Louie

Series two, episode two
We begin with a glimpse of Louis’s sex face. Not a pretty sight, but it’s probably the closest we get to light relief in an episode which features risky, tearful intercourse, dangerous degrees of social alienation and the beheading of a homeless man by a garbage truck.

If Louis CK wasn’t such a pitilessly logical black-sky thinker, he’d still be a brilliant observational comic. But often, he comes very close to real psychological revelation, or at least the universal catharsis that comes from knowing that someone isn’t gilding the lily. As it happens, honesty is the explicit theme of an episode which sees Louis using this ambiguous virtue to very nearly score with a hot girl before having it undermine him utterly. But then honesty is probably the implicit theme of most great comedy – and on that score, Louis CK is right up there.