Like “Model” before it, “So Did the Fat Lady” follows one core plot with both mostly focused around Louie having a woman come onto him. But “Model” was deeply into mocking Louie and showcasing his awkwardness. Further, odd shot composition and Yvonne Strahovski’s generally weird character meant the episode occupied a very surreal space. Out of the first four episodes released to critics, this is (unsurprisingly) the one readily cited as blowing everyone away. I do get why and I do think most of the praise is deserved, but I can’t say that I’m on board with everything presented here. The reason the episode deserves praise is that it confronts and explores a societal issue in a very frank manner, namely the issue of how we treat fat girls. The premise is that Vanessa, an overweight waitress at the comedy club, keeps asking Louie out, but he keeps turning her down because, well, she’s fat. There are loads of double-standards addressed here: Why is it okay for a fat guy to think he deserves a thin girl but not the other way around? Why can a fat guy say he’s fat, but if a girl says it everyone rushes to tell her it’s not the case? And probably the most cutting, simple question (delivered to Louie by Vanessa as part of a lengthy monologue): “Why do you hate us so much?” Another problem is that, though she behaves far more normally than most of the women Louie runs into on this show, she’s still coming onto him overtly, which has happened at least thrice at this point (though those other times it was presented like it might all possibly be taking place in a dream or a less real version of reality, at least). And even if Louie’s the one who asks a woman out (as with Parker Posey’s Liz), they still kind of end up feeling like the aggressors. I don’t know; it’s not that I think Louie shouldn’t be able to get girls. I just find the way so many women forcibly get him involved with them to be getting a bit rote. I can’t quite tell if it’s the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope happening here because the girl usually ends up being less of a life-changing wonderful person and more genuinely problematically messed up, but it still feels like this kind of thing has happened on the series several times before. It’s not exactly the same, of course. Vanessa is a very different and much more grounded character compared to the women of Louie who have come before her (except maybe Pamela), but the way she forces herself into Louie’s life feels a bit predictable. All that said, however, the monologue does, as mentioned, touch on some very important stuff and Louie does occasionally make interjections during it. On a second watch, the scene landed better for me. And, on the whole, the stuff I mentioned notwithstanding, I believed in Vanessa as a person and Louie as a person and that this was a time in these people’s lives where they had a bit of connection and Louie acted kind of like a dick, but ended up learning something from her. It was a solid Louie short film. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
