Standalone episodes for supporting characters seem to be having a moment on TV right now. "Better Call Saul" and "The Leftovers" have recently used them. They're following in the footsteps of "Orange is the New Black," which uses flashbacks focusing on characters who mostly stay in the background. OITNB, in turn, has been building off the lesson of the capital-G Great shows, "The Wire," "The Sopranos," and "Mad Men," all of which featured sprawling casts with interesting players that the writers could drop in on from time to time. Supporting characters may not be able to carry their own show, but they're often interesting enough to merit their own episode.
I was particularly excited to learn that this episode would focus on Marnie. She's my favorite character on the "Girls," mostly for comedic reasons. Marnface is simply hilarious; she lacks so much self awareness that she once sang "I'm not aware of too many things" for a music video which she then immortalized on YouTube.
However, "The Panic in Central Park" focuses on Marnie from a dramatic standpoint, which is probably a wise move. She's interesting from this perspective as well: she probably got better grades than any of the other three titular characters--and she's certainly the prettiest--but she has made less progress than any of them toward where she wants to be in life.
After another absurd meltdown by Desi in their cramped apartment, Marnie goes for a walk and runs into her ex, Charlie. This was quite a surprise: Christopher Abbott left the show shortly before the third season started shooting, leaving the producers scrambling. When Marnie asks why the hell he left and he responds that he was going through some issues, it feels like the show is getting something off its chest.
Charlie has changed a lot. Some of it is superficial--he's bearded, tanned, and tattooed--but he's also acting differently. Eventually we learn that he's a heroin addict, which the show does a nice job of slowly teasing out. He's impulsive. He goes to the bathroom a lot. He deals cocaine. He lives in a crappy apartment in a bad neighborhood. When the big reveal finally comes, the show does a nice job of underplaying it. Marnie simply walks out, which feels more true to life than the kind of melodramatic confrontation that would typically come on a TV show.
Luckily for her, Marnie spends a night with Charlie before learning of his habit, because she gains some much-needed perspective from him. He teaches her to go with the flow, to not try to change people. Most importantly, he reminds her that she can change her life whenever she wants. When he fantasizes about running a store with her, she seriously considers the idea. And while she's too uptight to drop everything and move away, she does muster up the strength to ditch that awful husband of her's.
All in all, a terrific episode. One quibble, though: since when does using heroin lead to weight gain?
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Girls, "Queen for Two Days"
"Girls" typically has at least one episode per season where the humor runs a little broader. With Shoshanna exploring the Hello Kitty playground that is Japan and Hannah and her mom going to a "Spring Queening" retreat, "Queen for Two Days" is absolutely that episode. The tiresome Jessa-Adam storyline even has a nice comic moment as Adam, following Jessa's instructions, pretends he forgot to pull out. ("Coach is gonna kill me!")
Unfortunately, for some reason these sillier episodes tend to be more on-the-nose in their messaging. Do we really need Shoshanna's ex-boss to tell us that Japan offers valuable life lessons? Or one of the older women at the retreat to lament that she'd love a gay husband?
Still, "Queen for Two Days" has some worthwhile moments. We eventually learn that, despite putting on a brave face, Shoshanna is actually miserable in Japan. It makes sense that she'd feel out of sorts. While someone like Jessa would just accept the differences and roll with it, Shoshanna is too rigid for that.
Meanwhile, Hannah's mother faces an interesting choice. With lengthening lifespans, divorce is becoming more common for people approaching retirement. But with age comes the knowledge that it's unwise to expect too much from love. Hannah's dad may be gay, but he's great at Scrabble and can do a mean Chris Rock impression. Sometimes settling is the wisest path.
Unfortunately, for some reason these sillier episodes tend to be more on-the-nose in their messaging. Do we really need Shoshanna's ex-boss to tell us that Japan offers valuable life lessons? Or one of the older women at the retreat to lament that she'd love a gay husband?
Still, "Queen for Two Days" has some worthwhile moments. We eventually learn that, despite putting on a brave face, Shoshanna is actually miserable in Japan. It makes sense that she'd feel out of sorts. While someone like Jessa would just accept the differences and roll with it, Shoshanna is too rigid for that.
Meanwhile, Hannah's mother faces an interesting choice. With lengthening lifespans, divorce is becoming more common for people approaching retirement. But with age comes the knowledge that it's unwise to expect too much from love. Hannah's dad may be gay, but he's great at Scrabble and can do a mean Chris Rock impression. Sometimes settling is the wisest path.
