There’s a lot of plot to get to in this episode, but there’s
an obvious gateway to touch upon the major themes so let’s just confront it:
black Republicans. Or to be more precise: a single black Republican in the form
of Hannah Horvath’s current boyfriend Sandy. When Donald Glover was casted, it felt
like Lena Dunham was simply attacking the claims of lack of diversity by
putting a token African American character on the show. But when you consider
it longer, Donald Glover is an odd choice for a token black character. Glover
isn’t just any African American star right now; he’s a big freaking deal. He
writes, raps, and produces his own music; he acts; he does stand up; he’s
written for tv shows. The question isn’t really “what can he do?” but “what can’t he do?” If you wanted to cast somebody
to be merely the token African American, you would cast any old star, not one
of the hottest talents on the market. If you wanted to write a token black
character, you wouldn’t make him the love
interest for the season. And then you wouldn’t in turn make them such a strange
personality as to be that rare thing of an African American Republican. It’s
almost as if it’s a commentary on the nature of tokenism. Dunham knows what she’s
doing; she’s proven time and again that she discusses topics with an eye for
scrutiny. Yes, the main characters are privileged and selfish because of that privilege,
but the series makes clear that this is bad behavior and puts it under an
exacting lens.
There’s even the great scene where Hannah and Sandy argue
about their beliefs. When Hannah asks for Sandy’s thoughts on the essay she
asked him to look at, the conversation ends up devolving into them questioning their
whole relationship in the first place. He says that all white girls who want a black
guy for a boyfriend want him so that he can take them to dark and dangerous
places. Hannah throws it right back in his face pointing out that black people
must believe that that’s the only reason white females would date African
Americans at all. In turns, it’s a statement on tokenism. All black people must
be like that; all white girls must be like that: well no! Such a specific,
fully realized individual as Sandy, African American Republican, really could
never qualify as a token character. All the main characters of Girls are privileged and selfish for it,
but their personal histories don’t affect them all the same way; they’re different
personalities dealing with problems of their 20’s in different ways.
It’s a running theme throughout the episode where some individual
holds some feigned sense of what has always been or what a group is imagined to
always be. Elijah’s boyfriend believes that all people who think their bi make
up the excuses that Elijah is and that they’re not being honest with themselves.
Marnie thinks that just because she’s always had a job in the art world that
her career path will always remain in that industry. Adam feels that because
Hannah was always drawn to him that she’ll continue to crawl back to him.
Always, always, always. All, all, all.
Sometimes people say they want realism in the shows that
they watch without really considering what that means. Realism means you’re
often going to get people who are terrible human beings doing terrible things
time and again. They may be white and they may be privileged. They may be black
and they may be a Republican. Or they might be a Democrat. Or Hispanic. Or in
the city. Or in the suburbs. The moment a show attempts to given dimensions to
its characters, it has to paint them
in a poor light. Human beings are terrible at times. It’s not enough to ask for
diversity, and then not consider what the nature of diversity is. It’s not
enough to cry nepotism and then not consider why you’re saying that in the
first place or if it really applies. Girls
puts to the forefront the problems and flaws of its characters and then never
fears to make them look as ugly and stupid and mean and wrong as possible.
The first season was all about telling us who these four
main characters were and what they believed, and then spending the rest if the
season deconstructing the worldviews of those four characters. There was lot of
bullshit to be had and to be thrown into question and Girls made the argument that said bullshit could only be cut
through when someone was being completely honest and sincere (i.e. Shoshanna –
who is always sincere – Jessa –who’s honest to everyone but herself– and Adam –
who’s honesty you could sometimes forget because he is an unrepentantly weird character).
The second season appears to be doing the same with race, but also with
familiar subject matter from last season. Hannah really hasn’t learned much.
She keeps telling herself she’s going to deal with things in her life
differently after the events of last season, but she’s done little to prove
this thus far.
Stray Observations:
-Adam’s not taking the break up well. He’s made a whole
video album of bad, acoustic songs. I don't know if I totally buy this sudden reversal of him but it's leading to some interesting, funny things.
-Speaking of Adam, man did he get really weird (even for
him) in this episode when he showed up at Hannah’s apartment. Was anyone else
pissed off by Hannah when she denied making the 911 call? (The call itself in the first place was appropriate though because Adam was getting very uncomfortably creepy)
-Elijah is choosing not tell Hannah about hooking up with
Marnie. Marnie wants to tell her though. Well, this will end well.
-Marnie interviews for a job. The interviewer (Ms. Dunham’s
mother Laurie Simmons) tells her she may not be suited for the art world.
-The scene in the bathroom with Sandy and Elijah arguing was
hilarious and utterly brilliant.
-Not much Shoshanna and Ray, but they’re off being blissful.
-BTW Jemimah Kirk is pregnant so have fun watching out for
how they shoot her scenes to avoid it being noticeable.
-Jessa and her new husband got matching tiger tattoos. Um,
alrighty then.
-“I’m always impressed by what you with what you’ve got” –Wow,
Thomas is a total douchebag.
-Jemimah Kirk’s appearance is brief but she gets in some
great lines: “This is what life is like after the hunting is over”, “Republicans.
Democrats. They’re all dirtbags”, also the whole thing about the Glass-Steagal
act was too funny.
-“Your rights happened. And your rights happened” –I love
how Ashlie Williams says “Thank you” in response to this. Great line reading.
-“Blacks, republicans, et al” – And Hannah just described
one person.
-“That is space rape!”
-Adam has a record for two parking tickets and a summons for
public urination.
Grade: A-
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