The best scene in season two of Girls occurred with about 10 minutes left in last night’s finale. Hannah’s neighbor Laird (played by Jon “Frrt” Glaser) came up to her apartment to give her a haircut, while she endlessly complained about this and that. A fed-up Laird finally called her out on her bullsh*t, saying, “You are the most self-involved, presumptuous person I have ever met. Ever. I had feelings for you, sure, until I realized how rotten your insides are.”
Great, I thought, Girls was finally going to acknowledge how terrible of a person Hannah is. By the end of the episode, Hannah had reunited with her ex-boyfriend Adam, who literally ran from his apartment to hers without wearing shirt and lifted her up in his arms after busting down her door. So…j/k about the accountability thing.
This was an extremely frustrating season of Girls; there was a lot of good — “One Man’s Trash,” the guest stars, Ray and Adam’s Staten Island excursion, Shoshanna — but there was just as much bad, including every scene with Jessa and much of Hannah’s “self-involved” dribble. That’s why the final scene bummed me out so much: Girls could be a great show if Hannah were painted as more of a f*ck up, but she keeps getting what she wants and you’re supposed to feel sympathetic for a (in every sense of the word) miserable human. As seen here.
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OK, she didn’t actually say that, but she COULD have. Anyway, Girls ending means we’re only two weeks from:
Now that’s girl power.
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I gave up on this show weeks ago. Just couldn’t deal with it’s stupidity anymore.
Bring on G.O.T!
It was almost worth reading through this to get to the stabby Arya picture.
Don’t wanna spoil anything but if they stay true to the books we may be getting a vastly superior Arya stabby gif in the near future.
(via)
Good, now hopefully we can go several months without hearing about what a goddamn innovator Lena Dunham is and how amazing “Girls” is.
I bailed on this show in season one mainly because the main characters are self-centered, horrible and boring. I mean, the gang from “Always Sunny” are also awful people, but at least they make ya laugh!
Also, the founding principle of “Always Sunny” is that the gang never wins. They always lose, and it’s always their fault that they lose. In a way it’s a very moral show.
What successes do these characters have? They’re all failing, spectacularly. The point of the show is that they don’t think that they deserve to, despite not doing anything to justify their self worth. If this was supposed to be some happy success story, I missed the point. The main character was left riddled with OCD, two ruptured eardrums, and a hovering law suit, while an equally unstable alcoholic partner broke through her door a second time after having had the police called on him. Not exactly a triumphant success story wrapped with a nice bow.
Soshanna is not. Ray is now better off arguably. Charlie is doing great. Marnie just got on the Charlie gravy train. She fucked up all season and then in the end just got back Charlie plus the pile of money HE made. Jessa is doing fuck all but will coming back after having been on vacation for a million fucking years and shit will be fine. Hannah has a book deal. She got paid money to write something! Then she fucked it up by not doing the work and suddenly having OCD the whole time in what can be described as the queefiest for of writing a white person problem ever that has no fit with her character. There were no consequences. They live in New York and can do drugs and fuck assholes and most of them are doing fine at WORST. That is success. They are in the 25-early 30s death range. Most of us can’t find work and we are looking at stories of writers and artists literally none of them are engineers or anything useful and with the exception of Ray and ocassionally and briefly Marnie and Hannah no one does dick all. A 20 something success story is not having mountains of debt, moving back home and being poor as fuck. Have Hannah move back to her home and have a full mental break down like anyone with no skill and OCD that went to Oberlin would surely do. I want an episode where one character looks at a fucking bank statement, just fucking one. Someone call Jimmy McFuckingNulty because I don’t want a drug case with Hannah’s “tits” out at raves, I want a fucking money case.
None of those things are what happened. The book deal went south immediately. She is in financial trouble. She asked for financial aid from her parents, which we’ve seen before, and was denied. She’s facing legal action. She’s not doing well. If you think Marnie and Charlie are doing great, you’re dumb. Jessa is a pretty girl getting by on being pretty, something they called to attention pretty dramatically in the last half of the season. This isn’t a story about engineers, if it were none of the tension or obstacles would be present. I don’t know why you’re watching it if you hate everything about it and want it to be the polar opposite of what it is.