Monday, March 21, 2016
Girls, "Old Loves"
The fourth episode of a "Girls" season has typically been a significant one. (This was most notable in season 2, when "It's a Shame About Ray" pulled things together after the show had been floundering.) Given that this is a half-hour show with a lot of dramatic elements, it makes sense that it would take time for it to build to a crescendo.
But the crescendo doesn't mean much if the tune is no good. This fourth episode does build to a climactic montage, but the centerpiece of it is the consummation of the frustrating Adam-Jessa relationship. Although their sex is endearingly awkward, having both characters say "I've wanted this for a long time" doesn't make it any more believable.
As the title "Old Loves" implies, most of the rest of the episode is concerned with showing cracks in the facades of more developed relationships. Fresh off their battle over nude selfies, Hannah and Fran have a prickly argument over grading. Fran rather presumptuously starts marking up the grammar on one of Hannah's student's papers, showing an irritating type-A side to his personality. Hannah, of course, does not respond well. Rather than make an excuse ("I spilled coffee on it!") and ask the student for another copy, she drags the poor young pupil into her boyfriend drama.
Hannah is told that she just needs to work things out by Marnie, who's having her own problems in her new marriage. (This is the one terrific moment of the episode: we're always projecting our own situations onto the issues of others.) Marnie is deluding herself that her marriage will work if she tries to be the bigger person. But she's already the bigger person. The imbalance between her and Desi has never been more clear. Marnie has the fundamental tools, the drive and intelligence, to succeed. She's just making bad choices right now. Desi, on the other hand, is simply a fuck up, as demonstrated by his meltdown over the $3,000 wall he attempted to put up in their tiny apartment.
Perhaps an even bigger imbalance exists between Elijah and his new celebrity beau Dill. Dill makes a (rather too) unsubtle threat about crossing him, and then more or less uses him as a sex toy in bed. As Elijah looks at the gorgeous view from Dill's apartment, it's already clear that he'll be facing a Faustian dilemma. Should he give up on love and do it (literally) for the money?
That kind of problem highlights one of the disappointments of "Girls": it hasn't done much to tackle the financial struggles of millenials. The major conflict of the pilot is Hannah's quest to get more money from her parents, yet the show has rarely been interested in the challenges of paying the rent. The characters' jobs only come up when it becomes convenient from a plot standpoint. (Shoshanna's recent firing, for example, is designed to set up a love triangle, not put her in dire financial straits, though that may be a side effect.) The show has barely tried to explain how Elijah, Marnie, and Desi make it in what may be the most expensive city in human history. Jessa's sudden allusion to her "studies"--without even spending 10 seconds of expository dialogue to explain just what those are--shows how blinkered this show can be.
But the crescendo doesn't mean much if the tune is no good. This fourth episode does build to a climactic montage, but the centerpiece of it is the consummation of the frustrating Adam-Jessa relationship. Although their sex is endearingly awkward, having both characters say "I've wanted this for a long time" doesn't make it any more believable.
As the title "Old Loves" implies, most of the rest of the episode is concerned with showing cracks in the facades of more developed relationships. Fresh off their battle over nude selfies, Hannah and Fran have a prickly argument over grading. Fran rather presumptuously starts marking up the grammar on one of Hannah's student's papers, showing an irritating type-A side to his personality. Hannah, of course, does not respond well. Rather than make an excuse ("I spilled coffee on it!") and ask the student for another copy, she drags the poor young pupil into her boyfriend drama.
Hannah is told that she just needs to work things out by Marnie, who's having her own problems in her new marriage. (This is the one terrific moment of the episode: we're always projecting our own situations onto the issues of others.) Marnie is deluding herself that her marriage will work if she tries to be the bigger person. But she's already the bigger person. The imbalance between her and Desi has never been more clear. Marnie has the fundamental tools, the drive and intelligence, to succeed. She's just making bad choices right now. Desi, on the other hand, is simply a fuck up, as demonstrated by his meltdown over the $3,000 wall he attempted to put up in their tiny apartment.
Perhaps an even bigger imbalance exists between Elijah and his new celebrity beau Dill. Dill makes a (rather too) unsubtle threat about crossing him, and then more or less uses him as a sex toy in bed. As Elijah looks at the gorgeous view from Dill's apartment, it's already clear that he'll be facing a Faustian dilemma. Should he give up on love and do it (literally) for the money?
