TV Recap: Louie - "Back"

Louis C.K.

Welcome to the return of TV Recap on the FX comedy series Louie. After over a year off, Louis C.K. returns to TV with one of the most innovative, funny, and disturbing shows on TV. Join me as I chronicle season four's highs and lows and see just where he winds up next. His irreverent take is sure to keep you laughing and with back-to-back episodes, double your pleasure on a weekly basis with recaps every Tuesday and Wednesday unless specified. So join the fun, watch some of the most innovative TV out there and bring your own thoughts into the discussion.

It seems like the C.K. is well aware of his absence. In the premiere episode, he opens up with an episode called "Back." Where that statement could be used to define a triumphant return to the TV after a creative hiatus that brought him a bag of Emmys and appearing in two Oscar nominated films (Blue Jasmine and American Hustle), it actually refers to a personal physical problem. Leave it to C.K. to make his comeback into a miserable pain. With that said, Louie starts the season off with all of the spark and vigor that we have come to expect, and we're all the better for it.

The episode begins with discussion on how C.K. has aged. During a stand-up routine, he discusses how he doesn't understand how he got older. In fact, he claims to have aged two years in a minute (probable nod to the show's hiatus). Following this segment, C.K. is sleeping in his apartment when suddenly a gang of trash men outside are collecting garbage. They are throwing the trashcans around and making loud noise. He tries to sleep, only for them to break in through a window and start dumping garbage on him, which causes him to wake up and start his day.

Upon leaving, he talks to Tony (John Dinello), who decides to tell him a joke involving Pinocchio having sex with a woman. Where C.K. feels like the joke is heading into his nose getting longer, Tony just thinks it's funny that Pinocchio is going down on some woman. He becomes disgusted as C.K. leaves to go about his business. He meets up with Todd Barry, who suggests that in order to relieve stress that C.K. stop being a good father and just abandon them. Barry doesn't claim this from experience, but instead suggests that fathers are negligent role models anyways.

C.K.

Upon picking up his daughters Jane (Ursula Parker) and Lily (Hadley Delany), he takes them back to his apartment to hang out and cook them dinner. When that ends, he decides to call a babysitter and hang out with his friends. This includes Sarah Silverman, Jim Norton, Nick DiPaolo, Rick Crom, and William Stephenson. Talk quickly turns to masturbation technique and Norton discusses how he uses a vibrator in order to get pleasure. Nobody believes him, but it gives him comfort and it convinces C.K. to try it out.

He goes to a women's lingerie shop, where he attempts to order a vibrator. Things go wrong when he points to one and suddenly his back goes out. He leaves a room full of concerned individuals and has an old lady help him get a cab as he sits on the sidewalk in pain. Upon arriving at his new doctor, as his old one died, he eagerly tries to begin getting ideas on how to get better. He talks to Dr. Bigelow (Charles Grodin), who is not interested in giving C.K. a legitimate answer and instead says to deal with it and come back when he has a blood disease. His secretary (Susan Blommaert) gives him advice that involves using a vibrating stick to massage his back. He goes out and buys one before closing himself off. 

He ends the episode by talking about the difference of perception of being old in your 30's compared to your 40's. From his standpoint, being in your 30's can involve murdering someone and still have a good life afterwards. 40 not so much.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Charles Grodin

Oh Louie, how I have missed you. The show comes back with a vengeance and what is probably one of the dirtiest episodes in the show's run. Not that anything disgusting is done, but for those offended by talk of vibrators, cock rings, and parental negligence, go somewhere else. This is all legitimate concerns to Louie in 2014 and reflects what the show does best. Unlike any other program, it manages to skirt between bleak dramatic elements and straight-up comedy. Where the back problem is a real stake, it is mixed in with a group of comedians talking about sex and him doing funny Beatles voices for his kids. The show runs the gamut of aspects in 30 minutes, and that is rather impressive. It feels spontaneous and therefore flows with its own sense of realism that maybe isn't all that real (that trash man gag for one), but is more relative than any other sitcom out there.

C.K. hasn't really changed that much either. He is still the somewhat overweight comedian who doesn't quite get the respect that he deserves. Even then, there is one change that is kind of endearing. The growth of Hadley Delaney and Ursula Parker. It is crazy to think that last time they were seen in season three's finale, they were almost two feet shorter each. As they made their debut in tonight's episode, they felt like new actors. They were taller and while still innocent, had a sense of experience in them. They still maintain the charm, but there isn't much to mask the age. Luckily their characters have aged in real time as well, or at least they should if they are given topics like writing letters to AIDS. 

I know that it isn't right to harp on the opening credits sequence, but since the middle of season three, it feels like the show plays loose with when it chooses to present it. The "Brother Louie" song is so integral to the show now that it seems criminal to remove it. Even for those arguing that it is for time constraints, FX has a strange pattern of doing shows in a way that never finishes at the half hour mark. No show is just 30 minutes on the network. I feel like it is an artistic choice that while it feels like it could have fluidly moved into this episode. Of course, Louie has felt like it was in transition for most of last season into a new experimental model that defied the expectations at every turn.

I personally am glad to see every week get an hour long block. This may not be fun for recapping, but at least it plays into the ideas that I believe in the show being more than 30 minutes of jokes. It is its own strange universe where it takes its time. In fact, "Back" feels strangely connected yet fluid. This does feel like one of the most surreal tangents in the show's history, but they are all relative. It is most likely a study of stress and trying to have those moments to relax, which comes in the form of a vibrating stick. Getting older, one must learn to appreciate that time, and that is the overarching themes of these segments. If anything, I believe that Louie's biggest success is combining thematically similar topics without much concern over their plots.

It is exciting to have the show back and in such top form once again. I am not entirely sure where the next few weeks are likely to take us, but it will be fun to find out. Let's just hope that C.K.'s juices are pumped enough that he won't be gone for long after this. Let us cherish the next few weeks and realize the genius of the show. As in keeping with tradition, I will do recaps for each episode, never combined. This means that unless the pattern changes, I will be doing them on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Come back tomorrow when "Model" is discussed. In two episodes, the show suggests that it is back with a vengeance, and we're not quite ready for its wrath.