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| Left to Right: Peter Scolari, Lena Dunham, Becky Ann Baker |
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 last week's "Hard Being Easy," which delved into Marnie (Allison Williams) and Charlie's (Christopher Abbott) relationship proved to provide some dramatic moments, it was nice for things to go more in depth with their lead protagonist this week. We have seen Hannah (Lena Dunham) have a job, get tested for STD's, and break up with her abusive boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver). However, we know her now, but there is a sense that we never got to know her background besides brief glimpses with her parents (Peter Scolari and Becky Ann Baker) in "Pilot."
This episode fixes all of these problems and more. The biggest achievement is that the show didn't make a distracting case this week of shoehorning in Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) or Jessa (Jemima Kirke) who are essentially pointless to this week's plot. The plot revolves around Hannah's choice to visit her parents in her hometown in Michigan. Besides a brief cameo by Marnie that signifies that their friendship definitely overcame the break-up, the rest of the lead performers are nonexistent. The first scene opens with Hannah carrying a garbage bag full of clothes out of her apartment and declaring that she is visiting her family and that she is the nicest person to Marnie.
We meet up with Hannah as she comes out of the airport in Michigan to her parents, who are enthused to see her. They have a lot of plans for the few days that they get to see her, including watching some good movies off of Netflix. When badgered about her life in New York, Hannah reveals that Adam is dead to her and that she is still holding down a job. By the end of the episode, both of these statements will be proven to be lies. When her parents try to forward the conversation, she begrudgingly tells them to stop and makes the rest of the car ride quiet.
She regresses to a reluctant child as the episode continues with her parents sitting in chairs watching Million Dollar Baby. When her mom encourages her to watch, Hannah says that she has no interest in it and would rather be texting people. She blows them off by saying that their choice to watch the movie was their cross to bear and that they shouldn't drag her into it.
Her room is also pretty retro. From the computer to a poster of Parker Posey's Party Girl. She contemplates calling Adam before hanging up on him. The following morning, her mother asks for Hannah to get the hormonal medication that she needs since her father is gone for the day. She becomes adamant and Hannah is on her way to the local pharmacy.
There she meets Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), who was part of her graduating class at East Lansing High. He works at a pharmacist and through conversation, they discover that they are both going to a benefit for a girl named Carrie, who died. Eric is so eager to impress Hannah that he gives her a box of lubrication because he believes that women on the medication would need it.
She also meets Heather (Vanessa Ray), who works at a coffee shop. She essentially goes on break after promising to make Hannah whatever she wanted. They discuss how the Carrie trauma caused her to face PTSD. She is performing as a dancer at the benefit show, which is raising money to hire private investigators into her death. She also wants move to Los Angeles to become a professional dancer. She doesn't know anyone, but believes that she can figure out her own way.
Hannah blows off her parent's plans that they had that night to have dinner with her in favor of the Carrie benefit. She meets up with Eric at the event, and watches as Heather performs to Keri Hilson's "Pretty Girl Rock," which seemed chosen just because of the line "My name is Keri." Hannah slowly becomes depressed watching it and tells Eric that Heather doesn't stand a chance as a dancer, as she performed very amateurishly. When Hannah tells Eric that she is an unpaid, jobless writer in New York, it only baffles him more to why she deserves to give criticism.
They go back to Eric's place and decide to have sex, which goes rather poorly. She wants to be creative and aggressive, while he wants to take it slow and not have her finger his asshole. It isn't the worst thing ever, but after weeks of watching her have sex with Adam, it manages to be depressing.
Meanwhile, her parents are off having dinner and discuss Hannah's life. Despite the father being more enthused in "Pilot" than the mother, it is a reversal here. The father isn't entirely against her daughter, but the mother is very keen on Hannah becoming the adventurous woman that she is. This leads to a quick round of sex in their shower, which results in the father falling naked onto the floor.
Hannah arrives home to see her mother attending to her still naked father. He regains consciousness and they drag him to bed. He admits that he is embarrassed and is just now realizing that he is getting older. Hannah and her mother have a more heart-to-heart conversation than in "Pilot," which reveals that she was being rough on Hannah and cutting off money because she wanted her to move back home. She is proud of what she has done, but still misses her a lot. Hannah also refuses to admit that she just got fired to please her.
