#5. Louie
(Season 5)
No one makes TV like Louis C.K. Though he pulls styles from his comedic heroes and old foreign films, C.K.’s FX show feels like nothing you have ever seen, season after season. Contained within half hour installments, ‘Louie’ bounces from stand-up hilarity to surrealism - look no further than season highlight “Untitled,” in which Louie has a genuinely frightening recurring nightmare - to the depression only middle-aged comedians can feel. If the highly reflective fourth season was about the past, season five is all about the present. Raising kids, chatting with millennials who see you as extinct, endless work schedules, and relationship woes all factor heavily in this year. No episode better nails what made this season so great than “Bobby’s House,” a jam-packed episode that finds C.K. dealing with his brother’s (and his own) insecurity, getting beat up by a woman on the street, and then being made up and violated by his on-again-off-again girlfriend Pamela (Pamela Adlon, better than ever). Each beat feels unexpected, hilarious, and revelatory. There was no better comedy on air this year.
(Season 5)
No one makes TV like Louis C.K. Though he pulls styles from his comedic heroes and old foreign films, C.K.’s FX show feels like nothing you have ever seen, season after season. Contained within half hour installments, ‘Louie’ bounces from stand-up hilarity to surrealism - look no further than season highlight “Untitled,” in which Louie has a genuinely frightening recurring nightmare - to the depression only middle-aged comedians can feel. If the highly reflective fourth season was about the past, season five is all about the present. Raising kids, chatting with millennials who see you as extinct, endless work schedules, and relationship woes all factor heavily in this year. No episode better nails what made this season so great than “Bobby’s House,” a jam-packed episode that finds C.K. dealing with his brother’s (and his own) insecurity, getting beat up by a woman on the street, and then being made up and violated by his on-again-off-again girlfriend Pamela (Pamela Adlon, better than ever). Each beat feels unexpected, hilarious, and revelatory. There was no better comedy on air this year.