Girls (and in the bathroom)

I think my relationship with this show is much like Hannah's relationship with Adam. It's so obnoxious and insulting, and yet...

I think your analogy is apt. There's so much that irritates me about this show, yet there are a few things that the show gets SO right that I'm intrigued in spite of myself. The episode in the loft in Bushwick, for example, was so dead-on accurate about that setting and that kind of party that I almost couldn't watch. And I find myself oddly charmed by Shoshanna, and Ray's interest in Shoshanna.

Shoshanna and Ray are my favourite part of the show. The rest of the time I just find Hannah, Jessa, and Marnie are so totally self-involved and completely full of first world problems that I can't stop rolling my eyes and laughing. I still think the most hilarious line in the show is in the first episode, in the first scene, where Hannah tells her parents (with a totally straight face) that all she needs is "eleven hundred dollars for the next two years" while she writes her book, and then acts like a sulky child when they won't give it to her.

And she thinks she's cutting them a deal! Like, she's offering to live on WAY less than she really deserves, and she doesn't get why they don't realize and appreciate the poverty she's willing to undergo to pass the savings on to them while they subsidize her life. Ugh, Hannah is the worst.

I mean, I do think we're meant to think that Hannah is self-involved and ridiculous to expect that from her parents. My problem is that I think the show wants us to see the characters as equal parts awful AND relateable, where for me it's more of an 80/20 or 70/30 ratio.

queenofdenile wrote:I mean, I do think we're meant to think that Hannah is self-involved and ridiculous to expect that from her parents. My problem is that I think the show wants us to see the characters as equal parts awful AND relateable, where for me it's more of an 80/20 or 70/30 ratio.

This is me. I get that we're supposed to think Hannah & Co. are immature and entitled, but there isn't enough funny, relatable moments to help balance it out. They're just awful people without an edge. Puts me to sleep.

One more complaint: I have a HUGE problem with the male characters on the show. I've only seen a few episodes, but...every single one of them seems like a scary misogynist. I remember squirming after hearing one of them say, "I wouldn't even hate-fuck you" to one of the girls. I can deal with a lot of stuff, but they just make me uncomfortable. Makes me wonder what type of men Lena Dunham associates with in real life.

Well that was dull. The opening was enough to keep me watching, but not enough to get me excited.
I liked the inclusion of Rita Wilson and the lack of the insufferable British free spirit.
I like the writing because I recognise so many situations from my own youth, but I dislike the writing because it doesn't dramatise them in a very interesting way. It's enough to keep me watching, but not enough to get me excited. The acting by the four girls really shows their inexperience; perhaps with better actors they would not be consistently outacted by their love interests.

Genevieve wrote:I kind of get this feeling that should she get a second season and wants to touch on having people of color, that it would be, "Lena dates a black guy" or something.

Well, this prediction turned out to be right on the money. (I also will never get why "black republican" is supposed to be so shocking, either. Like, even if you haven't personally met any, there's been some pretty prominent ones in recent years.)

I watched the premiere, because I hate myself.

I liked it more than I thought I would, but nothing really happened. I like Donald Glover, but I thought it was a cliche to have Lena dating a black guy, and he was only in the episode for ten seconds. Here's hoping he's featured in the upcoming season more, and that he doesn't become a screaming douche like the other guys.

Elijah's old boyfriend creeped me out, and I still don't know why Jessa married that freak. She's only going to divorce him in like, two episodes.

Increasingly, as she is becoming more distinct from Hannah the character, I am realising that I don't mind, if not like, Lena Dunham the person (even though she totally meant that "thanks for getting me through middle school" Globes comment in that way, every woman is aware of how it will sound). But as a writer/showrunner, not so much. The "this happened to me, and I'm dramatising it" meandering is probably the biggest issue I have with Girls. There is no narrative thrust, no hook. I think that class and the rarefied air the characters breathe has a lot to do with it. There's nothing really at stake for these characters. Wealthy bohemians were not created in the hipster generation, but this show is specifically not a wish fulfillment fantasy but written as a slice of life of a part of a subculture which itself has segregated and elevated itself from the surrounds that it gentrified.

