Louie

Tue Jan 22, 9-9.30pm, Fox

By Phil Harrison Sun Jan 13 2013

Time Out Ratings

In the UK at least, Louis CK has been a wave on the verge of breaking for a while now. He’s about to become inescapable thanks to a sold-out show at the O2 and this series, which combines his cheerfully bleak stand-up with the odd sketch documenting his self-parodically miserable life. Tonight, he finds himself supervising his daughter’s school trip – a row with a recalcitrant bus driver culminates in the group breaking down in Harlem, precipitating the kind of white, middle-class angst which is Louie’s stock-in-trade. Louie’s observations are spot-on – he’s a black-sky thinker par excellence, but what saves him from self-pity or charges of excessive bleakness is his inclusive, avuncular onstage demeanour. A wolf in sheep’s clothing and one of the best stand-ups currently working.