that was pleasing to your god?
In this episode, Louie struggles to understand his
relationship with God, in the same way that in other episodes he struggles to
understand his relationships with his family, his friends, his kids, his
neighbors, and everything else around him. In Louie, these struggles are honest, blunt, often funny, and
sometimes not. Each show is an ambitious effort to depict an everyman’s struggle
with existence. He may not even understand the fight and he certainly doesn’t
always win it. But that’s what elevates this supposed “sitcom” into a rare and
unique work of art.
Next up: Community: "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" (Available on Hulu Plus)
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