What a strange beast is Louie‘s “Elevator” arc. I’d love to see someone take out the closing credits of each episode and edit them all into one long movie. I think that’s what Louis C.K. is going for. He’s making a film on primetime.
“Elevator Part 4” consists mainly of three scenes, with a prologue showing Amia at Louie’s house, playing chess with Lilly while Louie takes a swipe at the inane babble of newscasts (the anchors spout gibberish about “Hurrican Jasmine Forsythe” drowning Cuba and having a “seventy-ten” chance of touching down in New York). Other than that, it’s Louie and Janet at a therapist; Louie and Janet having a long talk about Louie’s love life; and Louie flashing back to when the two of them were much younger.
C.K. takes a step back for most of “Part 4,” really letting his supporting actors shine. It’s indicative of how much he trusts them that for those three main scenes I mentioned the camera doesn’t move at all. His scene with Janet outside the therapist’s office is roughly five unbroken minutes of conversation, ranging from serious, to light, to damning, culminating in Louie’s indignant exit. Susan Kelechi Williams acquits herself nicely as Janet, and she and C.K. have great, natural chemistry. It’s nice that we’ve seen so much more of her in season four.
Once back at home he flashes back to him and Janet staying at a hotel (where Janet, somewhat confusingly, is played by Brooke Bloom, a white actress, although this is the same show that has a teenage boy playing Louie’s manager, so I guess it makes a kind of sense). The young Louie is played by Conner O’Malley, who despite having very little acting experience, does a nice job of imitating Louie’s mannerisms and inflection. O’Malley is primarily a writer (on Late Night with Seth Myers), so I guess Louis C.K. has a soft spot for casting writers, having put Lance Crouther in the lead role of Pootie Tang. The difference is, Pootie Tang sucks and “Elevator Part 4” is quite good.
If it seems like I don’t have a lot to say about “Part 4,” it’s because I don’t. Almost nothing happened narratively, and it definitely felt like the most incomplete episode of the “Elevator” series. But it makes sense, because we’re about an hour into this “movie,” so we need a breather.
Man, Louie is really giving it to the news. “Elevator Part 5” opens with another newscast about Hurrican Jasmine Forsythe, which has now claimed the lives of “Lebron James, the rest of the Miami Heat…and twelve million other people.” Later it’s reported that a bird dies of sadness. These are the funniest scenes in “Part 4” and “Part 5.”
“Elevator Part 5” bookends Louie’s conversation with Janet from “Part 4,” where he revealed that he and Amia haven’t had sex yet. After saving Ivanka’s life a second time, she underscores the importance – or perceived importance – of sex by telling Louie an old Hungarian expression: “If you don’t screw the cow, it was never your cow.” So before Amia leaves, she and Louie have sex, and possibly ruin things. (This marks the second time in two episodes that Louie has had goodbye sex.) They can’t say much to each other with their mouths, but sex is an almost universal form of communication. Amia’s limited English doesn’t help Louie’s morning-after uncertainty either; the only things she says that he understands are “No good” and “It’s okay, Louie.”
But it is decidedly not okay, as Amia picks up her clothes and leaves, but not before shushing him by putting her finger to her lips. It’s a bizarre, heartbreaking exit, and all Louie can say is “shit.” Right there with ya, buddy. Shit. I like Amia more than Liz and Pamela combined, and even though we all knew she had to go, we didn’t want it to be like this. She’s good for the big lug. But there’s still twenty minutes left of this experiment, and I’m confident that whatever ending Louis C.K. delivers, it will be one that could only come from him.
“Elevator Part 4:” 3 1/2 Stars
“Elevator Part 5:” 4 Stars
Total Grade: 4 Stars
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