Louie
On paper, it was the most familiar of TV-show concepts: stand-up comic adapts his act into a sitcom. In practice, this low-budget, high-performance comedy was thoroughly and delightfully idiosyncratic. The ever acerbic Louis C.K. starred in, wrote, directed and edited this series, giving it a personal, auteuristic feel closer to a short film series than a TV sitcom. Louie wasn't bound by rules or consistency: from week to week, or even within the same episode, it could be surreal, scatalogically funny, nostalgic, raunchy or deeply dramatic. But the wildly different episodes were united by their themes: Louis C.K.'s thoughtful, world-weary takes on middle age, mortality, sex, religion and hands-on single fatherhood. Louie did one of the simplest yet rarest things TV can do — capturing a voice in the form of a story — and made it look easy. (FX)