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| Left to right: Jemima Kirke and Lena Dunham |
Welcome back to another round of Girls TV Recap. This year, we will follow season five and the perils that Hannah (Lena Dunham) and her friends face as they grow up and learn how to be mature... hopefully. What new experiences will they face? Come back every Friday for the latest recap including thoughts and predictions for each episode. Will it remain one of the best comedies on TV? You'll have to read to find out.
If there was anything that could be gathered from last week's Girls, it was that time apart definitely does everyone some good. While Shoshanna sits out this week, the rest of the episode focuses on, as the title suggests, some "Old Loves" and how they have drifted apart over time. Some of them are more direct while others are vicarious. In the case of one central relationship, it's especially harsh to see things falling apart. Yet that is part of what this penultimate season, which is at the halfway mark next week, seems to be about. In fact, it's likely what's needed at this point based on how everyone has been acting.
The episode begins as Hannah is grading some of her students' work. Fran (Jake Lacy) helps to make the process easier by providing his own divisive critique. This causes a feud that involves ripping the paper. When the student receives it back, she is confused as to why her paper is in such a state. Hannah tries to be adult and have Fran explain himself. Both toss blame onto each other, leaving the state of the paper in disarray without anyone taking the proper blame for the incident.
Meanwhile, Marnie (Allison Williams) is discovering the pressure of Desi's (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) remodeling. Having just returned from a trip, she discovers that the noise is bothering neighbors and the claustrophobic work environment is creating more issues. They try to work it out by ignoring each other. Through a conversation with Hannah, Marnie comes to the realization that she may be pushing him away by being an aggressor. She makes up with him and things work out for the time being. Marnie insists on being his partner as opposed to being a bully.
Jessa (Jemima Kirke) continues to have a conflicted relationship with Adam (Adam Driver) that causes her to be a little hostile towards Hannah. When they go out for desert, Jessa suggests that Hannah is losing her creativity due to being on the internet all day. This causes Hannah to get angry and leave. Jessa in return goes to meet Adam, of whom has been sharing an awkward platonic relationship up to this point. In this instance, Jessa decides to relieve tension by having sex.
Meanwhile, Elijah (Andrew Rannels) goes out on a date with Dill Harcourt (Corey Stoll). The date is initially weird, as his celebrity status makes it hard to ever have an intimate moment. However, there's a sense of bonding that forms as they go around Times Square and enjoy each other's company. As things wind down, they decide to go back to his apartment and have sex. Elijah is ecstatic, feeling that he has just entered a pretty good relationship with a gay celebrity.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Well, this was a pretty packed episode of Girls. While last week had the benefit of focusing largely on two characters, this week feels like it is filling in the gaps for everyone else's lives. After all, this show is a pluralized title and not the life of one person. Even if Hannah has been driving the show for most of the five seasons, there's still the sense that each of the supporting characters have some intrinsic value of their own. True, none of them have gotten a story nearly as exciting as Hannah's, but they all have become their own characters thanks to their slow progression away from each other as time has moved on and on.
With that said, I am waiting for the episode between Hannah and Fran that either shows something positive, or merely marks the end of a doomed relationship. With Hannah and Jessa mad, tension is probably going to ratchet up between the two as Hannah no longer has a third party to speak to. Considering how futile the ripped paper is, it seems ridiculous to think that they should even be together. Jessa pretty much has it down when she accuses Hannah of becoming a stagnant person without much endearing creativity. While this may merely be a small argument, it does feel like yet another mature thing that Jessa has shown in becoming the show's odd moral compass. Considering that she has now finally accepted Adam as a partner, things may be moving on in interesting directions.
The Desi and Marnie relationship in general has been a little bit insufferable as it is. Considering that the fourth season didn't give them a single ounce of intelligible things to do, it's at least a relief to see Desi doing something to the apartment, even if it makes no sense. Their conflicts are so frugal that this is what passes as probably the most interesting thing to happen to them in over two seasons. It will likely disappear and we'll see more of them bickering at each other. However, it does seem like they are sticking together merely because they have nothing else to do. In some ways, it does mirror Fran and Hannah's relationship, but with more denial attached.
The episode as a whole is pretty strong for embodying how old loves fall apart over time. The Girls group has been that way since the second season, and it's sometimes difficult to determine what the breaking point is. Is Jessa really going to stay mad at Hannah, or is this going to get Hannah to be more productive? It's hard to tell, though it does seem impossible to believe that Hannah is still going to be a teacher - especially following giving a student piercings and assigning Phillip Roth to the class. The problems seem to escalate every week, and one can also see her professional life just reaching a breaking point. Something's got to give, and I wonder if that is what this season is building towards. What started as an intriguing look into maturity has slid back into more of the same. It isn't bad, but you wish that the show was reaching some milestone.
