TV Retrospective: Louie - Season 4

Left to right: Susan Kelechi-Wilson and Louis C.K.

Upon the completion of season three of Louie, I had a strong desire to see the series tackle longer stories. I wondered if "Daddy's Girlfriend" or "The Late Show" could be imitated with amazing results. Well, after winning some Emmys and taking a year off for creative refreshing, Louie season four came back with my desires fulfilled. The only issue is that where the other stories were rooted in a lot of grander themes that mixed artistry with the show's dour realism, this season fell flat. In its run, it produced a seven-part series called "Elevator," a 90-minute episode called "In the Woods," and a three parter featuring a fake-rape scene called "Pamela." Louie definitely has stepped up his game, but for the first time, his effort feels like it has trumped the actual quality of the show.

There is one thankful aspect to this season. Due to some strange Emmy-voting rules, Louie was forced to air two episodes back-to-back every week. It could feel like a sprint of sorts, but considering what the series evolved into, it was much desired. Stories of elaborate detail could be told without impatience overbearing each often unfulfilled conclusion. There was also promise of overarching themes that would come to fruition in the finale "Pamela: Part 3." We got everything he promised, but with Louis C.K. sitting naked in a bathtub, it really felt more like an insult to his audience. We have come to accept his work as being self-deprecating and his boundaries as being consistently pushed. Even the talk around "So Did the Fat Lady" was a hopeful sign of the season to come. However, "Elevator" started and it went downhill after that.

At the time, I was curious to see where the seven episodes of "Elevator" would go. In fact, I was even happy to see C.K. skewer the traditional sitcom scenario with characters like the wise-yet-crass doctor (Charles Grodin), a girlfriend who couldn't speak (Eszter Balint), and his family. All of these elements were endearing that provided a lot of really interesting moments. However, the overall concept of C.K. losing his girlfriend as she went back to Hungary was discovered early on and carried for the remaining episodes as a giant conflict. It paid off in "Pamela: Part 3" and "Elevator: Part 7" had some phenomenal moments, but it all felt slight. Instead of telling a more economic story with the same beats in less, he has a lot of meandering moments, including one where Todd Barry describes his day. Just be thankful that Barry is a funny man.

The series had a lot going on of value early on. From its first episode with "Back," it seemed to recall the return of the acclaimed series with garbage men creating a ruckus in his bedroom. The partnering segment "Model" introduced C.K. as still being somewhat of a failure, even if his real life argues against it. However, "So Did the Fat Lady" came and after a heartfelt speech that attacked perceptions of fat people, he sort of gave up on deep commentary in the moment. He had to go inventive. However, he was still a loser who wasn't successful one bit. This has frustrated me not because of the reality, but because of "The Late Show" episodes from last season. He has gone somewhere with his life. However, he is reduced to continually being dumped by women and having Jim Norton pop up for no reason.

I wanted to like the season, but post-"Elevator," it appeared that the acclaim had gotten to his head. All of the tropes that made him so successful were now becoming self-indulgent. Where we got some great moments from Jane (Hadley Delany) and Lilly (Ursula Parker), their stories felt inconsequential. Given that they explored the cusp of what divorce does to children, it is rather disappointing to see a negligent student and a smoking daughter get sidelined for stories about how C.K. wants to love women and why he is so bad at it. By the end, all we get is a sense that his daughters like Pamela (Pamela Adlon), but not any growth of C.K. as a parent. This was sidetracked by meandering stories that almost seemed to ask the artistry and realism to compensate for quality. 

This isn't to say that it was a bad season. There's moments scattered throughout that pack punches. However, to argue that they all unite perfectly with "Pamela: Part 3" is nonsense. They do not. Where the past seasons could get by on non-linear narrations, this season attempted to make one cohesive story and resulted in it not being so interesting. I think that there are good longer episodes in C.K.'s potential, but this season reflected a desire to be accepted as something greater while not changing that much. C.K. was a conundrum that suffered from a large sense of self-indulgence and getting Pamela after losing his Hungarian girlfriend did nothing of value. These were just moments tied together by characters that frankly didn't seem to matter.

It is even hard to recommend because what made Louie so appealing was the unpredictable nature of everything. While he has evolved beyond playing the "Brother Louie" theme song, he has settled into something of familiar. He wants to tell what is essentially personal stories about himself. They have enjoyable moments, but "In the Woods" wins points more on inventiveness than execution. In many cases, the stories drag with the sense that they need to fill the time as opposed to being too short and full of potential moments. I am conflicted on wanting to take back my comments, but C.K.'s short hand is better than his long form this season, and his idea that he can be spontaneous within continuity is just baffling.

Louie season four is if nothing else a disappointment. He definitely deserves accolades for trying something new and in some ways inspiring. However, that is to discredit the season's uneven quality and continuous moments that just didn't work. Was it good? Yes. However, there wasn't really a stand-out episode that compares to many of the previous seasons' best work. It is likely going to go down as the lackluster season that fans will either love for its audacity, or accept as this strange experiment that didn't entirely click. For me, it falls into the latter and I cannot recall too many moments that I hail as being the best that the series has to offer.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5