MaximumMadness Louis C.K. has recently emerged as one of my favorite comedians and actors/filmmakers, thanks in part to his brutally honest stand-up reminiscent of George Carlin, and for his current FX single-camera series "Louie", which is one of the finest comedies on television right now.When I discovered through the magic of Wikipedia that he had a short- lived, single-season sitcom on HBO, I leaped at the chance to see it. Last night, I was able to watch the first four episodes, and I am truly saddened that I missed it when it first aired back in 2006. Despite having a fair share of problems, "Lucky Louie" is a very solid, hilarious, vulgar and self-satirizing, self-parodying sitcom.Louis C.K. stars at the titular "Louie", and the spunky Pamela Adlon (who also guest-stars on C.K.'s current show) plays his wife Kim. They live in a crummy, run-down apartment with their daughter Lucy (Kelly Gould), facing the different aspects of modern, married life.Supporting actors include Michael G. Hagerty and Jim Norton as Louie's friends, Rick Shapiro as Kim's brother (a complete mess of a man) and Jerry Minor and Kim Hawthorne as their black next-door-neighbors (giving the show some humorous racial tensions).Episodes are written and filmed as tradition dictates, even being shot in front of live studio-audiences. It's interesting, because it gives the show a classical sitcom feel, which I normally hate (I'm not a fan of standard, 3-camera sitcoms, but rather prefer single-camera sitcoms like "Community" and "Arrested Development"), but here it works. In part because the show feels like self-parody and self-satire at times, and because of C.K.'s dark, brutally honest brand of humor. It's one of those rare sitcoms that works perfectly.It's also important to note that this is an extremely vulgar at times sitcom, due to it being an HBO show. There is consistent profanity, frank depictions and discussions of sex and nudity, and occasional violent content. However, this gives the show an odd air of realism, and elevates it beyond the norms of the sitcom.That being said, there are some faults. Despite it's groundbreaking darkness and realism, it does fall back on some classic sitcom clichés, which gets grating at times. Also, at other times, it feels very basic. Finally, the laugh track, while a nice touch, does get grating on occasions.However, as a sort-of homage to classic 70's sitcoms, and as a dark, hilarious and graphic modern show, "Lucky Louie" functioned very well. It's a shame it didn't last more than one season. I give it an 8 out of 10. C.K. fans should check it out!

Greatornot This show reminds of the realness of most Brit Sitcoms, turned up a couple of racy notches. This show will cross any line and it is real. The acting chemistry works. Pamela Adlon is basically what makes this show work.She is the same character in every role.... CALIFORNICATION, for example, but thats OK. I believe Louis CK is only adequate as the lead character. He seems to be very ho hum. The supporting cast is awesome.Jim Norton and Michael Hagerty as Lous friends light up every scene when they interact. You have a little bit of imitation from Seinfeld episodes... in the form of an eccentric neighbor that drops in unexpectedly and raids the fridge.Sound familiar ? That is perfectly OK. No beautiful people in this show but REAL people. I like that a lot, the average American can relate to these folks and form a kinship. The language may be a bit over the top but its nice that we live in an age where you can have sitcoms that can cross that line. Can you imagine if Archie and Mike could say what they really want without censorship on ALL IN THE FAMILY??? That would make the show more realistic not less. Overall , a good watch and hopefully this show can come back on another cable channel.

Chuck (cgriff-3) Whomever told Louie CK he's funny should be taken out and beaten. I thought Jack Black was the world's least entertaining person, but this guy is light years ahead of him.If I had a choice of eating week-old garbage and watching his show again, I'd have to give some serious thought to grabbing a fork!Thankfully, HBO has canned this train wreck and with any luck, this guy will fade away. Maybe we'll see him working back at the dry cleaners, where he belongs, and not polluting the airwaves with unfunny stories, situations and canned laugh tracks.Why must I write ten lines? I think I just threw up a little in my mouth revisiting this rot. Writing ten lines should qualify me for a purple heart!

Kevin Conte As a semi-regular listener to the Opie and Anthony show on XM Satellite Radio and fan of O&A Show regular, Jim Norton's comedy, I first heard about Norton's first endeavor into the world of television last summer when he took a few months off of his regular gig on the satellite radio show to tape the new HBO sitcom out in Los Angeles.Norton doesn't have a very big part on the show, Lucky Louie but it's big enough for him to be able to call himself one of the stars of the show. HBO's first, "filmed in front of a live studio audience" type of sitcom and right off the bat, that was where my first trepidations were coming from. The fact that it's a sitcom with a live audience that is expected to laugh at the appropriate points in the show. This never sits well with me anymore. I have grown tired of even the setup involved with any sitcom that's, "filmed in front of a live studio audience." The jokes, no matter how raunchy they may or may not be or even how good they may or may not be, are always setup and predictable to anyone that has watched these types of shows play themselves out over the years. But that was just my first thoughts on the show so I decided to give Lil Jimmy the old benefit of the doubt and watch the show for few more weeks just to see if by some chance the show did get better. Unfortunately, it did not.As I watched the show more and more, I began noticing how God awful the acting was, especially from the star of the show, Louie CK and his co-star Pamela Aldon who plays Kim, Louie's wife. Skipping the fact that it's yet another sitcom with a genius wife, precocious kid and dim-witted father, the acting is absolutely abysmal and week after week you sit there and watch these 2 people that look like they would have a hard time being friends with each other, let alone husband and wife, fidget and flop their way through scene after scene and then you couple all of that with the fact that these characters just aren't all that likable either.There are absolutely no redeeming qualities to any of them at all and you just find yourself not caring so much about any of them at all and it becomes all to easy to eventually just turn the dial. The father, like I said before, is a dim-witted moron that has about as much charisma as a squashed bug and speaking of squashed. It seems that the wife's only purpose on the show is to squash what little dignity that her husband had left and belittle him at every opportunity as well. That brings me to the hell-spawn of a child that they try to pass off as being, the typical cute little sitcom kid. Well, what ever cuteness this kid does have is quickly done in by the miserably, spoiled rotten attitude she puts forth on the show week in and week out and eventually you find yourself rooting for one of her TV land parents to just reach over and smack her across the mouth.Maybe Jim Norton will someday strike it rich on another, more original show but raunchy jokes and dis-likable characters does not make this ground breaking TV and sadly for Jimmy, I fear his days may be numbered now on HBO because I just can't foresee the show with any hope of a future on HBO past the end of this season, which thankfully comes in just a couple of short weeks.