Quick-Hit TV Reviews of Louie, Up All Night, SNL Special, The Office, and Parks and Recreation

NBC’s comedy block was back tonight, and FX had one of the most significant (plot-wise) episodes of Louie ever. Let’s get to it…

Louie: This often brilliant, sometimes frustrating show is widely touted as the best comedy on TV, with the caveat that it’s not really a comedy show so much as a show centered around a character whose occupation is being a comedian. Critics love this show’s “voice,” but sometimes the adventures of the lead feel so arbitrary (episodes can really contain anything, and not all of it works…see Chloe Sevigney’s guest spot a few weeks back, which took random to new heights) that I really long for any kind of narrative movement.

Well, the last three episodes have finally had it, as it launched the show’s most significant plot development: Louie does so well on an episode of The Tonight Show, that he auditions to take over for David Letterman who’s thinking about retiring. These episodes have been terrific, as it shows Louie (too often TV’s most passive lead character) actually doing something for us to root for him. Garry Marshall’s speech to Louie two weeks ago managed to be inspiring without getting sentimental, and it was downright exciting to watch Louie rally after Jerry Seinfeld tried to screw with his head right before his audition. Still, Louie didn’t get the job (CBS was just using him to get Letterman’s renegotiation price down), as we all pretty much knew he wouldn’t because it would so fundamentally change the show, but it gives this character something he hasn’t had much of this season: hope. Grade: A-…For this episode and this storyline.

SNL’s Thursday Special…Completely pointless. This basically amounted to ONE sketch, and an extended weekend update segment that takes something that barely works at ten minutes (Weekend Update has been long ago surpassed by The Daily Show and The Colbert Report for fake news) and doesn’t work at all at twenty five minutes. Just a preview for the same jokes you’ll probably hear on Saturday. Grade: D+

Up All Night…How many shows about babies are they going to put on TV? Nothing is really all that special about Up All Night, and so I wonder what’s being served here that’s not served on Raising Hope/The New Normal/Guys with Kids/Ben and Kate even if it’s probably better than most of those shows. I watched every episode of this show last season, and I really can’t remember one thing about it that made me laugh out loud. This episode is no exception, as we’re treated to a lot of generic conflicts (Maya Rudolph and Christina Applegate are mad at each other, again, but patch things up, again…Will Arnett goes back to work, which robs the show of its original stay-at-home-dad angle), and a new character, Applegate’s brother, that makes no real impression. He’s a lot like this show, pleasant but not exactly something to go out of your way for. Grade: C

The Office…Probably the best episode they’ve had since Steve Carell left. I had high hopes last year when they ditched Carell’s increasingly one-note (and attention hogging) Michael Scott and gained James Spader’s mysterious CEO, but none of that really worked out. However, this episode wasn’t afraid to subtly acknowledge that disappointment, beginning with Pam and Jim admitting to the camera crew (which finally broke the fourth wall, letting us hear them for the first time) that they were in a rut, and ending with Jim finally willing to shake things up for himself. Good for him, and let’s see more of “Dwight Jr.” and Dwight’s rivalry. Grade: B

Parks and Recreation…Now that Community has been unfairly banished to Friday nights (where NBC is doing its best to kill it), this is the best of the Must-See-TV sitcoms, and quality comedy lovers only hope now that The Office and 30 Rock are throwing in the towel after this season. The season gets off to a strong (if not hilarious) start that perfectly showcases all of Parks best assets: a lively energy and willingness to mix up the formula, as Leslie/Andy visit Ben/April in Washington D.C. and John McCain gets a great cameo. [Just note the difference between all of the outdoor and open scenes in this show and the claustrophobic environment of The Office.] Still, P&R is getting a little formulaic with their characterizations, as it’s now clear that Ron is an asshole, Tom is a vapid metrosexual, and Andy is dumb…extremely dumb. They’re now playing some of the same jokes so much that it risks threatening to make a formerly interesting character like Ron Swanson one-note. Grade: B+…with cautious optimism that it goes back to the A-level heights they reached during the end of last season.