TV Recap: Girls - "Vagina Panic"

Left to Right: Jemima Kirke and Lena Dunham

I am going to attempt to keep up a weekly entry recapping the brand new HBO comedy series Girls, written, starring, and directed by Lena Dunham of Tiny Furniture fame. While the episodes usually premiere on Sundays, my entries will be posted towards the end of the weeks, usually on Thursdays or Fridays. This is more of a time convenience as I hope to take this new venture seriously and take time to review each episode. If this goes over well, I will continue to do more of these. I was going to do Bob's Burgers, but the idea came a few episodes too late. However, I am still considering doing Louie, whose previous season remains the best 30 minutes of TV each week.

After debuting with mixed results, I am glad to see that Girls is quickly taking to defining it's characters. As the title "Vagina Panic" would suggest, it is an episode dedicated to sexual exploits and understanding how each character works on that core level. The episode opens with another awkward sex scene between Hannah (Lena Dunham) and her boyfriend in which he plans to send her home "covered in cum." It is not the oddest moment of that scene, but it further establishes the relationship as controlling and a little abusive, even including a platter of insults during sex. 

The story kicks into gear the morning after when discussion rises on if they always used condoms and what the odds are of contracting diseases. This fits in perfectly with the rest of the story, which is about Jessa's (Jemima Kirke) planned abortion at a clinic. Everyone has their little moment of sexual reveal in this episode, and it further helps to establish the personalities. While there is still some who could compare this to Sex and the City, this show is rightfully looking beyond those boundaries and giving the characters heart and place them in the modern world.

Zosia Mamet

One nice touch is the inclusion of an interview that Hannah has for a desk job in which she is interviewed by a Syracuse graduate. After a fun little conversation gets her on solid ground, she ruins it by making a date rape joke that all but ruins her chances. This is a nice touch, if just to flesh out the Hannah character and give this episode more than being just about sex and abortions. Hopefully the search for employment will continue to impact every episode and not make these characters seem like vapid cutouts. 

Another reason that this is promising proof that the show could be so much more is how they tackle the general concept of abortion. While it is still perceived as a taboo subject, they manage to find humor in it without degrading the subject. While Hannah opposes the idea, she only thinks that people who use condoms should do it.

The rest of the episode plays out in an abortion clinic where Jessa is expected to have her abortion while Hannah is waiting to get checked for diseases. She has developed a strong paranoia that she could contract something that leads to AIDS based on "the stuff that gets up around the side of condoms" slipping out. It's a farfetched concept that plays throughout the episode, including a Google search, but drives Hannah into paranoia to have a check-up every month to be responsible. Meanwhile Jessa doesn't show up to what Marnie (Allison Williams) calls a "beautiful abortion" that she set up. She is instead hooking up at a bar, where it is discovered that she is having her period.

The best moments of the episode actually come from the time that the characters get to spend together one on one. When Jessa and Hannah get to spend time away from the crowd after being exposed to a book that Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) bought called "Listen Ladies," detailing how to handle relationships, Jessa's vulnerable stubbornness shows as she opens up. She wants to have kids with many men, but doesn't want to date them because dating is "for lesbians."

On the flip side, Shoshanna and Marnie get a lot of great time in the abortion clinic. It immediately becomes clear that Shoshanna has something wrong when she busts into the clinic with snacks, worrying that it would take a long time. It progresses into this long conversation about how Shoshanna is a virgin and Marnie claims that sex is overrated. As far as dynamics go, I am becoming convinced that Shoshanna and Marnie will be doing some interesting stuff together in the upcoming episodes.

While the episode ends on an inconclusive note, Hannah has her tests in which she blames Forrest Gump on her fear of AIDS. There is no definitive results. The rest of the story pretty much just establishes the characters very well and we start to understand motives. The characteristics are in place and these are some interesting characters.

Overall, I think that this is definitely a step up from the first episode. I think that if the show remains at this pace, it is possible that it could be really good. By making a subject like abortion into awkward comedy realism, it manages to cover a subject in an intriguingly honest way. I think the setup also helped to move the characters into better focus, which is more of a relief than them just getting high on opium every week. I don't quite buy them as their characters just yet, but they are getting better.

I think that Shoshanna steals the show this week. Her naivety that she brought to every scene helped to add that innocent touch necessary to keep this from going crass. Zosia Mamet plays the character very well with tenderness and repression that she comes across as the most believable of the bunch. I personally think that Shoshanna and Marnie will have their own subplots as time progresses. Meanwhile I think that Hannah is a little too neurotic, but the basis justifies most of it. I just wonder if Jessa will be more than the flaky character she has been so far. Her cynicism brings some moments of fun to the show, but I feel that if she doesn't progress, it is possible that she'll drag the show down. She also brings a moment that bugs me in which she speaks of Venice sinking and saying that "we need to mmking move." In a show that is so sexual, the personal exclusion of the work fuck just seems untrue.

Favorite scene: It is linked to above. There is something about watching this episode and getting to that scene that just really clicks. It is the beginning of the story lines intersecting and getting one innocent view of the world before diving deeper. It also features my favorite moment so far when Hannah asks who the ladies are and Shoshanna confidently reassures her by saying "I'm the lady, she's the lady, you're the lady... we're the ladies." The awkward cut to the next scene with Jessa decrying the book is just brilliant.

Rating: 4 out of 5