Season 3 of Louie is shaping up as a lesson in trust.  Despite Louis C.K.’s notoriety as a stand-up comedian, his FX show dares casual viewers to tune out in the absence of sitcom conventions and punchlines.  This week’s adventure, following Louie to a weekend gig in Miami, was an experiment in filmmaking.  ”Miami” was equal parts travelogue, social commentary, and think piece.

When I first read that parts of Season 3 would be filmed in new locations, including this Miami experiment, I assumed that these excursions would be used as a backdrop to showcase Louie’s upward career arc.  Since the show lags behind the comedian’s real-life experiences by a few years, it seemed reasonable that hopping on a plane to the Sunshine State would lead to bikini beauties, larger audiences, and a higher profile for our favorite schlub.  Instead, the episode featured Louie’s confusing emotional bond with a strapping Cuban lifeguard named Ramon.

Confused?  You shouldn’t be.

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The brilliance of Louis C.K.’s semi-autobiographical FX show is in its contradictions.  As the most prolific stand-up comedian of this era, generating a new hour of material each year, C.K. could easily be expected to craft a sitcom heavy on laughs, dense in dialogue, and limited in theme.  Instead, the writer/director trusts viewers to indulge in dark moments, remain patient through lengthy pauses, and answer some hard truths based on his experiences.  Louie is less of a sitcom than a gritty personal journal set to pictures.

If this were a traditional recap, here is all you would need to know about the first two episodes of Louie: Season 3. Last week, Louie got dumped by his girlfriend in the morning, lost a car and crashed a motorcycle in the afternoon, and was nursed back to health by his ex-girlfriend that evening.  This week, Louie was surreptitiously set up on a blind dinner date by a comedian friend, then argued over the reciprocal nature of oral sex in the front seat of a pickup truck.

Funny premises, indeed, but these 44 minutes of TV were hardly the stuff of laugh tracks and belly aches.  WHAT happens on Louie is far less significant for discussion than WHY or HOW those events occurred in the first place.

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