As much as I like most parts of this show, It’s in a weird place where it’s supporters refuse to acknowledge any problems with it (Jessa in particular) and that makes me hate it with every 5,000 word review that does nothing but verbally fellate even the weakest of episodes.
This is 100 percent true. If you want to really soak in the criticism of the show, or read angry essays in support of the show, check out any of the episode recaps on Jezebel. You’d swear that every supporter was secretly an executive producer for the show, and used their life savings to create it.
I watched season one. There was one episode in that where her gay friend, who was once her boyfriend, gave her that same “Self-involved” speach, and later on her roommate gave her that speech. So it’s not really new, and it’s not really sinking in to the character, though Lena seems to think if she does it often enough it excuses her character somehow.
I gave up two episodes into season two when i realized it was just something i had on in the background for a half-hour when I didn’t quite have an hour to watch other stuff.
I was hoping for a Bob’s Burger’s recap. King Trashmouth!
I don’t understand how you could watch any episode of the show and not get that she is being self deprecating and that she does understand that Hannah is a vapid, self involved child. She doesn’t come off with her shit together, or with some overarching genius, at all. She’s a mess. I thought this episode was the funniest one they’ve done, complete with a middle aged boy hair cut, power eating cool whip before sneaking off, and Jon Glaser giving brilliant Jamm’s to her deluded eyerolls.
The Jessa character is an abomination, but it was nice to see the phone call deriding her for being so, and actually placing her in reality in that she can’t operate outside of it without significant consequences for actual people. Shoshanna is also a terrible caricature, but Hannah, Ray, and Adam all make up for those weak characters.
The second season was much better than the first. They’re actually doing something now with these characters. It’s never been funnier. I’d rank it fairly low on the shows I watch, but this season turned me from hating the show and not understanding the point, to genuinely liking it, laughing at it, and enjoying the character progressions.
That last scene with Adam was a little misplaced and made it seem uneven, but what can you expect from a 26 year old with their first show?
That’s a problem though. Everything that’s done well is treated so positively because “It’s amazing, she’s only 26 years old and doing this!”. You can’t excuse the bad stuff for the same reason.
No, of course not, that was a minor detraction from the episode’s quality. The rest more than made up for it. The last few episodes have dealt significantly with mental health, in a manner more revealing and genuine than The Silver Linings Playbook which receives nothing but praise.
You’re just reversing the argument, saying that everything that’s well done is praised because she’s young. It’s not, it’s praised because it’s genuinely good and unique for television. It applies much better to forgiving minor flaws than it does to attribute for the resonance and popularity the show gets for its major components.
I never bought into the “it’s good because she’s young” thing personally. It’s just a sentiment I’ve seen and heard in a lot of the same places that use the “voice of a generation” moniker.
I watched the entire first season and first half of the second, and I never really got the appeal of the show or its characters. I’ve tried to see what everyone who loves it so much sees, but I just don’t think it’s as great as it’s made out to be. That’s just me though, to each his own.
if that’s the case then why should i care about this character at all? i only have negative feelings for her and most of the others on the show.
@Nacho The voice of a generation thing is a pretty funny example of media butthurt. It was a line, a satirical one, that was funny in context and immediately called out on the show. I can understand the confusion, I felt the same way and wouldn’t be watching it if not for my girlfriend cueing it up every Sunday night. It’s frustrating at times, going from good episodes to awful ones and back, but I’ve been converted into a fan. Mainly from the last half of the second season, really.
@Stutts, because she’s a funny character, in the same way Ignatius Reilly is a funny character in A Confederacy of Dunces. You don’t have to like a character to find what they do and say funny. The other characters are really tough to like, but I think Marnie is a great example of a character sorely under-represented on TV. Still think there’s no real excuse for Jessa and Shoshanna, but they’re minor characters in the scope of things.
people who don’t like the show because they don’t find it to be funny is fine. i don’t argue with people about taste. but thinking that the show is terrible because you don’t like the characters is not a valid criticism to me. especially when i don’t like she is trying to make you like any of them. she’s just pointing out how fucking stupid and absurd people are when they are young.
@Suicidewatch Agreed. Granted, that’s why I hate It’s Always Sunny, but it’s more that the characters on girls feel fleshed out and three dimensional in a IASIP doesn’t.
So the thesis of the show is that young people are dumb and absurd? How fascinating. No wonder 50 year old NYT editors love it.