That kind of problem highlights one of the disappointments of "Girls": it hasn't done much to tackle the financial struggles of millenials. The major conflict of the pilot is Hannah's quest to get more money from her parents, yet the show has rarely been interested in the challenges of paying the rent. The characters' jobs only come up when it becomes convenient from a plot standpoint. (Shoshanna's recent firing, for example, is designed to set up a love triangle, not put her in dire financial straits, though that may be a side effect.) The show has barely tried to explain how Elijah, Marnie, and Desi make it in what may be the most expensive city in human history. Jessa's sudden allusion to her "studies"--without even spending 10 seconds of expository dialogue to explain just what those are--shows how blinkered this show can be.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Girls, "Japan"
"What a breath of fresh air!" thought Shoshanna, and probably all "Girls" viewers, as she steps out to her commute in the Land of the Rising Sun. This show has explored a small slice of New York life for such a long time that any new settings and characters that mix things up are welcome.
And there's more than just the novelty of loudly colored apartments and sauna breaks at work here. Shoshanna's time in Japan gives the show the opportunity to explore what can get lost in translation. Both literally, as she and Yoshi struggle to communicate in broken English, and figuratively, as Shoshanna deals with Japanese assumptions about American girls. (Just as Americans make assumptions about those abroad.) But in spite of Yoshi's friends' best efforts to treat Shosh as a slut at a BDSM club, these two connect just as any two people might in any culture. Some things, thankfully, are universal.
And some things are just universal on TV shows. "I'm not doing the 'Will they or won't they?' thing," Jessa insists. But referencing the trope you're using doesn't make it feel any less tired. As Jessa and Adam review his performance on a show in the vein of "Law and Order" and make cute eyes at one another, it's depressing to see these prickly characters pushed into the same old familiar boxes. Thankfully, they can't be totally contained. Adam's performance on the show-within-the-show really is good. (While at the same time slightly hilarious, as Lucy Liu tells him, "Brother, we're both from the streets.") And his little awkward dance after Jessa leaves is a marvel. The man continues to push the limits of what acting in a conventional TV show can be.
Meanwhile, you're not going to believe this, but we've got a storyline about how selfish and unreasonable Hannah is! After she discovers pictures of naked women on Jake's phone, it seems for a thrilling moment that Jake is going to turn out to have a creepy dark side. But it turns out he just needs masturbation material and is morally opposed to porn. (Hannah has taken her own nude selfies, but she strikes an awkward pose, as she demonstrates in an amusing photo shoot with Ray and Elijah.) This is a profoundly first-world problem. But I suspect that there is more to Jake's collection than he's letting on. Here's hoping that it leads to a discussion of monogamy as a construct, as Marnie puts it.
And there's more than just the novelty of loudly colored apartments and sauna breaks at work here. Shoshanna's time in Japan gives the show the opportunity to explore what can get lost in translation. Both literally, as she and Yoshi struggle to communicate in broken English, and figuratively, as Shoshanna deals with Japanese assumptions about American girls. (Just as Americans make assumptions about those abroad.) But in spite of Yoshi's friends' best efforts to treat Shosh as a slut at a BDSM club, these two connect just as any two people might in any culture. Some things, thankfully, are universal.
And some things are just universal on TV shows. "I'm not doing the 'Will they or won't they?' thing," Jessa insists. But referencing the trope you're using doesn't make it feel any less tired. As Jessa and Adam review his performance on a show in the vein of "Law and Order" and make cute eyes at one another, it's depressing to see these prickly characters pushed into the same old familiar boxes. Thankfully, they can't be totally contained. Adam's performance on the show-within-the-show really is good. (While at the same time slightly hilarious, as Lucy Liu tells him, "Brother, we're both from the streets.") And his little awkward dance after Jessa leaves is a marvel. The man continues to push the limits of what acting in a conventional TV show can be.
Meanwhile, you're not going to believe this, but we've got a storyline about how selfish and unreasonable Hannah is! After she discovers pictures of naked women on Jake's phone, it seems for a thrilling moment that Jake is going to turn out to have a creepy dark side. But it turns out he just needs masturbation material and is morally opposed to porn. (Hannah has taken her own nude selfies, but she strikes an awkward pose, as she demonstrates in an amusing photo shoot with Ray and Elijah.) This is a profoundly first-world problem. But I suspect that there is more to Jake's collection than he's letting on. Here's hoping that it leads to a discussion of monogamy as a construct, as Marnie puts it.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Girls, "Good Man"
Any show fortunate to live a long life is going to have some episodes that feel pretty inconsequential. It's inevitable: more than 20 hours into a show, particularly a relatively light one like "Girls," not everything is going to feel like compelling drama.
Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, the cowriters of "Good Man," come up with a pretty good solution to this problem: they throw a ton of stuff at the audience so that the energy never flags. (Now we know why last week's episode felt like a cost-cutter, neglecting to show any of the non-principal wedding guests. This week is bursting at the seams with characters. All those actors didn't come cheap.)
Fran moves in with Hannah after his roommate experiences a psychotic break. Hannah teaches Phillip Roth to eighth-graders, which is just a prelude to her helping her dad through the aftermath of an awkward sexual encounter. Adam visits his niece, which is just a prelude to him continuing his courtship of Jessa. Elijah gets a new suitor, who just happens to be a famous news anchor.
The strongest of these storylines is Hannah's time with her father. Up until now, the "Hannah's dad is gay" subplot has mostly been used for jokes about how Hannah doesn't want to hear her parents talk about icky sex stuff. But "Good Man" moves things into more dramatic territory. Hannah meets her dad's new fling and learns that he's a pretty nice guy. She takes a stormy phone call from her mother, who's demanding a divorce. These developments are forcing Hannah to view her parents as the messy, flawed human beings they are. It's a tough lesson that people tend to learn as they start treating their parents as peers rather than authority figures.
Unfortunately, the other material here just doesn't measure up. Adam and Jessa's developing relationship continues to make no sense. Wouldn't these two have hooked up already if they had such a strong connection? Even leaving that aside, their day spent mooning over each other at a carnival didn't feel true to these characters. Adam and Jessa are both impulsive people making a bad decision. This feels like the kind of fling where two people suddenly collide and then instantly regret it, not something that would develop through puppy dog love.
Meanwhile, Ray faces stiff competition from a neighboring coffee shop. This thread isn't completely devoid of worthwhile material. Helvetica is a pretty great name for an annoying store. And Ray's confrontation with a barista of ambiguous gender is a great illustration of a peril of living in New York. But this feels like a rerun of Ray's storyline from last season, in which he got pissed off about something and found a way to take action. Will Ray use his political muscle to force Helvetica to use lids? I may need some coffee to stay awake for this storyline.
Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, the cowriters of "Good Man," come up with a pretty good solution to this problem: they throw a ton of stuff at the audience so that the energy never flags. (Now we know why last week's episode felt like a cost-cutter, neglecting to show any of the non-principal wedding guests. This week is bursting at the seams with characters. All those actors didn't come cheap.)
Fran moves in with Hannah after his roommate experiences a psychotic break. Hannah teaches Phillip Roth to eighth-graders, which is just a prelude to her helping her dad through the aftermath of an awkward sexual encounter. Adam visits his niece, which is just a prelude to him continuing his courtship of Jessa. Elijah gets a new suitor, who just happens to be a famous news anchor.
The strongest of these storylines is Hannah's time with her father. Up until now, the "Hannah's dad is gay" subplot has mostly been used for jokes about how Hannah doesn't want to hear her parents talk about icky sex stuff. But "Good Man" moves things into more dramatic territory. Hannah meets her dad's new fling and learns that he's a pretty nice guy. She takes a stormy phone call from her mother, who's demanding a divorce. These developments are forcing Hannah to view her parents as the messy, flawed human beings they are. It's a tough lesson that people tend to learn as they start treating their parents as peers rather than authority figures.
Unfortunately, the other material here just doesn't measure up. Adam and Jessa's developing relationship continues to make no sense. Wouldn't these two have hooked up already if they had such a strong connection? Even leaving that aside, their day spent mooning over each other at a carnival didn't feel true to these characters. Adam and Jessa are both impulsive people making a bad decision. This feels like the kind of fling where two people suddenly collide and then instantly regret it, not something that would develop through puppy dog love.
Meanwhile, Ray faces stiff competition from a neighboring coffee shop. This thread isn't completely devoid of worthwhile material. Helvetica is a pretty great name for an annoying store. And Ray's confrontation with a barista of ambiguous gender is a great illustration of a peril of living in New York. But this feels like a rerun of Ray's storyline from last season, in which he got pissed off about something and found a way to take action. Will Ray use his political muscle to force Helvetica to use lids? I may need some coffee to stay awake for this storyline.
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