8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Take the regular ingredients for a run-of-the-mill TV sitcom: an overweight and unattractive husband, a wife that seems way out of his league, their adorable but bratty child, and some whimsical neighbors. Add in the plethora of expletives folks have come to expect from HBO television, some occasional male nudity, and terribly raunchy one-liners. Mix those up with a live studio audience, cheap sets, and an overall low budget look, and Lucky Louie is what comes out. That being said--the show is intelligent and hilarious.
Starring: Louis C.K., Hadley Delany, Ursula Parker, Pamela Adlon, Susan Kelechi WatsonDark humor | 100% |
Surreal | 37% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
What would happen if a cable network gave a celebrated comic’s comic a small budget but complete creative control? The answer is Louie, Louie C.K.’s semi-autobiographical sit-com, which is utterly unlike anything else on television right now. The series has its antecedents, of course—Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm and even The Cosby Show—but Louie differentiates itself with a kind of indie cinema aesthetic that turns each episode into a short film, made up of vignettes drawn from the same observational genius of C.K.’s bleakly insightful stand-up comedy. The show is very funny, but usually painfully so. C.K. prefers hard truths over easy laughs, and the episodes wring humor out of adult absurdities, most connected to the difficulty of being an under-sexed middle-aged single dad trying to raise two daughters in New York. Tempting creative burnout, C.K. writes, produces, stars in, and even edits every episode himself—at home, on his laptop—which makes it doubly impressive that the show’s second season is just as hilariously depressing as the first.
In one of the commentaries on the season one set, Louie C.K. promised a slightly different visual aesthetic for season two, but the only way you can consider that promise kept is if you emphasize the word slightly. Not that this is a bad thing. Like season one, this collection of episodes was shot digitally using the Red One camera. The only difference this time around is that C.K.'s production crew bought and used their own collection of vintage cinema lenses, giving the image a warmer, intentionally softer, less digital-y look. When I say "softer," though, I mean almost imperceptibly softer. The 1080p/AVC Blu-ray encodes are still plenty sharp, with fine detail visible in just about every frame. Color is realistically graded and nicely saturated too, with strong black levels and accurate skin tones. You may spot a few instances of aliasing and some fleeting banding in fine color gradients, but otherwise there are no overt visual distractions. For a comparatively low-budget show, Louie looks fantastic. There are two episodes that also feature some black and white 16mm footage—possibly sharp 8mm material—and this is used to a Woody Allen-in- Manhattan effect, poeticizing the sights of New York and its citizens.
When it comes to season two's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation, I'm basically going to reiterate what I wrote for the season one set. The show's sound design is serviceable and unobtrusive, so much so that you rarely notice the audio in any way, good or bad. On-location dialogue does seem more cleanly and clearly recorded this time around, but once again the surround channels are given little to do beyond quiet ambience and bleeding room for the musical cues. The music is wonderful and totally unusual for a sit-com, though; there are dark, almost mournful piano-and-violin numbers, peppy jazz tunes, and even a kind of Irish jig. For those that need or want them, the disc includes optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles, which appear in easy-to-read white lettering.
I'm just going to come out and say it: Louie is one of the best shows on television right now. It's simultaneously funny and depressingly honest and at times bizarrely moving. Season two follows the same basic template of season one—short film-like vignettes separated by stand-up routines—but Louie C.K. isn't repeating himself. This batch of thirteen episodes includes several of the series' best. There are fewer special features this time around— C.K. does only five commentary tracks instead of eleven—but the two-disc Blu-ray set comes highly recommended for longtime fans and newcomers alike.
DVD Packaging
2010
2010
2010
2012
2012
2011
2013
The Immaculate Edition
1979
2011
2016-2019
1995
2007
1983
2005-2012
Unrated Special Edition
2009
2019
2006
40th Anniversary Edition
1975
20th Anniversary
2004
2011
2014
2009
Unrated Extended Edition
2007