Lena Dunham, Louie, and "Write What You Know"

This is both a movie I could like, or hate more than anything on Earth. I really don't want to be that guy who hates everything "new", or any kind of new filmmaker who is legitimately making something about what they know --in this case, being a well-to-do, displaced college graduate trying to figure shit out-- but I can't help but wonder why movies like this get noticed, I feel like there are at least 500 of these in every single film festival in the past ten years. Displaced college grad, who's usually in New York, trying to figure out what he or she is going to do with their life.

If you want to see something that does the "write what you know" shit right, it's Louie on FX, starring Louis CK. It's unlike anything on television right now, it's funny, poignant, and fucked-up. Nathan Rabin from the AV Club says it best:

I’d initially pegged Louie as Seinfeld meets Curb Your Enthusiasm but it’s actually much deeper and more daring than that reductive description suggests. Sure, Louie revolves around wry comic vignettes rooted in C.K’s stand-up and scenes of C.K unconsciously alienating everyone around him but the second, third and fourth episodes defy that kind of easy categorization. C.K is doing something new and exhilarating and fearless.

Seriously. Watch it now. Here's a scene that's a great example of the show's balance of comedy, honesty, and drama. Best of all, it's all comedians playing themselves: