Louis — ‘Duckling’

SPOILER ALERT: This review talks extensively about the entire episode.

Louis CK has managed to make several shows that have received much critical acclaim that I’ve been able to avoid like the plague. His new FX show, Louis, has been no exception. After hearing a coworker talk about how she loved the show, I decided to find it on my 5000 channel system (which seems to have found a logical placement for everything but the general entertainment networks) and give it a go.

It turns out I may have picked the best episode of the show, Duckling, to start my viewing.

The show starts with a vulgar and not particularly funny discussion of a duck’s anatomy from Louis CK at a standup performance. To be fair, I haven’t seen Louis do standup, only hearing a few snippets on Slacker Radio, so I really had no idea what to expect from his jokes. At this point, my hand was reaching for the remote. But the routine ends over the soundtrack as we see Louis at his daughters’ school arguing over his ability to take the class pets, a set of ducklings, home for the night. He can’t take them because he has to go to Afghanistan for a USO tour.

Here, CK, who directed the episode, captures the wondrous nature of fatherhood in a few short scenes. We see him caving into the needs of his daughters, bringing these incredibly cute ducks home. We imagine them making a complete mess of the house as they parade around the floor, and then see Louis yelling at the ducks as they make a home in his bathtub. There is not a father around who has not confronted a cat, dog, hamster, or even a duck with the same angry monologue, all the while being taken in by the damned adorable nature of the animal he’s yelling at.

CK leaves the next day for Afghanistan and we see him out of his element, wide-eyed at the prospect of being shot down and clearly a fish out of water, more so than even his 19 year old traveling companion, a cheerleader.

When Louis reaches base, he discovers a surprise waiting for him in his luggage. His daughter has smuggled in a baby duck to keep him safe while he’s over there. Yes, it’s a precious moment, but it rings incredibly true, especially the fact that CK’s touched and not just a little bit angry that now he’s got to take care of this damned duck.

While at the camp, Louie tries to connect with his cheerleading companion. Using small talk about rock and roll, he talks about Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and Aerosmith, while the cheerleader looks at him, drawing a blank. She knows Stephen Tyler, but only as an American Idol judge.

When I stumbled into this scene, I thought it was going to be a jokey attempt at Louis to be a player with a woman out of his depth. Instead, by not going for the jokes, the scene operates on a different level of a single man whose plumbing still works, attracting him to this beautiful girl, but whose game is trapped in another age. With a very few words, CK’s loneliness and even his fear for his future comes out. This isn’t George Costanza striking out, this is a real guy who just wants to connect. He finally does connect with his duckling, which allows the cheerleader to see him as something more than a vulgar comedian talking about things that aren’t Christian to discuss. She still wants nothing to do with a 40 year old man, however.

As Louis enters Afghanistan, Louie the writer and director shines. If this were, say, Oliver Stone, the comedian, I would imagine he’d enter the world of the troops, show heavy fighting, make friends with one or two of them, see them get blown away, and then perhaps have the duck save his life by taking a bullet meant for him. He’d do a comedy routine, break down crying, and start ranting about the inhumanity of war.

Instead, Louie simply opens up your eyes to the awe of what our soldiers are going through. He has Louis the character transferred to a remote base where we see just a few soldiers, for whom the continual sneak attacks seem less dangerous than the sheer boredom and separation from family. When he and his fellow USO members face attacks, he’s the only one who shows fear. His cheerleading companion views it with the excitement of youth, his country music singing companion is a former soldier who has been through it already, and he’s simply a dad with a duck who has aged to the point where he’s smart enough to know there are some things that are no longer exciting at 40 and naive enough to (at that point) think he had some magical protection. Louie also makes it a point to include a couple of songs from his country companion, who sings of the bravery and sacrifice of our troops. I thought that perhaps Louie would attack the guy for either being a downer or singing with a sort of empty patriotism, but instead he shows that these soldiers need this type of entertainment to reinforce that the people back home love them and need them here.

The final scene, in which Louis and his little touring company have their helicopter breakdown and become stranded is incredible. Their group encounters a group of armed villagers who start yelling at the US troops in their way. As the tension mounts, Louie drops the duck and like every dumb dad out there, immediately forgets his own fear and starts chasing after this duck that his daughter wanted him to have. He then falls and rolls to the ground, causing both sides to break up with laughter at the absurdity of it all. I personally remembered something in my own life where I chased a runaway balloon up a steep hill, got it, and then almost had a heart attack when I turned around and realized I was up a hill and had no idea how I was going to get down the 20 feet or so without killing myself. The episode ends with Louie giving the duck to what appears to be a young female villager, perhaps passing his cute good luck charm on to keep his new friends safe. Describing it, it sounds contrived, but at the end of the scene, I was wiping a tear away.

What makes this episode special is that with a perfect balance of writing, film making, and quiet moments, Louis CK has managed to convey the joys and perils of being a parent, the fears and foibles of realizing you’re now considered “old”, the sorrow of loneliness, and the sacrifice, heroics, and humanity of our young men and women overseas. It’s one of the most Emmy worthy half hours I’ve ever seen.


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