Louie ‘Something Is Wrong’: Before Or After?

I don’t think I need to do the usual gushing about Louie and how much Louie C.K. kicks ass – if you’re reading this review, you obviously know about Louie C.K. and his amazingly philosophical FX show. 2012 is the year of Louie C.K., and it was welcomed in tonight with a very subtle, lilting episode, exploring a day in the life of a man who’s in the middle of his life.

There’s one moment in ‘Something Is Wrong’ that sticks with me. In the beginning when he is parking his car, he’s struggling to make sense of the signs above him, which is suggesting a number of ambiguous parking laws that may or may not be in effect (in fact, one red sign reads “Passenger Vehicles Authorized” with no follow-up material). When another man parks near him and joins him in deciphering the sign, he delivers a line off-screen that truly captures the nature of this episode in a bottle: “Is it before or after midnight?”

It’s a question really that really encapsulates the mid-life crisis age that Louie is finding himself in the middle of at this point: Is it too early or too late for Louie to change himself? In the show, it’s said in the context of understanding one of the signs up on the pole… but everything from the way its filmed to the symbolism within it suggests the more metaphorical side of Louie.

The easiest way to understand the first question is by rewatching the opening monologue, which can be construed as a funny way of telling dick jokes to open the season of a lighter note… but  for me, it was all about reinvention, the idea of being able to recapture something you once had, or improving on an old self without losing it (as he says, if he gets the new Puerto Rican penis, he still wants to keep the old one beside it). We might be able to improve ourselves, sure, but we can’t hide our blemishes from the past, and in some people’s eyes, this is what they’re going to see. In this analogy, ‘midnight’ exists as an opportunity for re-birth… so when Louie asks if it is before or after, he’s really trying to figure out if he can change, or if his ‘midnight’ has passed and he’s doomed to be the man he is forever.

Everything about the signs seems to suggest this as well: Louie finds himself looking up to the sign in every shot (as if he’s looking up, searching for existential answers). And the stuff on the sign, with that infamous double-arrow that suggests someone can go in either direction. The red sign that says ‘Authorized’ is a clear sign that Louie can still change his life.

Now that I’m done reading way too far into the opening scene, the rest of the episode plays out this mid-life crisis by utilizing some of Louie’s most passive-aggressive tendencies. We’re not sure if he was trying to break up with his girlfriend in the opening or closing scenes, but one thing is clear: he doesn’t have enough balls to commit either way to just about anything in his life. He doesn’t want to meet her parents, but he doesn’t want to tell her off for good. He’s in a comfort zone – just like his joy ride through NYC on his brand new motorcycle, he’s living in a dream world where he doesn’t have to make decisions, simply let life carry on around him as he quietly observes.

The best thing about Louie is how he’s unwilling to let himself off the hook for his own perceived shortcomings (something most Hollywood stars can’t even approach, as Charlie Sheen showed us a mere hour earlier). He tries to fight his “tired” mid-life mentality by getting a motorcycle, talking himself into a terribly selfish and dangerous decision. And it comes back to bite him in the face: instead of feeling like a bad ass and growing some hair on his nuts, he ends up getting hurt, pissing off his ex-wife and having to go through and even MORE uncomfortable scene with his ex, who informs him about how his inability to make important decisions with long-term effects, instead living in a shell where he sacrifices the smart decision just to stop feeling so fucking awkward all time.

‘Something Is Wrong’ never explicitly says what is wrong with Louie, but there are plenty of hints along the way to point them out. It’s a very philosophical and introspective episode of the show, without having to state these things overtly. I can’t speak for anyone in their mid-40s, but reaching the halftime of life (give or take a few years) is bound to make people look both backward and forward at once (those damn double-arrows again). And that’s the beauty of Louie: it can explore the deeper issues of life and existence without preaching or trying to provide answers, a trait on full display in ‘Something is Wrong’, a triumphant return for the greatest show on television.

Grade: A-

Other thoughts/observations:

– Louie getting political? As Louie exits the emergency room, an old lady laying on a stretcher yells out “What about Obama?”

– I love the reaction of Louie’s ex-wife after she finds out he was in a motorcycle accident. So great.

– Louie C.K. isn’t going to win any Oscars, but the way he can scrunch and distort his face in awkward ways is pure comedic magic.

what did you think of ‘Something Is Wrong’? Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments on the episode in the comments below, and stop back next Thursday for another recap!