@DNP – No, that’s retarded. These characters are, sure. Would you make the same argument about It’s Always Sunny? It’s fine if you don’t like it, I like It’s Always Sunny a lot more than this show, too. But that’s an absurd criticism.
holy fuck am i ready for game of thrones. lena is obviously talented but she’s trying to be too much while at the same time pretending she’s not really doing much at all.
Obviously talented? I’m not sure you know what the words ‘obviously’ and ‘talented’ mean. She’s terrible in every conceivable way.
never has so much been bitched about a show that is actually funny.
Never has so much been bitched about a show that isn’t actually funny.
See what I did there?
When the show isn’t totally aggravating, it can be rather interesting. I’m not sure if Lena Dunham is just trying WAY too hard to be gross, or if I’m just the only one who finds her so completely unattractive. Column A, Column B, probably.
Also, it is never funny. I cannot comprehend how people think it is. I don’t think I’ve ever even had a slight chuckle at it.
I actually smiled at “You came in my thigh crease.” Does that count as “funny”? If not, I’m right there with you.
My main peeve about the Girls discussion, is the ridiculous need for people to complain about her nudity. Im not that naive that yes people want to view what is considered mainstream attractive bodies, however to indict the show solely on what she look like is juvenile.
I’m not criticizing the presence of it, I’m criticizing the quantity, there seems to be a near endless supply of it. I understand that she wants to show the double-standard in entertainment, shlubby dudes with hot babes, but it doesn’t feel like she’s using it to say much else, just repeating it ad nauseam.
Sex in the City did the “ugly women with good-looking guys” thing first, better, and with the decency to keep those hideous beasts mostly covered up.
@hjs06460
Your statement is valid, however I tend to see it as part of Hannahs characters, she struggles to relay honest emotion and has severe internal vulnerabilities, however with her body she fails to care. There are instances in the show in which other characters call her out on her outfits and constant nudity but she simply does not care.
Imagine if walking dead actually depicted their characters honestly w/o being under FCC and AMC restrictions.
Everything SatanBigsby said.
I thought it was a good season that took the characters in much more interesting directions than the first season, and left them in a place to get knocked down again in the future.
Hannah’s so fucked up mentally and financially that the only person she has left is a recovering alcoholic who’s into masochism and humiliation. Marnie’s a fucking mess with absolutely no power in her relationship, which is the same one she had all the power in at the beginning of the series. Shoshanna has jettisoned her wet blanket relationship and is now in her fucking-random-people stage. Jessa is off the show completely. This is WAY better than anything we were presented in the first season.
The ironic thing is that it took fleshing out the male characters for a show called “Girls” to be watchable. That Lena Dunham. Such a feminist.
Some thoughts:
-I hung out with an old friend and his girlfriend a bit recently. She loved Girls and called Dunham a “genius”. I bit my tongue. As the days went on I came to realize that this person could easily fit in with the cast of Girls. She’s not very attractive, very opinionated, doesn’t stop talking, nags; and to top it all of she says stuff like the quotes from this post. One time she told how she just “couldn’t be friends with Christians” once she found out they were Christians. We aren’t talking Westboro Baptists, Christians period.
I also dislike the inordinate amount of coverage this show gets. I’m fine with different people having different tastes in TV and everything else. But shows like Veep and 30 Rock get/got a fraction of the press that Girls generates. And no matter where you come down on Girls, I haven’t heard anyone say that it’s the funniest show on TV. Because it objectively isn’t, even for big fans of the show. So the show gets a sort of Kardashian vibe, lots of attention that it hasn’t really earned.
Besides Lena Dunham the cast is ridiculously conventionally attractive. And what’s wrong with being opinionated?
Anyway, I don’t think that Girls gets more press than, say, 30 Rock. If it does it’s because of the self-perpetuating reaction to reactions to reactions.
Opinionated to the point of disliking an entire religious group is a problem. The mindset that goes on behind it is even more of a problem.
What JTRO said times a million. From what I’ve seen, I feel like this show doesn’t even merit discussion. It’s mildly funny at best and insufferable at worst.