Because a show of this sort is canny enough to implicitly critique how the characters view and effect themselves each other and themselves, and not how they effect society and society views them (and Marnie realising she is pursuing a defunct career and Hannah being cut off financially does not move the POV beyond the personal), that's why the major criticisms of this show become valid.

I've usually been a pretty strong defender of the show. I might not have always agreed with what the characters were doing, but it seemed like legitimate ways of screwing up. But that finale episode, especially how they resolved the Hannah arc irked me on so many levels. It was some serious BS of "no really means yes". You can't tack on a romantic comedy ending to the rest that felt realistic. I was just annoyed by it.

I was bewildered when the show premiered the m.o. from the Girls camp was "We're not SATC! We are real! We are the anti-SATC! We are much deeper than that." (As if SATC purported to be anything other than a fairy tale romp with the novelty of women talking about sex - the opening scene of the pilot contains the words "Once upon a time..." for the love of god!). In this episode it by-passed Sex and the City altogether and went straight into Richard Curtis-land.

It was co-written by Judd Apatow. I don't know what effect he had. I haven't seen anything he's directed since Knocked Up, though I saw and liked the previous episode he co-wrote with Dunham where she visits her parents.

Disclaimer: I love Richard Curtis's movies; I'm totally a romantic comedy kind of girl. But I didn't think that's what "Girls" is about so I'm having a hard time squaring those two together, yeah. I think there's something to be said for a consistency in tone, which "Girls" has been lacking on occasions.

I liked this whole season until the end. On The Hairpin post about this ep, someone wrote

I think Lena Dunham is way too clever to be putting that last scene out there as a "happy ending" but there seem to be a lot of people who aren't as smart as she is who totally took it that way.
Generation Irony Impaired.

BUT I have an issue with that, because at least the way it was scored and even shot, made it seem like Adam was heroic - EVEN THOUGH it was the same kind of behavior that got him slapped with a restraining order earlier this season.

My favorite part was Shosh breaking up with Ray because, yes, she's 21 and YES she's not a fully formed human yet and also, despite having a friend who is in the same kind of extended Peter Pan adolesence (complete with weird barista job) who is 33, I think it's weird that Ray is SO enmeshed with these kids.

Hannah frustrated me SO much in this episode. Well, she always frustrates me, but in this episode it was way worse. Every time she receives criticism about her writing, or, through her own fault, doesn't meet a deadline, she completely pushes it onto other people and refuses to own up to the fact that maybe her writing just isn't that good. Annoys the hell out of me.

I kind of loved Ray and Shoshanna together, and I'm glad that Charlie and Marnie got back together. I found the whole Adam thing at the end totally not what should have happened.

The Charlie/Marnie reunion was the WORST for me. She dumps him twice. And he clearly was interested in getting back together earlier in the season, but she pushed him off because she was "dating" Booth. Now that he's rich and successful though, she's all about him again. I'm predicting bankruptcy and a THIRD dumping by Ep. 4 of next season.

This season was odd. It started off well, I thought. It was funny and fairly self-aware. But somewhere around Patrick Wilson sex, I feel like it lost its way and became the navel gazing, neurotic, circular show that it's always accused of being.

The one part of the finale I loved was the Laird/Hannah hair cutting scene. Laird all, "Yeah, I really think I nailed it," over that horrible mullet and Hannah asking if she looked "scary skinny" had me rolling.

Ah, see I liked that Marnie did so much stupid shit this season, and kind of realised that Charlie is a nice guy and that she was being an arrogant moron. I was DYING when she sang that song at his launch, and her complete lack of awareness of how ridiculous she was behaving was weirdly amusing.

My favourite part of Hannah cutting her hair was when she cut that huge front chunk and then said "...okay, I didn't want to cut that bit" and then kept right on cutting.

Yeah, I guess I saw it more as Marnie's life falling apart, so getting Charlie back became both a symbol of when her life didn't suck, and something she could point to now and say "See, I accomplished something. I have a rich, successful boyfriend." Had Booth been willing to date her, I think she'd have been equally as happy to go that direction.

I REALLY hate Marnie though, so I can't pretend to have any objectivity on this.

I just watched the first four episodes of the season. I have no idea why, because I hate everyone except for Laird.

I just finished watching last week's episode and I am also puzzled why I continue to do this.