If you are looking for part 1, please visit here.
In part 2 of this retrospective, I thought that I would rank the episodes according to how much I enjoyed them. I will also link to the actual original TV recaps if you would like to compare the notes presented here with the original thought process. I will also be ranking my Top 5 favorite characters and my 5 least. For some, these choices will be really obvious, but I feel that they deserved their spots on the list.
Girls Episodes in Order from Least Favorite to Most
Episode 2: Vagina Panic
This isn't a bad episode, but one that I felt became wary to the later episodes. While it is the one episode where Shoshanna gets a rather meaty and comical role, it doesn't hold up over time. The clinic waiting room scene may be one of the show's better, but it does little otherwise besides side tracking the show from the direction that it was needing to go. The abortion never happens and while it establishes Jessa as the flaky character, this feels more like a shock concept than an actual fleshed out episode. It has it's moments, but when looking back, it doesn't have the charm that I have come to enjoy from the show.
Episode 1: Pilot
Another instance of the show's earlier drafts misleading the audience. While it is great to meet Hannah's parents and establish the character, this feels like a broader version of what the show would become. Sure, drinking opium and discovering the gem that is Ray is pleasant, but there's little here besides introductions to really make a worthwhile episode. We also get Shoshanna's Sex and the City analogy which in light of criticism seemed ill fitting. While it showed promise for the rest of the season, it doesn't have as competent of writing or pacing as the episodes to come.
Episode 4: Hannah's Diary
At the time, I found the episode to be the calm before the storm. I was growing weary of the first few episodes lacking any conflict, and there is finally some here set into motion when Ray reads Hannah's diary. Meanwhile Hannah starts a new job which involves sexual harassment, which makes for an interesting plot, but quickly devolves in the following episode. However, we also get a tragic sense of why Hannah needs Adam and why Charlie doesn't need Marnie. In fact, this is the episode where Charlie officially becomes despicable. Also, we start Shoshanna's unfulfilled sex life arc that just didn't work for me. This episode feels more like build up than an actual strong episode. Though the Echo Friendly song still is rather awesome.
Episode 8: Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too
This episode suffers from too much plot. While it would pay off in the final episode that Jessa and Thomas-John get together, it feels kind of like a creepy date rapey scenario here. While his mash-ups are endearingly awful, there is little in that side of the plot worth remembering. However, the episode's story with Hannah and Adam feature them at their most romantic. We get to understand what makes them work, and it is refreshing. Even the scene of Adam peeing in the shower kind of works in favor of their relationship. It's just a shame that there is a lackluster subplot to drag that excellent aspect down.
Episode 9: Leave Me Alone
As we approached the end of the season, one thing that bugged me was the lack of writing that Hannah, a proposed writer, had actually contributed to the world. We had heard of "Midnight Snack," but little else had come to fruition. This is the episode where we finally get a sense of why Hannah is an insecure writer and why her future is doomed. We also finally get Marnie, who was overdue for a breakdown, yelling at Hannah in what is one of the show's best moments. We finally get to understand the repressive nature and just how similar these two really are. It is lacking in the Jessa and Shoshanna plots, but by giving a lot of attention to Hannah, we finally have reasons to root for Marnie.
Episode 5: Hard Being Easy
Finally, we get some conflict here. While Charlie spends most of the season being either useless or despicable, we get a shot of the vulnerable side of him. We also understand how Marnie hooked up with him (and great foreshadowing to Shoshanna and Ray's relationship) in a touching flashback. While Hannah gets a few moments of glory with her plot about trying to sue her boss for sexual harassment, this is really Marnie and Charlie's episode, which ends in a moment surprisingly more of a downer than the previous episode. It also is the final moments where Marnie shows security on her own life, though she does a good job of repressing things for the next few episodes.
Episode 3: All Adventurous Women Do
While the previous two episodes managed to convince me that this will be a Sex and the City meets being broke, this is the pivotal episode that turns things around. This is the first time we get subplots where everyone goes their separate ways. We get a sense of who they are and what makes them tick. As I stated in part 1, this is the moment where Marnie discovers the man who got away. This is the moment where Hannah becomes free thinking because she has HPV. We also discover that her ex-boyfriend, Elijah, is gay. So much becomes established here that it is fine that they decide to dance the episode off into the credits. It is a happy moment. This is when Girls began turning into what it was supposed to be.
