Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010
Louie, "Bully"
Louis C.K.'s half-hour show — really, series of short films — ranged from absurd comedy to almost completely straight drama. This episode, centered on the middle-aged comic's emasculating showdown with a teen thug in a doughnut shop while on a date, perfectly showed the Louie series' range and humanism. After the encounter, Louis C.K.'s alter ego tracks the kid down to his home in Staten Island, finding that he learned violence from his parents — and manages to strike a kind of strange rapport with the teen's dad, another overwhelmed father like himself. It's a gripping, awkwardly funny and ultimately touching vignette about the messiness of human relationships and manhood. (FX)