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| Left to right: Lena Dunham and Jake Lacy |
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.
Last week saw Girls hitting one of its biggest highs in quite a few seasons. With Marnie (Allison Williams) now broken up with Desi (Ebon Moss-Barchrach), would it service as a domino effect in which every other couple falls apart? After all, nobody really has a stable relationship at this point. The answer came in this episode, and it's kind of a mixed bag. Their relationships may not be over, but they definitely don't have much to suggest that they're going to last as long as one initially thought.
The episode opens with Hannah being reprimanded by a staff member at her work. He claims that she is making snide remarks about other teachers and talking openly about their sex lives. Hannah tries to defend herself while also revealing that she actually said those things. Still, her job is in jeopardy, which results in potentially being fired. In a last ditch effort, Hannah decides to spread her legs and flash her vagina to the other staff member, which ends up annoying Fran (Jake Lacy) to the point that they argue for the rest of the evening.
They're on their way to 38 Neighbors, which is a play designed to make the audience part of the crime scene. Adam (Adam Driver) is part of it and he has invited Jessa (Jemima Kirke) along, of whom decides to watch the experience from an adjacent fire escape. The play is considered to be very incoherent and nonsensical, which only leads Hannah to try and talk to Fran more about the situation. When he backs out, she turns to Ray (Alex Karpovsky), who has little advice for her. Likewise, Marnie bothers Ray about her own divorce. He is just as helpful.
Hannah and Marnie decide to talk as they both realize that their relationships are crumbling. Hannah has picked up on the idea that Jessa is sleeping with Adam. Around that time, Desi barges in and suggests that his song is going to appear on Grey's Anatomy and that he would like to tour with Marnie. By the end, Hannah has no choice but to remain bitter at her ex-boyfriend and the friend that she recently had a big tiff with. As Fran asks her if she wants to be alone this evening, she suggests that she doesn't, scared of the world around her.
Meanwhile, Elijah (Andrew Rannells) and Dill (Corey Stoll) go to an upper class party. Both of them have a lot of fun. Dill schmoozes with the crowd as the more famous face. However, Elijah runs into someone who suggests that Dill was cheating on him with another man a week ago at a rave. Elijah confronts Dill on it, though he doesn't care. He just wants to have fun and embrace his celebrity status. Elijah is rightfully mad and leaves without saying goodbye. When Dill tracks him down, he passes out on top of him in the midst of being drunk and incapable of forming a sentence.
Rating: 4 out of 5
On one note, this episode did go in the direction that I was hoping this season would go. The one positive remark that I can give Girls is that it is generally unpredictable week to week. However, the last few seasons have slowly been moving more towards a coherent plot. That is why I'm relieved to know that there was some focus given to Hannah and Fran's problematic relationship and that Hannah was in fact called out as being a terrible teacher. These were traces of things that were definitely obvious, but felt like they wouldn't be entirely explored ever. The show has rarely been about exploring things too deeply. In the early years, Hannah and Marnie, or Hannah and Adam would have such fluid relationships that their break-ups would merely last minutes at a time.
Which is why it is interesting to finally see Fran snap. He hasn't exactly fit into the puzzle of this series one iota. He is almost too good for Hannah and is professional enough to avoid public fights and showing his anger at a woman. There's something professional about Fran that makes sense as an ideal, but he seems to be above Adam in the sense that he isn't afraid to ditch her at a moment's notice. Of course, that is more speculative, as he has stayed around this long. However, there's still the sense that Fran has never won an argument nor has he found much reason to stay. Even Hannah seems to think the end days are closer than you'd think.
Then there's the overall device of the show to revolve it around a play. While this is an idea that stems back to season 1's "Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident," placing every character in one location allows for some interesting run-ins. We get to see a post-Desi Marnie trying to enjoy her life and speculate being alone for awhile. We see Jessa, who doesn't seem as bitter as Hannah ends up being. The only one missing is Shoshana, who was last seen depressed and alone in Japan. There's plenty to enjoy in attempting to critique the art world alongside everyone's problems, most of all the strange absurdity of whatever the story was supposed to be.
Of course, the one frustrating remark is that Girls didn't keep Desi away from Marnie for long. It could just be luck, but the Grey's Anatomy song is great news met with a bitter divorce. Either that is going to spike things and make it worse, or we're going to see what is likely to happen - which is Desi taking advantage of Marnie. It is one of those eye rolling moments that it felt like even the show was over. The write-off of last week's episode more than suggests the beauty of Marnie becoming an independent woman again. The same could likely be said for Elijah and Dill, the latter of whom definitely is more shallow than the initial relationship would've suggested.
Girls definitely has stepped up its game this season, even if Hannah and Marnie remain at the bottom of the pile. Neither have evolves exceptionally as characters, even if they have had some strides. The characters are mostly the same, but they still have the nonsensical tics that cause them to be mad about trivial things. Even the idea to get hung up on Jessa dating Adam seems childish. It makes you wonder if Fran is going to last the remaining two episodes, or if their separation is going to happen next week. Either way, I hope we get some more Shoshana from this season and that this series nails the landing on one of the most cohesive seasons that they've ever had.
