When I heard last year that Louis C.K. got a deal for an HBO show, I was ridiculously excited. He was (and is) probably my favorite stand-up comic going. When I heard about the show format a few months ago, I scratched my head a bit (I originally heard it was going to be skit comedy in the vein of Chappelle's Show or Taco Bell Dana Carvey) but I had faith that whatever he did would be funny. He had, after all, been one of the most consistently funny stand-ups in the past ten years, from his Dr. Katz stuff to his HBO special and the many stage performances I'd seen in between. I will admit that I have not been fully satisfied with his first two episodes. The writing is uneven and a bit base and the acting is fairly poor; I've gotten a few laughs, but not the usual C.K. laughs per capita. That said, I still have faith because I've been through this before. When I first saw Curb Your Enthusiasm, I hated it. It took a couple of episodes for Larry and I to hit it off, but we did and now it is one of my favorite shows. Same could be said for my experience with Chappelle's Show, The Office (both American and British), and even my favorite show of my adult life, Arrested Development. Louis C.K. is of the same comedic caliber as Larry David, Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, etc., and because of this, I have faith that the show will hit its stride and I won't miss a minute of it when it does.
Review of Lucky Louie
