Hey, everyone! My name is Michael. You may or may not remember me; the last time I wrote a review here was about a year ago for the Chuck series finale (actually, upon further inspection I also did a Dallas advance review). I just couldn't bring myself back after those tears. I run a little review/recap blog but someone is already covering Girls there and I decided, it would be fun to cover here instead! Anyway, just thought I should re-introduce myself. Without further adieu…
I know that
Girls is not the most popular series around these here parts, but in many ways tonight's new outing was the perfect first episode to review for those that think it may be mumblecore dreck. For as much as the series has been lauded, it's also been painfully criticized to a hipster pulp. And while some aspects felt a bit off tonight (I believe this is the first episode not at least co-written by Lena Dunham), it was the producers' response to most, if not all, criticisms the show has received to date.
More importantly, this episode further catapults Hannah into the privileged abyss in which she feels comfortable.
Hannah asks Sandy (Donald Glover) to read an essay that she's written but he continues to delay the inevitable conversation. She's okay with it as well, until Jessa makes it a metaphor for their relationship. Now Hannah's demanding his thoughts and it gives Sandy a perfect opportunity to exercise his right to be the voice of the
Girls naysayers that believe he was tacked on as the token black character, by almost bluntly stating Hannah thinks of him as such. It's a scene that definitely may have felt too on the nose otherwise, but for a show that has received this much criticism for it, it felt all too necessary. Regardless, it's almost imperative to the Hannah character. Their conversation wasn't just about the racism issues that should absolutely be talked about, it was also about the series itself ("Nothing happened!"), and more importantly about how someone may actually think that Hannah's writing isn't all that great. And for that reason alone, Sandy may have actually had Hannah pegged — we know that she's someone who will just live life to experience it and document it later on in her journals, as she believes life "experiences" is her greatest muse.
Furthermore, it gives someone else to burst Hannah's bubble. We've seen it happen in the first season when Marnie mentioned that she didn't really like the essay Hannah was going to write because it felt one-dimensional and trite. How perfect that Sandy sort of equates a story about a girl finding her sexuality as boring, something Hannah most definitely would think could be important to write about. The episode was great at setting up how Hannah lives in a bit of a protective bubble where she sort of doesn't know much about anything that matters unless it's convenient, of course (like Clinton's term information; read a newspaper). But from that conversation, she goes to Sandy and cites his political beliefs as the reason she is breaking up with him, which is as artificial as her essay, I would assume… especially considering that Sandy's
"steadfastness" did not actually mean he was completely against everything Hannah was stood for. And what's great about it is that we get to see just how wrong Hannah is and yet the series allows her to continue spiraling with blinders on. It's just telling that she would go on to do that after a conversation with Jessa who is in a relationship with a blatant expiration date.
The same is sort of true for Marnie, who has always been someone who decided what she wanted from a certain point in time and kept herself from taking any detours because of it. Now she's finding herself completely useless and even unimportant and must reinvent herself. It's definitely a problem for a lot of entitled millennials, who are fresh out of college ("Ooh! A bachelor's degree!") and feel as though because they had a plan that it should just work itself out. But somehow this new Marnie might be taking steps into… well… as they say, paying her dues. The same can said for her relationship with Hannah, where the status of their friendship is sort of still festering underneath the surface. And it's no help that she's keeping the fact that she sort of had sex with Elijah a secret. It's none of her business, sure, but they know that she will take it as such… because that's just who she is. (Then again, it'd make a great essay.)
Which brings us to Adam, who at once felt comfortable with Hannah being at his every beck and call and now has no idea how to handle the fact that she just does not want him anymore, down to her selfish insincere proposal to visit him at the police station. He's always been a bit eccentric, so his machoism quest to win her back doesn't seem all that weird, but I find it almost fitting that the show has used so many physical manifestations to show how toxic his relationship with Hannah can be. In season one, he was hit with a truck. And just after getting his cast broken off his leg, where he was a prisoner in his own home with Hannah onboard, he's literally getting arrested because of her. It's kind of perfect.
Everyone else is stuck on not saying what they mean to each other that their relationships have crumbled, meanwhile Shoshanna and Ray may actually prove to work out because of their honesty.
Some say
Girls is trite, but well-written like Sandy mentioned tonight; some thing it's utter trash; and others think it's brilliance. I just sort of think that's there's something different about having our heroine be a self-absorbed post-grad with the air of someone who doesn't believe so… something different that I like to watch.
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MichaelCollado | More reviews at
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