Episode 6: Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a the Crackcident
While I have come to accept that the girls needed time away from each other to do their own plots, it was nice to see them get together for one big party. Everyone was literally there and a lot of conflict arose. Charlie had a new girlfriend that made Marnie jealous. Shoshanna smoked crack and started her journey towards having sex with Ray. Hannah finally saw Adam outside of his house. Jessa broke up with Jeff while beating up some crusty punks. There is a lot that happened in this episode, and it is more impressive because it works almost entirely (85%) as a bottle episode. It closes some doors and opens others. Most of all, we begin to have a sense of why Adam is not pleased with Hannah in their relationship. It may feel like it's too impacted at times, but it works in spite of itself as one of the better episodes of the season.
Episode 10: She Did
What a finale that this episode turned out to be. For starters, the marriage of Jessa and Thomas-John seemed unexpected. We also see Marnie finally moving on with her life and Hannah looking for a new roommate. By this point, Adam has proven himself to be a loving and capable applicant, which doesn't go right. In what is the best scene of the show, Adam ventilates at Hannah on why she is the worst person on Earth. It ends sort of heartbreaking, but we have plenty of fodder for next season. What becomes of Ray and Shoshanna now that they have had sex? Will Marnie date Thomas-John's friend, or will he become the next Charlie? Will that marriage last? How cocksure is Adam of this break-up? It had everything necessary to make a satisfying conclusion to an overall solid season of TV. Though I could do without ever hearing "Pussy Be Yanking" ever again.
Episode 5: The Return
There is just something about this episode that I love. Whether it is the sense that we get a better idea of who Hannah was before we were introduced to her, or how she is as flawed as other simple minded people from her hometown. We are not bogged down by other subplots, which is refreshing, and while it features some depressing sex with an old high school friend, it does lead to one of the more touching moments of the series, in which Hannah calls Adam and establish what it is that makes them such a great couple. This episode lacked a lot of the energy that most of the other episodes had, but having a breather of an episode is what makes this one of the best episodes of the season.
My Favorite Girls Characters from Most Favorite to Least
Ray (Alex Karpovsky)
He may have not had the most screen presence this season, but I felt like he was the most established male character on the show. He was in charge of being the dick, and sure enough he played it so well by having some of the best lines. While it baffles me why he hangs out with Charlie, he is a character that I would love to see more of come next season. He is excellent, funny, and provides a sense of reality to the deluded vision of the leads.
Adam (Adam Driver)
I cannot think of a character that has managed to make me hate him then root for him over the course of one season more thoroughly and without changing a thing. While I first saw him as an abusive boyfriend, he evolved into a tortured, perverted artist that maybe had some antisocial skills. He ends up becoming one of the best characters because of episodes like "Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too" and the ramblings that he gives in "She Did." His repressed nature in the beginning really benefits and makes watching the earlier episodes more endearing knowing that he really isn't a bad guy.
Jessa (Jemima Kirke)
Admittedly, she started off a little too much of a mess for my tastes. However, as the story progressed, it seemed like she was the only main lead that was evolving. True, she still had the promiscuous side to her, but she was also taking on jobs and trying to take control of her life. She may have not been perfect, but it was a nice counterbalance to Marnie and Hannah, who were both going downhill for most of the season. Her relaxed nature is also refreshing as it provides some cynical open mindedness humor to the otherwise restrained qualities of Hannah and Marnie.
Marnie (Allison Williams)
It may not seem like she was given much, but when you look at her relationship with Charlie, she did overcome quite a bit. She tried to bring focus to her life, but ended up creating shards of better days. Things may have fallen apart between her and Hannah, but it did add some nice conflict for "Leave Me Alone" and possibly give her the chance to feel like a normal character come next season. She may have been a little uptight, but she was the straight man in a cast of weird characters. Also, she deserves some credit for breaking up with Charlie. That relationship was insufferable.
