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The fourth season featured an episode where Louie tries to rape a friend and recurring character who had been the object of infatuation in prior seasons. (It’s one of a handful of core plot elements that Louie has maintained through most of the show’s run.) Up to that point, some writers had championed the show for its attempts at interesting and original (albeit eccentric) portrayals of female characters. As one commentator, Ashley Hoffman, noted, “[Pamela] was a refreshing change to the caricatured female love interest, and then [Louie] made her powerless when he grabbed at her.” However, Neil Drumming of Salon.com argued that the scene was far more complex than its critics realized. “This is hardly the first time this season that Louis C.K. has directly referenced the issue of violence against women. In an early episode, he was, once again, the perpetrator of such violence, albeit by accident…Louis C.K.’s willingness to acknowledge injustice and inequality, however discomfiting in its expression, has earned him a great deal of credit and esteem as a creator. His eagerness to implicate himself in it — Louie the character, Louis the auteur — has created the complicated portrait of a man who requires a public forum in which to struggle with his darkest impulses.”