The episode opens with Hannah being reprimanded by a staff member at her work. He claims that she is making snide remarks about other teachers and talking openly about their sex lives. Hannah tries to defend herself while also revealing that she actually said those things. Still, her job is in jeopardy, which results in potentially being fired. In a last ditch effort, Hannah decides to spread her legs and flash her vagina to the other staff member, which ends up annoying Fran (Jake Lacy) to the point that they argue for the rest of the evening.
They're on their way to 38 Neighbors, which is a play designed to make the audience part of the crime scene. Adam (Adam Driver) is part of it and he has invited Jessa (Jemima Kirke) along, of whom decides to watch the experience from an adjacent fire escape. The play is considered to be very incoherent and nonsensical, which only leads Hannah to try and talk to Fran more about the situation. When he backs out, she turns to Ray (Alex Karpovsky), who has little advice for her. Likewise, Marnie bothers Ray about her own divorce. He is just as helpful.
Hannah and Marnie decide to talk as they both realize that their relationships are crumbling. Hannah has picked up on the idea that Jessa is sleeping with Adam. Around that time, Desi barges in and suggests that his song is going to appear on Grey's Anatomy and that he would like to tour with Marnie. By the end, Hannah has no choice but to remain bitter at her ex-boyfriend and the friend that she recently had a big tiff with. As Fran asks her if she wants to be alone this evening, she suggests that she doesn't, scared of the world around her.
Meanwhile, Elijah (Andrew Rannells) and Dill (Corey Stoll) go to an upper class party. Both of them have a lot of fun. Dill schmoozes with the crowd as the more famous face. However, Elijah runs into someone who suggests that Dill was cheating on him with another man a week ago at a rave. Elijah confronts Dill on it, though he doesn't care. He just wants to have fun and embrace his celebrity status. Elijah is rightfully mad and leaves without saying goodbye. When Dill tracks him down, he passes out on top of him in the midst of being drunk and incapable of forming a sentence.
Rating: 4 out of 5
On one note, this episode did go in the direction that I was hoping this season would go. The one positive remark that I can give Girls is that it is generally unpredictable week to week. However, the last few seasons have slowly been moving more towards a coherent plot. That is why I'm relieved to know that there was some focus given to Hannah and Fran's problematic relationship and that Hannah was in fact called out as being a terrible teacher. These were traces of things that were definitely obvious, but felt like they wouldn't be entirely explored ever. The show has rarely been about exploring things too deeply. In the early years, Hannah and Marnie, or Hannah and Adam would have such fluid relationships that their break-ups would merely last minutes at a time.
Which is why it is interesting to finally see Fran snap. He hasn't exactly fit into the puzzle of this series one iota. He is almost too good for Hannah and is professional enough to avoid public fights and showing his anger at a woman. There's something professional about Fran that makes sense as an ideal, but he seems to be above Adam in the sense that he isn't afraid to ditch her at a moment's notice. Of course, that is more speculative, as he has stayed around this long. However, there's still the sense that Fran has never won an argument nor has he found much reason to stay. Even Hannah seems to think the end days are closer than you'd think.
Then there's the overall device of the show to revolve it around a play. While this is an idea that stems back to season 1's "Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident," placing every character in one location allows for some interesting run-ins. We get to see a post-Desi Marnie trying to enjoy her life and speculate being alone for awhile. We see Jessa, who doesn't seem as bitter as Hannah ends up being. The only one missing is Shoshana, who was last seen depressed and alone in Japan. There's plenty to enjoy in attempting to critique the art world alongside everyone's problems, most of all the strange absurdity of whatever the story was supposed to be.
Of course, the one frustrating remark is that Girls didn't keep Desi away from Marnie for long. It could just be luck, but the Grey's Anatomy song is great news met with a bitter divorce. Either that is going to spike things and make it worse, or we're going to see what is likely to happen - which is Desi taking advantage of Marnie. It is one of those eye rolling moments that it felt like even the show was over. The write-off of last week's episode more than suggests the beauty of Marnie becoming an independent woman again. The same could likely be said for Elijah and Dill, the latter of whom definitely is more shallow than the initial relationship would've suggested.
Girls definitely has stepped up its game this season, even if Hannah and Marnie remain at the bottom of the pile. Neither have evolves exceptionally as characters, even if they have had some strides. The characters are mostly the same, but they still have the nonsensical tics that cause them to be mad about trivial things. Even the idea to get hung up on Jessa dating Adam seems childish. It makes you wonder if Fran is going to last the remaining two episodes, or if their separation is going to happen next week. Either way, I hope we get some more Shoshana from this season and that this series nails the landing on one of the most cohesive seasons that they've ever had.
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