Louie‘s fourth season might not be its funniest – that would be season three – but I think it might be its best. “In the Woods” was Louie‘s best episode since “So Did the Fat Lady.” The two episodes share a similarly confessional theme, to the point that the events of “In the Woods” actually happened. It wasn’t so much an overlong episode of television as much as it was a short film, and a damn good one at that.
When Louie catches Lilly smoking pot in McCarren Park, he more or less flips out, wordlessly dragging Lilly away from her friends despite her protestations. From there, “In the Woods” is told largely in flashback, with only brief returns to the present day (I feel like Louis C.K. doesn’t get enough credit as an editor, which is a shame, because he’s a great one).
Louie remembers himself as a twelve-year-old – where he’s played, excellently, by Devin Druid, who’s phone should be ringing off the hook by now – and while he might not be Mr. Popular, he’s a good kid. He has the usual middle school problems, including a weirdly considerate bully who takes kids’ glasses but gives them back if they have a test, and who offers to beat up Louie over the course of several weeks.
At the school dance, Louie’s diminutive friend produces a joint, proclaiming that they’re going to get “high off pot.” It’s all a downward spiral from there, but Louie is a hip enough show – and its creator a hip enough person – that it avoids making “In the Woods” into a hysterical riff on Reefer Madness. The consequences are relatively small-scale, as Louie begins dozing off in class and buying weed from a local dealer, played nicely by Louis C.K.’s American Hustle co-star Jeremy Renner.
Renner is the best he’s been in a while; he’s friendly and cool enough that it’s easy to see why a twelve-year-old in the 1970s would be enamored of him. But when Louie pisses him off, Renner’s Jeff Davis turns on the menace quickly and convincingly, wrapping his hands around Louie’s throat, hissing “You think I won’t hurt you cause you’re a kid?” It’s a great performance, and I doubt that Jeff Davis will make a return, but it would be nice to see Renner back on the program; he has a great way of delivering C.K.’s dialogue.
What Louie is trying to warn Lilly about isn’t the dangers of ILLEGAL DRUGS; at the end of the episode he doesn’t give her a lecture, opting instead to give her a hug (Louie makes it far less schmaltzy than I’m making it sound). What Louie is worried about is his daughter’s enthusiasm, her vivaciousness – he wants her to care, unlike his twelve-year-old self, who becomes so sullen and withdrawn that he tells his father (F. Murray Abraham, who has also played Louie’s uncle Excelsior) to fuck off, and his mother dresses him down, calling him boring and saying she doesn’t like him. There’s no malice in her words, only heartbreak. Amy Landecker, once again, is fantastic as Louie’s mom.
There is, of course, fallout from Louie’s newfound pastime. His group of friends is broken up, and he comes clean to his teacher about stealing scales to trade to Jeff Davis for pot. His teacher Mr. Hoffman, as played by Skip Sudduth, is every cool teacher you’ve ever had, but he’s still grounded in reality. The way he turns his back on Louie after the latter’s confession is painful to watch.
(Side note: you may have noticed that “In the Woods” was dedicated to Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman was supposed to be in this episode, but passed away. The science teacher was renamed as a tribute. Sudduth was great, but the role seemed tailor-made to Hoffman’s strengths, and I would kill to see him in it.)
Louie has abandoned its identity as a situational comedy, instead focusing on short film experiments. Some of them (“Elevator”) have been good but uneven; some (“Pamela”) have just started, so it’s too early to judge; and some (“In the Woods”) are flat-out amazing.
About Author