The episode ends with Adam calling Hannah to discuss how each other has been. Hannah explains the awkward sex, which doesn't bother Adam at all. They have a real heart-to-heart moment where there's a sense of kinship.
This was an episode that grew on me upon second viewing. At first, the general concept of moving back home for a few days seemed hackneyed. However, there is a lot of emotional payoff that telling a story in New York couldn't. For one, we finally get a better look into Hannah's relationship with her parents, which only seemed like a punchline in "Pilot." We get a sense that her strict punishment was because they wanted the best for her. It takes awhile to establish, but pays off with the amount of reluctance Hannah shows before then.
We also get a look into Hannah's past with Eric and Heather. Both of these people are in some ways more naive or timid than she is. Heather is similar to Hannah in that she has big dreams, but seems hopeless on achieving them. Hannah sees part of herself in that, though refuses to admit it. Eric is the opposite of Adam. He is nice, but essentially fine with just working at his father's pharmacy. It seems like a weird disconnect, but helps us to understand the people that Hannah used to know compared to sexually promiscuous types like Jessa.
It is also intriguing because this may be the first time where Hannah doesn't have any wisecracks about writing down anything for her memoir "Midnight Snacks." Maybe there is a sense that she is slightly ashamed of her childhood and doesn't want to talk about it. Either that or the narrative of this memoir is not yet known.
I know that it is necessary to keep them to a minimal, but I really felt that we got good mileage this week out of seeing her parents really dive into their thoughts on Hannah. It was fascinating to get a more well rounded view of her world and that behind the parents who cut her off for being spoiled is actually a pair of loving and caring individuals. Also, my theory from "All Adventurous Women Do" that her father may be gay has been officially proven wrong. He is just old and not really in the condition to have sex in the shower.
What impresses me most is that we finally also get a reason to care about Adam and Hannah's relationship. While I don't know if they are just going to become friends after this, it was a very touching moment between the two and reflected a rare sense that Adam has feelings. He didn't badger her with insults or ask her for sex. They had a genuine conversation about their lives. While it is possible that the comments Adam made in "Hard Being Easy" about outgrowing each other could mean that he's got a new girlfriend, it would be interesting to see these two interact just that way. They seem more compatible. Also, if they are to stay a couple, I would like a flashback or some way to make me understand how they got together, speaking as he has never left the apartment.
It is also nice that the show didn't shoehorn in Shoshanna or Jessa. I felt that after doing that to Shoshanna in "All Adventurous Women Do" and "Hard Being Easy," it seemed distracting and bogged down the story. Here is proof why that cutting out is beneficial to the actual plot. We don't need to have Jessa babysitting in the background as Hannah drives away. That would just seem pointless. While I would love for the four leads to get together for a central story for the first time since "Vagina Panic," I am fine with totally ignoring one or two for the sake of the story.
I don't really have any new questions to offer for this week's episode. I felt like all it did was establish Hannah the person. It gave us a glimpse into her relationships and that she is still a naive writer who lies to her parents. However, the unexpected gem was the idea that Adam is not a bad guy. How will this play into the future? Will he finally meet everyone else? I think that his social awkwardness needs to be explored a little bit, if only to give the character more of an arc.
Also, when they played this song during a very bad choreographed dance, I thought it was Beyonce or a knock-off. Aparently it is Keri Hilson's "Pretty Girl Rock." The lyrics still suck and the production is so crap, but I felt like it worked very well in making me doubt Heather's future, at least in good tastes of music. Also, will we see any of these Michigan characters again? That would be interesting if Eric suddenly came to New York for a legitimate reason.
Favorite moment: This could possibly be my favorite moment of the series so far, as it was unexpected. That phone call at the end with Adam totally changed my view on him. It added complexity and makes me now kind of sympathize with him temporarily. It is a nice touch and kind of proves that Lena Dunham is great at subtly crafting character moments. It can also be thanked to co-writer Judd Apatow, whose work on the episode may have added a nice touch of empathy to the small, one time use characters.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Check out more of my work at www.nevpodcast.com where I post every Wednesday and have a podcast called Nerd's Eye View.
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