As a dude in his early 20s, I feel like I relate more to a dude like Louis CK than anyone from “Girls.”
the show is more of a dramedy than anything else, so complaining that it doesn’t earn the coverage because it isn’t as funny as shows that are straight comedies is a little ridiculous
Every time you guys do a post about Girls the comment board looks like the comment board for Jezebel.
zing
Those posters really go at it. I’m waiting for the inevitable “Jezebel Commenter Stabbed to Death by fellow Commenter over Differing Opinion on ‘Girls’” headline.
Lena Dunham is to my penis what the French were to the Nazis.
Hey Steve G not a personal attack at all mate but the Nazi’s had huge hard ons for French. They basically loved all non Jewish, white European culture. So what does that comment really mean?
Anyway Lena Dunham is the modern American women in one form or another. Not to bash Americans she could be Australian, British, Canadian, French, German etc. She is the modern Western women. Me, me, me, me, you dont make enough money, me, me, me, me, me, you don’t have a good enough job etc. Gay marriage is looking better every day.
she will make a great old person, i can imagine her as an old person, she will be old some day
I freaking love “Girls” I am 26 right now and I can soo relate at this age we really dont know what we want with our careers, or love life but we like to act like we do, but in reality this is the worst years and the best years of our lives and thats what I get out of the show! I love Adam and Hannah it just proves that there is someone out there for everyone if a self involved child like girl and a drunken krazy boy can make it happen why cant we all Love Love “Girls”
I know couples like that in reality. They are the worst people ever (other than Nazis and Chris Brown) . Why would anyone want to strive to be like them?
Instead of It’s Always Sunny (which I quit watching because you can only laugh at the same thing over and over for so long), I compare it to a few seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm. At some point Larry David crossed the line and gave you no reason to care about the characters or keep watching. I understand they got it back on track though. Maybe Girls will too.
I don’t see the show as denying or avoiding acknowledgment of Hannah’s awfulness. I kinda think that’s built into the show. If there was a narrator, he/she would be saying, “Hey, look what this goddamn lunatic is doing now.” But there’s not a narrator, so it’s up to us to figure that out. It’s pretty clear to me, though, that Hannah’s terribleness is entirely intentional.
As for her “getting everything she wants,” I don’t exactly see it that way. It’s true that she got that e-book deal, but so far, that’s thoroughly blown up in her face (although if she ends up finishing it and it sells well and shit, I’ll be extremely annoyed). It’s true that she got Adam to come and take care of her, but she hasn’t really wanted him in a while now, and this was only a moment of extreme weakness that made her reach out to him, which she’ll likely be regretting in the next episode. And I believe that, at her core, she hates herself, which was why she broke up with Adam in the first place — she couldn’t fathom someone actually being in love with her, which he was.
I think all of those things LD said are hilarious. It’s too bad you don’t get it.
The show is uninviting and truly awful
i’m pretty sure you’re supposed to find all those things that Hannah says insufferable. It’s at least that much self aware. now, being annoyed that she still has victories is understandable, but you’re supposed to find these people deeply flawed.
The problem is that Dunham’s public appearances, especially her political shit, give the impression that she buys into her own hype. She really is insufferable.
This show has always acknowledged what a horrible person Hannah is. Or, more acurately, it acknowledges both her horrible aspects and her good aspects. She says and does alot of awful things which are clearly meant to be awful, and the show even ventures into outright satire times. But EVERYONE has a horrible side to them, so that’s what I like about the show as it seems more realistic. Yeah, the characters can be awful at times, but it’s to the writers credit that you still can sympathize with them as well.
I’d level the “lack of self-awareness” ciriticism more at something like “Sex and the City” (whose characters were all completely awful, yet the show glorified and glamorized their awfulness rather than acknowledging it). “Girls” is way smarter than that, though.
Why Adam went back to that fat piece of trash is beyond me. I guess she’s okay with being treated like a cum dumpster.
I have a theory that the monumental praise of Dunham and the success of the band Fun. (Dunham is dating a member) is some long running James Franco art project.
So i’ve never watched this this, but I have thought about starting it amongst all the other crap I watch (gotta get my Whitney on first :-/). But it seems like every time I think about do ing so, something is said about it that makes me kind of nauseaus. From this to that awkward, AWKWARD sex scene, it just weirds me out now.
So, basically it follows the Entourage model of failing upwards?
This.
exactly. idiots on the rise