The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    Wilfred & Louie

     

     

    I recall when the television 'season' began sometime around Labor Day.

    Jackie Gleason or Gunsmoke or Bonanza or whatever would begin airing sometime in September.

    These series would run 33 episodes.

    Come June, we would be welcomed into the universe of the re-run.

    By the seventies and eighties and nineties a series called it quits for the entire year following its 22nd episode.

    Now, the television 'season' begins every other month.

    Cable will present a series that lasts 12 and maybe 13 episodes.

    Oh, and do not worry about missing anything! Ha

    Reruns begin as soon as the series begins!

    There were times that one could view NCIS or House for eight hours twice a week. Now NCIS is on every single day for at least three hours.

    Do not even let me get into Law & Order.

    A good series on regular TV would produce 20 some episodes every year. So when you have twenty years of Law & Order and ten years of Law & Order Criminal Intent and ten years of Law & Order Special Victims Unit....you would find that there are hundreds upon hundreds of episodes to choose from.

    So there is not a day that goes by that some Law & Order episode is not presented upon basic cable.

    Since I practiced law for twenty-five years, I love Law & Order. The issues, the real issues facing the prosecutor and the defense counsel are right there for the having. Dick Wolf is a genius.

    ANYWAY....

    A new pretend season began during these summer months; which makes sense since regular TV is on hiatus.

    And I watched the funniest sitcoms I have seen in years.

    They are dirty, they are poopy, they are pornographic...

    You have to understand that I was brung up as an American Roman Catholic and I will never lose that voice; the voice in my head.

    The voice in my head tells me there is no poop, there is no sex, there is no animal part of US. I cannot help it. I have worked upon this propagandized soul of mine for decades...but one can only go so far.

    Some of us remain caterpillars and never release as butterflies. Hahahahah

    I fall asleep as usual after dinner and miss Helen Mirren on PBS as the Inspector. I am pissed.

    So I hit FX—no matter how much I detest Murdoch—and there is Louie CK again!

    You have to understand that when you just awaken to Louie, there is a feeling of powerlessness.

    We could run through discussions involving Camus or Socrates or Marx or whatever when discussing this silly sitcom about a comedy 'artist' traversing NYC during any one day.

    He has these little daughters (5 & 9) and he just wanders through his existential jungle attempting to help these angels through life while he makes a living making fun of human beings. His riff is full of poop and sex and animalness and he has me laughing so hard I cannot stand it!

    I swear I sometimes have to change the channel when my Roman Catholicism persona takes over my consciousness. But it is all right because I turn it on again an hour later for the second or third replay. Hahahaha

    Serendipity comes to mind as I watch this meaningless drama unfold. Hahahaha

    There is the unleashed psycho who attempts to attack Louie on the street; Louie deftly evades the attack by stepping aside and the psycho ends up in the street run over by a bus. The bastard actually loses his literal head in the collision.

    So Louie must spend the rest of the day pondering his Camus; all for naught.

    You had to be there! And is that not what context and relativity is all about?

    But sandwiched in between these reruns of opening episodes of Louie we find this damn Wilfred thingy.

    Frodo has become this five foot tall man who looks as regular as anyone could imagine.

    And Frodo still lives in the shire only this time the shire is suburbia.

    Somehow he ends up with the neighbor's dog. At least it is a dog to everyone else. But Frodo is a psychotic who has 'visions'. So the dog walks around in a dog suit like it is Halloween and smokes cigs and maryjane and likes a beer with his tacos!

    So what we have here is a resurrection of one of the only Jimmy Stewart movies I still love!

    Of course in Harvey, no one sees the rabbit except for Jimmy and his shrink!

    Well nobody sees this dog except as a dog except for Frodo!

    Frodo at one time studied to become an attorney but hated the law. Hard for me to figure!

    So Frodo just sits around all day dragging from his bong with his new friend; this man-dog. Hahahahah

    I tell ya if you explained the purpose of the script to me I think I would have told you to stay away from me; but this show is stupendous.

    Like Louie there are far too many poop and sex jokes; but damn it's funny. Hahahahha

    Maybe it is because Frodo has this damn sister who keeps showing up to help him make something of himself.

    Maybe it is because Frodo does not wish to sit up straight and stand up straight and act like a living useful member of society and maybe it is just that the poor guy said: Fuck This!

    I dunno.

    I suppose as a kid I loved Matt Dillon because he would do what I would never do; what most people will not do...he shoots the bastard!. Hahahah

    A guy kills his wife on Law & Order because a large portion of the audience have at times wished to slay their spouses. Hahahah

    We enjoy certain plays because those plays express behavior that we know is taboo.

    We might have 30,000 murders in this country every year but remember; there are over 300 million of us. Only a small percentage actually carry through with their more natural inclinations. hahaha

    Vicarious is the word I think I am looking for here!

    I listen to Cornyn or McConnell or Boehner or whoever and I think: stuff it. If this is society I want nothing to do with it!

    You gotta see this Frodo with the damn dog. I mean when they go out for a walk the dog smokes cigs. Hahahahaha

     

    THE END.

     

    Previous draft @ http://onceuponaparadigm.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/tv/#comments

     

     

    Comments

    We watched replays of Louie and Wilfred this evening. TV is getting ever closer to our minstrel show and adult comedy club roots.


    I have been listening to or watching Louie for some time now.

    The press will go after him for 'going too far' once in a while; but they miss the point.

    Of course I have to be in the correct mood!

    But this Wilfred came out of nowhere.