Louis C.K. has made his distain for cell phones very clear. One of his most popular bits of the last couple years is based solely on how we — the society of the moment — are so depend on having phones all the time that nobody appreciates what an amazing feat it is to have it at all. And indeed, as he watches his daughter hide her face in her little blue screen during the pivotal emotional climax of respected Broadway play with an all-star cast of Glenn Close, Matthew Broderick, John Lithgow and Michael Cera, it looks as though another rant is in store in this week's Louie, "Sleepover."
As he commands his daughter Lilly (Hadley Delany) to give her phone to him on account of her “gross” behavior during the show, it is ultimately Lilly — in true Louie fashion — whom gives our protagonist the scolding. She admits how she wasn’t texting but rather multiple tasking, reading about the history and original text of the play as she experienced it for the first time. She also thought the it was great, but just because she wasn’t as physically moved as her dad doesn’t mean she enjoyed it any less. Just because she uses her phone “to appreciate things on two levels” doesn’t make her a worse person. She’s just a member of the new era, and Louie, ever one to be lost in human interaction, can’t fully comprehend the modern age's layers of interact and communication.
Moreover, he finds simple one-on-one conversation is a hassle in-and-of itself. As he learns one of the eight-to-twelve girls set to stay over his house for his other daughter Jane's (Ursula Parker) sleepover is soon to be a child of divorce, he attempts earnestness to help her through her struggles, only to realize she knows nothing about her parents' upcoming separation. To add to the woes, it turns out the parents decided they aren't going to split up after all, which makes the distressed questions the little girl have for her returning mother all the more troublesome.
As such, “Sleepover” inadvertently finds he must use the device he hates to talk to the person he cares about the deepest: Pamela (Pamela Adlon). In what goes from simple texting to a phone call to attempted phone sex, Louie discovers he’s actually missed by the woman he wants to love him back. And in the midst of all the noise and commotion inside his house as this sleepover — which at one point finds the most delightful parody of children's television in some time — he is never far from human connection but he’s always distant from what noise he actually wants to hear. And in turn, it’s later when he gets another phone call, this time from his jail-housed brother Bobby (Robert Kelly) needs his older brother to get him out of his jam, that he remains alienated as well as connected to those around him.
Among all the lost Louie endeared this season, from his pride to his sanity, at the very least he find some gains. He can’t have Pamela the way he’d wants her beside him, but he can still know she’s available from afar. He can’t understand children today, but he can know that his daughter can appreciate fine art in their own way. And, at the end of the day, he knows he can get a little tit for tat, be it from his sorta girlfriend or from a cow, even if it’s up for debate from his brother whether their ice cream actually comes from the tit or rather its p***y.
Although much more straightforward than last week’s exceptionally trippy head-trip “Untitled,” there’s something conventionally sweet about Louie’s search for content. Things slowly start to come his way, and he’s not as much of a bi-product of life’s woes as he seems to be these last two seasons. It’s not so much redemption but his reward for humble acceptance and kindheartedness. He’s tried his hardest to do the right thing, and still does here and, for once, he’s not punished or belittled for his efforts. He's allowed to become a better person, and therefore becomes a stronger character in turn.
What's most interesting about "Sleepover" is how its most direct in-person conversation comes from Bobby's fable as to how the got into jail that night. He tells the girls — who came with Louie to bail him out — how he helped a woman who had fallen and, in being given a goat for his good deed, is taken by the police for having the animal go on his own. Of course this isn't what happened. In truth, Bobby was raided at the massage parlor he went to for a happy ending. But sometimes, especially when we don't understand something or don't like what happens, its the make believe outcomes which tide us over. In Louie's efforts, he may not accept or want to give away so much but that he's willing to not be ever broken when continuously reduced is this season's most engaging addition. Sometimes we need to use the technology we don't like to get what we want, and sometimes it's better to believe policemen arrest citizens for having loose goats.
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