One of the things that throws you about 'Louie' (Tuesdays at 11PM ET on FX) is that not every moment on the show is played for laughs. But many of those moments hold harsh emotional truths that can hit home if the circumstances are right.

When Louie's chore of a mother drops by for a surprise visit, barely acknowledging his kids ("Why are they here? I thought you got a divorce.") and complaining the entire time, Louie finally has a meltdown on her, even after she tells him the big news: at 70-plus years old, she's finally decided she's a lesbian.

Of course, Louie couldn't care less. "You invited the girls and I for Christmas, and we arrived to a darkened house. My girls spent Christmas in a Holiday Inn! Their present was a bag of M&Ms!"

So he gets up and tells his mother what every disenfranchised kid has ever wanted to say to their parents: "I don't love you." And he wasn't taking it back.

Considering Louis C.K. directs every episode, the stylistic choice he made for this scene was interesting. The show has come an awfully long way since the grainy pilot, and even though it still looks like it was made on a shoestring, it's at least looks like a luxury shoestring.

The restaurant they shot at was stark and modern. When Louie yells at his mother, he's shot from below to look overbearing; Louie's mom is tucked into the corner of the screen to look small.

In his standup segment before this confrontation with his mother, he said "once you grow up, you don't really need them anymore," which is technically true. But, unless your mother was a cipher like Louie's, you usually turn to them for comfort, even if you're middle-aged and have kids of your own.

I can only imagine what Louie's mother was really like, as he bases his standup and his show on what's going on in his real life. If she's even ten percent of the bitch-on-wheels that the television version was, I can see why Louie needed to have it out with her, even though it was on screen.

Anyway, the only part of the scene that was remotely funny was when, after his mom started crying, he points at her and tells the restaurant, "This is bulls---. You need to know that." He knows that no matter what the reality of the situation is, all the restaurant is seeing is a balding, pudgy man berating his nice old mom. So he took measures to let people know how it really is. That's just as real as the rest of the scene, and brings it a bit down from its harsh ledge.

I wasn't entirely comfortable with scenes like this in the first episodes of 'Louie,' mainly because I hadn't thought Louis C.K. had done enough to gain the audience's trust to let him explore these dark and serious areas. But after the first six episodes, that trust is there. And, to be honest, if that woman was my mom, I'd say the exact same thing.