Season finales on "Girls" tend to be happy affairs. End of season one: Jessa's getting married! End of season two: Adam saves Hannah! End of season three: Hannah's going to Iowa! End of season four: Hannah has a new boyfriend!
The subsequent seasons undermine these apparent happy endings. Season two revealed Jessa's marriage to be a shitshow. Season three saw Hannah and Adam drifting apart. Season four proved that grad school is not a great place for Hannah. Season five saw the unraveling of Hannah's new relationship.
But the end of season five may finally prove to be a turning point for these girls. They're finally starting to try new behaviors, instead of just trying new things.
Hannah has a run-in with a friend from college named Tally, played by Jenny Slate. Slate's appearance is Exhibit A for why I wish this show had more guest stars. Her monologue on being a successful author is one of the standout moments of the series; in examining how she's become divorced from her own persona, Lena Dunham comes as close as she ever has to capturing the disorienting nature of fame.
Tally is invaluable for Hannah's character arc as well. As Hannah catches Tally up on all the crazy stuff she's been up to over the course of the series, we start to realize that she's been through a lot in just a couple years. And she's starting to wise up; she knows not to trust her instinct to try to make Adam and Jessa's lives hell. Instead, she lets it go, and turns her inner turmoil into a terrific monologue for a podcast. Maybe all those mistakes we've seen her make were just her way of learning how to be an adult.
Marnie has a breakthrough of her own in the wake of a truly weird sexual dream involving Ray. Marnie's a strange character, a type-A personality who's been consistently flailing since graduation. But she's now realizing her problem: she's been pursuing what she thinks will impress other people, rather than following her own muse. No one's going to be impressed by Ray. But he makes her happy.
Shoshanna's storyline may be my favorite. She comes up with a novel strategy to compete with Helvetica, the new coffee shop across the street from Ray's: court the anti-hipster demographic. "We need to sell coffee to people with jobs" is her hilarious pitch. And she does it with flair, courting media attention by putting up signs that say things like "Trust the Government." What I like most about this storyline is that it doesn't involve a boyfriend. No doubt she'll get a new beau as part of her happy ending next season. But it's nice to see the show remind us that these girls don't need men to be happy.
And, finally, we come to Jessa. I may never be totally at peace with the Jessa-Adam relationship. When it first developed, these were my objections:
1. Hannah was inevitably going to find out and throw yet another temper tantrum.
2. These characters never showed any chemistry before.
3. The whole premise that Jessa doesn't want to upset Hannah is undermined by the fact that Hannah and Jessa never seem to have any positive interactions.
4. Despite the fact that there are 8.4 million people in New York City, "Girls" sometimes seems determined to only pair off its main characters. Adam has now dated Hannah and Jessa. Ray has now dated Shoshanna and Marnie. It's a bit tiring to see them stay within this circle of friends who are "poor and mean," as Elijah memorably put it.
To the writers' credit, they solved the first problem by using the relationship as a springboard to a more mature Hannah. The other problems are probably unsolvable at this point. There's a bit of a "wobbling Jenga tower" feel to this show by now. But it can probably stay up for another season.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Girls, "Homeward Bound"
On one level, you could view "Girls" as an audacious experiment in seeing how unlikable it can make its protagonists. This may seem like nothing new; we live in the age of TV antiheroes. But most of those bad boys (and they're mostly boys) are also badasses. Tony Soprano is charismatic as well as cunning. Walter White is a monster, but a brilliant one. Don Draper offers Madison Avenue cool to help disguise his misogyny.
Our four titular girls are not quite so impressive. True, they may not be wholly off-putting. Hannah can write and joke, Marnie can sing, Shoshanna is sweet and diligent, and Jessa is the ultimate Cool Girl. But "Girls" spends far more time focusing on the "warts" part of the "warts and all" equation. This approach reaches its apotheosis in "Homeward Bound."
Consider the awful behavior on display: Hannah dumps Fran at the outset of their vacation, then sexually assaults and ditches Ray. Shoshanna does a poor little rich girl routine, whining that she's going to have to go on welfare as she eats sushi. Jessa is preoccupied with her feud with Hannah as Adam struggles to care for his nephew, who's been abandoned. Marnie appears reasonable in trying to deal with Desi at a recording session, but their problems are framed as a byproduct of her anger management issues.
What's really amazing about "Homeward Bound" is the gender divide on display. While the girls are being terrible, the boys are struggling to be decent. Fran practically begs Hannah to let him give her a ride back to the city. When she refuses, Ray comes up to get her. She eventually hitchhikes with still another man, who turns out to be a victim rather than a perpetrator of domestic violence. Meanwhile, Adam and Laird step up to the plate in caring for poor little Sample while Jessa whines. Marnie's storyline is the exception that proves the rule: Desi is as terrible as ever, but he's enabled by a new girlfriend whose idea of conflict resolution apparently involves blaming Marnie for everything.
Look, we all know where "Girls" is going. Our heroines will plunge to new lows, then emerge with a newfound sense of maturity, only to see it tested in the final season and come out stronger than ever. But do they all have to hit rock bottom at the same time?
Our four titular girls are not quite so impressive. True, they may not be wholly off-putting. Hannah can write and joke, Marnie can sing, Shoshanna is sweet and diligent, and Jessa is the ultimate Cool Girl. But "Girls" spends far more time focusing on the "warts" part of the "warts and all" equation. This approach reaches its apotheosis in "Homeward Bound."
Consider the awful behavior on display: Hannah dumps Fran at the outset of their vacation, then sexually assaults and ditches Ray. Shoshanna does a poor little rich girl routine, whining that she's going to have to go on welfare as she eats sushi. Jessa is preoccupied with her feud with Hannah as Adam struggles to care for his nephew, who's been abandoned. Marnie appears reasonable in trying to deal with Desi at a recording session, but their problems are framed as a byproduct of her anger management issues.
What's really amazing about "Homeward Bound" is the gender divide on display. While the girls are being terrible, the boys are struggling to be decent. Fran practically begs Hannah to let him give her a ride back to the city. When she refuses, Ray comes up to get her. She eventually hitchhikes with still another man, who turns out to be a victim rather than a perpetrator of domestic violence. Meanwhile, Adam and Laird step up to the plate in caring for poor little Sample while Jessa whines. Marnie's storyline is the exception that proves the rule: Desi is as terrible as ever, but he's enabled by a new girlfriend whose idea of conflict resolution apparently involves blaming Marnie for everything.
Look, we all know where "Girls" is going. Our heroines will plunge to new lows, then emerge with a newfound sense of maturity, only to see it tested in the final season and come out stronger than ever. But do they all have to hit rock bottom at the same time?
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