Louie: "Niece"

Season 2, Episode 12

When cynicism leads to some positive revelations

“It’s called empathy, man.”

-Godfrey

Tonight’s episode opened with a highly cynical takedown of 20-year olds who hate their hourly wage jobs, a piece of standup that seems perfectly tailored to C.K.’s world viewpoint, but one that bothered me just the same. I’ll admit that as a 23 year old, I’ve probably done more taking than giving, but I’m not sure if C.K. is right to call my generation out on our dissatisfaction with the current work environment. All of my life, I was told that if I based my career on doing what I loved, I would be happy. I was also told that I shouldn’t place making money over my own happiness. Yet here I am at 23, having held numerous hourly wage jobs (at least five of which were shitty) for the purposes of covering living expenses, and I’m in grad school, a step I’m taking to get my dream job, but one that’s currently seems to cause more frustration than it’s worth. I may not have added a whole lot to the world (thought I think my Eagle Scout Badge and volunteer work through the church say differently), but it’s not like the world was the golden opportunity that I had been sold, either.

Yet at episode’s end, none of that really mattered, and I think that was the point. As mean and apathetic as Louie’s rant may have been – and even though it was quite possibly something he’s actually performed live – the point of the at standup was meant to prepare us for the episode to follow. The main body of the first act, which saw Louie attempting to interact with his 13-year old niece Amy (played by frequent contributor Pamela Adlon’s (I assume) daughter, Gideon), played too much like a standard “Aren’t teenagers incorrigible?" gag, and only seemed to support to superficial cynicism of that opening standup.

Luckily Louie pulled a fast one on us, pulling out of that obvious nosedive and redirecting the other two thirds into an honest look at the specific relationship between Louie and Amy, and ending up being a serious discussion on Louie’s humanity. Suddenly the standup piece isn’t about understanding Louie’s irritation about the outside world, but rather seeing that his irritation comes from his (perhaps willful) ignorance of other people’s experiences.

 As a character, the show often uses Louie’s social awkwardness and general misanthropy as a source of humor, a relatively old strain of comedy that nonetheless manages to work in the show’s personal context. But what this show does as well – and what so few others do – is that it balances that out by taking these social ills seriously. Sure it’s funny to see Louie yell at people, but that’s got to have a negative impact on him, and some of the show’s most powerful moments come from the show admitting as such.

Thus where it might seem one another show as selfish to turn the narrative away from the emotionally damaged 13 year old girl in order to look at the 43 year old man, it works here because it’s something that we expect the show to do. Moreover, the show earns this look at Louie, which takes place late in the second act, by returning in the third act to once again look at Amy, and how she has been affected by her absentee Dad and her medically insane mother.  

What’s more, the show ended on an intriguingly ambiguous note, where it’s implied that Louie is going to keep Amy, though it’s not certain whether we are going to see anymore screen time for her. It would be interesting for the show to attempt some more serious continuity (Louie’s crazy sister was actually introduced via phone call back in “Joan”), but it would be just a powerful if we didn’t. As much as Louie is about the in depth look at a sad middle aged man, it’s could also be about the life we don’t see, the pain that continues for these characters even when there’s no audience around to watch. And that would me the most somber idea the show has ever come up with, far more powerful than anything it’s thrown at us before.

Quotes, Etc:

“Listen, I gotta know you’re not a dead kid in my house right now…”

“Well Amy, it’s been really nice talking to you, but I’m going to stop.”