Hannah (Lena Dunham)
Such a flawed, ambitiously tragic individual. While she may have never achieved anything in the whole season, it did make for an interesting character study of what insecurity does to a selfish individual. Her writing may be considered to be great, but all it has done this season is cause problems. I still root for her to overcome it and get published, though she'll have to learn to not be so judgmental as a writer. If anything, I don't know what to expect from her on a week to week basis and while she is really flawed and slightly unfocused, she does have plenty of interesting quirks to keep me entertained.
My Least Favorite Girls Characters from Most to Least
Charlie (Christopher Abbott)
At first, I found it easy to sympathize with Charlie. He was the nice guy who wasn't appreciated. However, that was his problem. He was too nice and didn't do anything really for Marnie. While he essential to the plot, he was kind of insufferable as a boyfriend and shaving his head and trying to impress her came off as kind of pathetic. I was almost glad to just see him get written off towards the end of "She Did" by Marnie kissing Thomas-John's friend. Such a one note character that was made worse by the final scene in "Hannah's Diary" when he evolved into a douche bag for no reason. His one redemption is that he was in the band Questionable Goods.
Elijah (Andrew Rannells)
There is nothing wrong with him as a character, but he feels like the poison on the show. Every time he comes on screen, it is mostly to cause conflicts with Hannah or Marnie. It feels at times like this is the only purpose that his character was created for. Besides quoting Rent rehearsals a lot, he is mostly the ex-boyfriend who became gay and is trying to convince the leads that they are bad people. While it will be interesting to see him add to the conflict in season 2, I am kind of annoyed that it had to be him of all supporting characters.
Jeff (James LeGros)
The slacker babysitter payer guy seemed like a nice gig, and it added to Jessa's promiscuity, but there was little else that really drove this character. His wife Katherine got more mileage out of this season, and her screen time was greatly smaller. He is the tragic figure who wanted a younger girlfriend but didn't do anything about it to really validate their existence. He was also not really that interesting to begin with. He never picked fights and while he was fine smoking weed with Jessa, there wasn't that much chemistry otherwise.
Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet)
I discovered later on that the reason she wasn't in every episode was because she was supposed to be a temporary character. However, not knowing this for the rest of the season frustrated me, if just because her arc was that she needed to have sex. She was also used as comical relief, but her valley girl shtick wasn't that impressive or interesting. While some redemption has been made in "She Did," it doesn't excuse a whole season where she was more of a gag than a character. Here's hoping that changes in the next season.
Thomas-John (Chris O'Dowd)
I really like Chris O'Dowd the actor. However, he has had two episodes that I felt resulted in different feelings. In "Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too," I felt that he was useless. However, in "She Did," he felt slightly more appropriate. However, the reason he falls on this spectrum is because he didn't have much to do this season besides set things up for a possible appearance in season 2. I would love for him to become more of a character in the upcoming season, but here he is just a pawn that was moved in the right direction.
There you have it. This has been my retrospective of Girls season 1. It has been a great season of TV and I look forward to recapping it come next season. However, what am I going to do to fill in the time between now and then? I am going to do another show. But which show should I do? I was originally thinking of doing the Girls counterpart Veep, but then I thought that it may be too conflicting. I am not really into politics and it feels weird to just rush through a show that has already been out. I may revisit it later, but not right now. I will consider it, and you can hold this post against me. However, I have thought of one that I have been hinting at for a long time. It is...
That's right, Louie. Seeing as I have loved this show's previous season, I have decided to tackle it episode by episode. I probably won't go as extreme as I did for Girls, but I will try and make coherent marks on it and determine what it is that makes me like it. You can expect these to drop the following Wednesdays from the episode's air date. I would do it sooner, but there are numerous scheduling conflicts. I look forward to seeing you back here next Wednesday for the premiere of my new entries.
Also, stay tuned for a new feature that I will call "Breaking Half" which is set to premiere the Monday following the Breaking Bad premiere in which I ramble for a paragraph on what I liked and disliked about the newest episode of Breaking Bad. It shall be rather fun and challenging.
I will leave you with this interesting visual that I also found.
Neat, eh?
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