Girls, "The Panic in Central Park"

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?