The Oasis in a Vast Wasteland – FX Brings the Funny July 14, 2010

He's like Seinfeld with red hair, funnier and a whole lot more reasons to be depressed... and jerk off jokes. Lots and lots of jerk off jokes.

Louie – FX, Tuesdays at 11pm

Meet Louis CK. He isn’t that famous off the stand-up circuit but he’s deservedly getting more recognition from general audiences. His dark, foul mouthed, self-deprecating style of comedy would be more depressing than hilarious in the hands of other stand-ups and TV writers. CK manages to create a more lovable, huggable, and non-threatening everyman character that gets away with discussing off-putting topics by exuding a nubile level of innocence stuck in a overweight and unattractive 42 year old man. Because he’s so talented as an entertainer his lovable loser schtick has reached a new height of cool. He’s like the James Dean of fat and ugly.

His new show on FX (also available on Hulu.com) is in the style of Seinfeld but in composition only. The show starts with Louie performing stand-up in a small comedy venue in New York City and bleeds into a story line that parallels the stand-up topics with more on-stage jokes sprinkled throughout the half-hour. Unlike Seinfeld, Louie has plenty of uncensored swears, it doesn’t dance around taboo topics and it’s characters aren’t synthetic and formulaic. It’s more like Curb Your Enthusiasm without a complicated blueprint.

Grade: A

The show is already more entertaining than its lead-in. A must see show for anytime of the year but because Louie CK isn’t well known the summer is the best place for him to find new viewers with nothing else to watch. So no excuses. Go meet Louie.
Sidenote: FX’s hilarious trio of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer and Louie the black sheep of the FOX Network is suddenly giving NBC a run for it’s comedy championship belt.

Tommy tries to reach his happy place before the Empire State Building gives him a prostate exam.

Rescue Me – FX, Tuesdays at 10pm

Rescue Me’s season premier usually clears the dirty dishes of the previous season and sets the table for the new one without any bombshell jokes or twists but this season’s start has not been less compelling as previous years. The first two episodes of the long delayed sixth season were sub-par. No big laughs. No shocking moments. No secondary plot lines to break up the melodrama of Tommy’s plight. Last night’s episode picked up the pace and had some laughs supplied by the firefighters of the 62 truck. But after five years of watching Tommy being pussy-whipped by Janet and Sheila maybe it’s time to change the basic skeleton of the show. Rescue Me needs to pull a Dexter and murder a main character. Or someone. Shit needs to shake up! You need to make me laugh… and bloooooow me. Because I deserve it. Sorry, but the Mel Gibson phone calls is still the funniest thing the summer has handed us.

Grade: C

The nighttime soap is fading fast. The show hasn’t done anything mind blowing since Tommy raped Janet in season 3. What’s worse is that Colleen’s alcoholism is ruining her skin complexion and her spot in the spank bank. So, c’mon Tommy. Hurry up and get Colleen off the hooch… or rape someone. I prefer you clean up your smokin’ hot daughter but a raping is acceptable. (Checks with lawyer) Fictionally raping someone… would be… entertaining… Uh, I feel awful for saying that but it’s true.