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.
We have come to the end of the premiere season of Girls, and boy what a ride it has been. We've dealt with sexism, racism, and class without once dealing with the actual show. At least most of the internet did. Based on the above trailer, I was excited to see what would come. As a big fan of Judd Apatow-produced TV shows, this was at the top of my list. This was only made more prominent upon watching Tiny Furniture, which was Lena Dunham's directorial effort that landed her this job. While I found lines about Felicity to be somewhat amateurish, I saw something in Tiny Furniture that drew me to the show.
While I was never taken in by the internet debate, I took this time to challenge myself to recap the entire show. It was only 10 episodes, so why not? It was especially fun because starting with "Pilot," I had questions on characters and where they were going. I still believe that Marnie (Allison Williams) will play some wise guru to Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet), even if it doesn't actually happen more than once ("Vagina Panic") this season.
This show mostly surprised me because I learned what goes into actually recapping a show. I don't believe that I did a great job. The first few weeks featured me mixing opinion with plot description, and often times leaving names of actors and characters out. I have gotten better at it, but I look back at my beginning efforts, and it seems a little amateurish.
However, it made me focus on detail more. Not the technical aspects, but how the show evolved on a week by week basis. It's true that HBO comedies are often considered meandering, and I want to come clean. I expected this season to be based heavily around sex and finding employment in today's modern economy. That is what I got from the first three episodes. I didn't want it to be, but when you have Shoshanna doing a Sex and the City analogy in the first episode and the second one about abortion, I was ready to have women's issues pushed on me in a weekly basis.
What I got instead was a bunch of surprises and frustration. Yes, sex was there. Work was there. But it was so much more. We got to know these characters week by week, and they were all flawed in a way that never distracted me. Some would complain that they are too mean and spoiled, but the more I looked into them as a character, the more I just considered them to be people that I am familiar with. Hannah (Dunham) has insecurity issues about success. Marnie is a perfectionist with a bad boyfriend. Jessa (Jemima Kirke) is a traveler with intimacy issues. And Shoshanna is a virgin. While it was established that they were spoiled, I don't feel like the show spent long focusing on that and instead threw everyone into other struggles.
Another aspect that I really enjoyed was the difference on a week by week basis and just marathoning it. When I was writing these entries, I watched it twice a week to gather all of the small details. I had perceptions of characters that started off stern, but evolved into a more open minded view. I never expected Adam (Adam Driver) to become one of my favorites. If anything, this show has succeeded in underusing performers until the moment is right for them to just open a can of worms. I can think of at least three characters that get this treatment, and it worked every time.
On a marathon basis, I was able to notice smaller details that were less blatant since I was not looking at the whole picture, but what I thought was. Almost everything is there from the first few episodes. Adam's play and Hannah's feelings (verbatim) about Charlie (Christopher Abbott) is referenced in "Pilot." They laid the ground work and while it isn't anything too shocking, just helps to make the world feel stronger. Going through rapidly with Adam's vulnerability in mind also helped me to notice that he wasn't so bad in the earlier episodes and that the sass mouth was just sweet nothings. However, I kind of turned on Charlie right away, as I felt that he was a useless character. He really didn't add anything.
I also enjoyed the excessively meta commentary that the show was going for. During "Leave Me Alone," Marnie states that a books he is reading is refreshing and definitely captures what it is like to struggle at her age. This is just one of many moments where female writers are referenced as being a strong voice. It is a running theme that I feel is supposed to be reminiscent of what Lena Dunham the writer is trying to do while Hannah the character is failing at.
I also feel that the pinnacle episode is "All Adventurous Women Do." I feel that everything that needs to be established for the rest of the season is there. Hannah discovers that she has HPV and discovers that her ex-boyfriend Elijah (Andrew Rannells) is gay. If you pay close attention to her Twitter, her previous posts are bleak and sad. When she types 'All adventurous women do' and plays the Robyn song, she suddenly changes her perspective. The rest of the season feels like a continual spiral of her delusional worldview that everything will work out. Meanwhile Marnie meets a man who is cocksure about everything. It is later established that Marnie likes people who know what they want. Essentially, this one-off character is the man who got away and gives Marnie the impression that she could do better, thus making her relationship with Charlie all the more awkward. However, it backfires when she breaks up with Charlie and it takes awhile to get over him.
The show is also fairly good at establishing supporting characters. Whether it is Hannah's parents (Peter Scolari and Becky Ann Baker), coworkers (Alex Karpovsky), or fellow students (Jenny Slate), there is a sense that they are there for a reason. Every character has a way of getting under people's skins while pushing the plot along. No character is really wasted, and while some deserve more screen time, it is possible that this won't be the last that we see of them. I didn't expect Thomas-John (Chris O'Dowd) to make it more than one episode, but he came back in the finale and may be back next season.
Overall, I think that recapping TV shows has proven to be a worthwhile challenge. I enjoyed the aspect of looking into this show and trying to predict the next move. It is also a relief that I chose one that didn't disappoint. Part of me wonders if the show would even register on my radar had I just casually watched it. I applaud Dunham on creating such a terrific show and one that managed to exceed my expectations of what it was going to be. It wasn't a new Sex and the City, but a show that challenged everyday life in a refreshing and honest way.
I am also psyched that a Judd Apatow-produced show has gotten a second season. This may not be Freaks and Geeks great, but it definitely is on par with Undeclared in terms of entertainment, characters, and memorable moments. While the music choices are kind of all over the place, I still believe that they managed to have a few great cuts, though none as great as this one that appeared in "Hannah's Diary."
Overall rating: 4 out of 5
Please make sure to check out part 2 of my retrospective in which I rank the episodes and characters. I also share my next TV recap series and upcoming plans for my blog. Stay tuned.
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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