Louie Watch: Season 3, Episode 6 - Barney/Never

Louie is back to its shorts format that we are most accustomed too this week and C.K. delivers a couple of quality gems.

Our first story revolves around Louie and a stranger (Robin Williams) meeting at an ex-club owner Barney's funeral and the two end up on a pretty random adventure. The awkwardness that arises between the two early on is brilliant not because they don’t know each other, but neither party knows how one another feels about Barney. Once the duo realizes they both thought the guy was, “the biggest piece of shit I knew,” the conversation becomes light and easy and the two get along swimmingly to wonderful effect. Williams is restrained and quite affective as he goes on about Barney and his attitude towards life, making the dead man come across as almost sweet if it wasn’t for all the shit they are dealing about the guy.

As their conversation leads to Barney’s obsession with a strip club nearby, a brilliant comedic beat jump cuts us into the strip club where Louie and his new friend decide to see what this place was all about. The segment was basically a very long set up to a real great joke when the duo informs an inquisitive dancer that Barney has died. The news is crushing to her and as word spreads around the club C.K. gets some amazing reactions out of every last person in that club as they are devastated. The last little bit of the DJ dedicating a song to Barney put things over the top, and the absurdity of this revelation is perfectly punctuated by Louie and friend busting out laughing as they exit the club and end the segment of the episode.

You can see C.K.’s driving idea pretty clearly here, it’s a fun gag, but after last week’s stellar episode I was missing a bit more substance.

The second half of the episode doesn’t bring much more of that substance, but does make two pretty strong points; radio DJ’s suck and letting your kid do whatever they want will ruin them. Now, I am sure C.K. isn’t implying all DJ’s suck, but he clearly defines how obnoxious some of these guys can be and we all know exactly who he is talking about.

The phoner into K.C. is to promote Louie’s upcoming show there, and Louie does take it too far, but it is the activity inside his apartment that is far more interesting. Never’s (yes this is a child’s name) mother needs to have her vagina electively removed (yes this was the actual reason) and Louie gets saddled with the babysitting job. When Lily, Louie’s daughter, doesn’t want to play with him, Louie is stuck with the job as Never turns out to be quite the handful. C.K. couldn’t be blunter here in his assessment of this form of parenting and he hits his point home with some seriously over the top, yet hilarious, examples. Never is never told “no” and his behavior consists of pushing a stroller into the street, eating raw meat, throwing Louie’s rug out the window, and shitting diarrhea in a bath Louie draws for him. The reveal of Never in the tub full of water and shit is one of the most iconic images the show has ever put up and is one of the best laughs the show has ever done. C.K., like Barney, makes Never oddly likable through all of this terror and caps the scene off with a really sweet and honest moment between the two as Louie offers an ear for listening if Never ever needs it.

Louie was very solid this week and it is a strong follow up to the superb episode we got last week. Silly, simple and very funny, C.K. just goes for the laughs this time out and pretty much nails it. He gets a fine little turn by Robin Williams and created a character in Never that I would love to see again. I do wish Louie was a bit more upset with Never as the hell began to break loose, but I will take the sweet ending over a more realistic reaction one would probably have in that moment.