Girls remains a consistently good show, even though it does occasionally feel like there's a certain redundancy to the episodes. While Elijah's dating life is a little new to the format, most of the fading apart plots are familiar. Jessa's yelling at Hannah mirrors the same thing, but with Marnie and Hannah throughout various points of the series ranging back to the first season. My question is if Shoshanna is ever coming back to the show, or if she embodies a certain bliss and change in the show that everyone else needs to overcome. Maybe that is why "Japan" came in the first batch of episodes. Whatever the cause, it is weird to note that Shoshanna is the one who has her life most together, even if she's unemployed in Japan at the moment. Hopefully, that isn't too far off for everyone else (the life together thing, not going to Japan).
The episode begins as Hannah is grading some of her students' work. Fran (Jake Lacy) helps to make the process easier by providing his own divisive critique. This causes a feud that involves ripping the paper. When the student receives it back, she is confused as to why her paper is in such a state. Hannah tries to be adult and have Fran explain himself. Both toss blame onto each other, leaving the state of the paper in disarray without anyone taking the proper blame for the incident.
Meanwhile, Marnie (Allison Williams) is discovering the pressure of Desi's (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) remodeling. Having just returned from a trip, she discovers that the noise is bothering neighbors and the claustrophobic work environment is creating more issues. They try to work it out by ignoring each other. Through a conversation with Hannah, Marnie comes to the realization that she may be pushing him away by being an aggressor. She makes up with him and things work out for the time being. Marnie insists on being his partner as opposed to being a bully.
Jessa (Jemima Kirke) continues to have a conflicted relationship with Adam (Adam Driver) that causes her to be a little hostile towards Hannah. When they go out for desert, Jessa suggests that Hannah is losing her creativity due to being on the internet all day. This causes Hannah to get angry and leave. Jessa in return goes to meet Adam, of whom has been sharing an awkward platonic relationship up to this point. In this instance, Jessa decides to relieve tension by having sex.
Meanwhile, Elijah (Andrew Rannels) goes out on a date with Dill Harcourt (Corey Stoll). The date is initially weird, as his celebrity status makes it hard to ever have an intimate moment. However, there's a sense of bonding that forms as they go around Times Square and enjoy each other's company. As things wind down, they decide to go back to his apartment and have sex. Elijah is ecstatic, feeling that he has just entered a pretty good relationship with a gay celebrity.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Well, this was a pretty packed episode of Girls. While last week had the benefit of focusing largely on two characters, this week feels like it is filling in the gaps for everyone else's lives. After all, this show is a pluralized title and not the life of one person. Even if Hannah has been driving the show for most of the five seasons, there's still the sense that each of the supporting characters have some intrinsic value of their own. True, none of them have gotten a story nearly as exciting as Hannah's, but they all have become their own characters thanks to their slow progression away from each other as time has moved on and on.
With that said, I am waiting for the episode between Hannah and Fran that either shows something positive, or merely marks the end of a doomed relationship. With Hannah and Jessa mad, tension is probably going to ratchet up between the two as Hannah no longer has a third party to speak to. Considering how futile the ripped paper is, it seems ridiculous to think that they should even be together. Jessa pretty much has it down when she accuses Hannah of becoming a stagnant person without much endearing creativity. While this may merely be a small argument, it does feel like yet another mature thing that Jessa has shown in becoming the show's odd moral compass. Considering that she has now finally accepted Adam as a partner, things may be moving on in interesting directions.
The Desi and Marnie relationship in general has been a little bit insufferable as it is. Considering that the fourth season didn't give them a single ounce of intelligible things to do, it's at least a relief to see Desi doing something to the apartment, even if it makes no sense. Their conflicts are so frugal that this is what passes as probably the most interesting thing to happen to them in over two seasons. It will likely disappear and we'll see more of them bickering at each other. However, it does seem like they are sticking together merely because they have nothing else to do. In some ways, it does mirror Fran and Hannah's relationship, but with more denial attached.
The episode as a whole is pretty strong for embodying how old loves fall apart over time. The Girls group has been that way since the second season, and it's sometimes difficult to determine what the breaking point is. Is Jessa really going to stay mad at Hannah, or is this going to get Hannah to be more productive? It's hard to tell, though it does seem impossible to believe that Hannah is still going to be a teacher - especially following giving a student piercings and assigning Phillip Roth to the class. The problems seem to escalate every week, and one can also see her professional life just reaching a breaking point. Something's got to give, and I wonder if that is what this season is building towards. What started as an intriguing look into maturity has slid back into more of the same. It isn't bad, but you wish that the show was reaching some milestone.
Girls remains a consistently good show, even though it does occasionally feel like there's a certain redundancy to the episodes. While Elijah's dating life is a little new to the format, most of the fading apart plots are familiar. Jessa's yelling at Hannah mirrors the same thing, but with Marnie and Hannah throughout various points of the series ranging back to the first season. My question is if Shoshanna is ever coming back to the show, or if she embodies a certain bliss and change in the show that everyone else needs to overcome. Maybe that is why "Japan" came in the first batch of episodes. Whatever the cause, it is weird to note that Shoshanna is the one who has her life most together, even if she's unemployed in Japan at the moment. Hopefully, that isn't too far off for everyone else (the life together thing, not going to Japan).
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