Girls - "It's About Time" - Review

Once you got past all the claims of nepotism and racism (both wrong in my opinion) that haunted Girls’s first season, you would find one of the most assured, confident first seasons of television. Carried by Lena Dunham’s unique, singular vision of twentysomethings in New York City, it created interesting, flawed, believable characters who could come off as complete assholes and yet you’d still like them (a sign of really, truly great writing). Dunham’s series has been compared to Louis C.K.’s Louie, both have narrative visions so unlike anything else on tv (crafted almost entirely by one person), both put themselves out there (often physically) for laughs, and each episode you don’t quite know where either is taking you until you get to the very end and go, “Oh, that’s what they were trying to say!” Girls would be required viewing for anyone obsessed with tv just for how unlike anything else it is, but the fact that it’s also really good is icing on the cake.

Hannah has started shacking up with her gay ex-boyfriend, Elijah. They seem to be getting along really well, and have gotten over some of their differences from last season. She appears to be dating Donald Glover (Hey, diversity everyone!), but she’s taking care of Adam at the same time, and keeping it secret from her supposed new boyfriend. She tells Adam she wants to see other people, and Adam is far more cool about not putting labels on the whole thing than she is. Adam lets her know that he’s never known another person quite as well as he does Hannah, and points to her weird attachment to him, asking why she’d want to go and fuck with this. Hannah does that though; she fucks up everything because she’s selfish, and mean, and bored. But we end the episode with her stopping in with her new black boyfriend and looking for sex and deep discussion of Ayn Rand objectivism. Hannah is simply refusing to face up to the facts. But for now, avoiding them sounds a lot more appealing than confronting the mess she’s gone and made for herself, yet again. 

Marnie has been fired from her job at the gallery. She’s good at her job but they can’t afford to keep her (which feels like a sly commentary on everything in her life: who can afford to put up with Marnie, she’s often just as narcissistic as Hannah). Her mother isn’t too pleased, and demands she get a new job immediately. Her mom’s back on the dating scene and over her divorced husband. She’s off shamelessly banging guys her daughter’s age (Marnie totally doesn’t approve. “Talk to me like you would your friends” “I am. I would be way harsher to them”). Marnie isn’t over Charlie if her lingering glances and semi-awkward chitchat during Hannah’s party count for anything. Or maybe not having a job AND  not having a boyfriend is a prospect she can’t deal with (we still haven’t seen anything come of her making out with the fat officiator at the wedding). Charlie’s relationship with his new girlfriend looks rocky; they’re very ill-suited for eachother, and he looks little pleased by her. Oh, and I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet: Elijah, after complaining about his boyfriend and pondering whether he may be bi, starts to have sex with Marnie. Marnie is initially reluctant, but her life is so shitty, that ya’ know what, damn if she shouldn’t at least get laid. Well, unfortunately, he can’t get it up, and Marnie ends up heading over to Charlie’s apartment: “I don’t want to cause any trouble. But I just need to sleep next to someone” (Are these two headed on a collision course to get back together?). 

Shoshanna, after finally losing her virginity to Ray last season, keeps rambling on with her usual sincerity about how she and Ray are no longer together, and she’s happy about it (Not that we ever buy it because no one talks at length about something like that without it being clear they’re lying to themselves). But of course when Ray arrives at the party, she can’t help (after some protestations) hooking up with him.

Everyone seems to be avoiding the truth of their situations. Hannah is failing to see that the go-between Donald Glover and Adam is problematic at best, and doomed to fail disastrously at worse. Marnie fails to recognize that she wants Charlie back (and that it’s probably at least partly due to her losing her job). Shoshanna fails to acknowledge that she may have feelings for Ray and that she may actually want to be with him. The one person, Jessa, who always seemed to refreshingly cut through the bullshit (but in many ways didn’t– the affair with her boss, and losing the kids she was babysitting were terrible decisions that she never fully admitted to herself about – And the last minute marriage could prove to be another instance of this) is absent for most of the episode. She shows up at the end with newlywed bliss hopping into a taxi with her new, weird fiancé, noting how she has no idea where they even live. 

Last season started out making us believe certain things and then inverting our perceptions to great effect. Adam was initially just this weird guy that Hannah seemed to be dating out of desperation. But it turned out that was just because Hannah failed to take the time to get to know him. These storylines appear to be headed in obvious directions (Hannah is going to have to choose one way or the other, as is Shoshanna about Ray, and Marnie, if she doesn’t get back with Charlie, is at least going to hook up with him at some point), but who knows if where we think we’re going is where we’re actually headed? Much of last season’s storylines didn’t totally make sense until the finale which had most of the season’s story arcs culminate rather nicely. I don’t really know where Girls is headed, but it’s funny and sincere and unlike anything else. And that’s enough for me for now.

Stray Observations:

-Nicely observed: the opening montage with Shoshanna doing a Buddhist type mantra and spraying out incense asking the universe for things, and Hannah and Elijah cuddling.

-Music Choices – The show has always had a knack for great music choices: Regina Spektor – “Your Honor” over the title sequence, Vampire Weekend – “I’m Goin’ Down” over the end credits, The Animals – “House of the Rising Sun” sung on the karaoke by Ray and Charlie.  

-“I came. You came hard. We all laughed” – Adam is often so open and honest about who he is and what he believes that he feels like the only character being straight with themselves.

-“Don’t say fired. You’re transitioning” – Well, a lot of why Marnie is the way she is has just been explained.

-“I’m deflowered, not devalued!” – Shoshanna is perhaps my favorite character on the show, but she was also the most underutilized individual last season.

-Also: her doing Karaoke = ADORBS! Song choice: Sean Kingston – “Beautiful Girls”.

-“I was watching Midnight in Paris and I was thinking, ‘I could make that’”

-“I’ll let you talk about Adam unlimited” “I don’t talk about Adam a lot” “You fucking do!” – You so fucking do Hannah.

-Shoshanna unfriended Charlie on Facebook

-“A panda next to a gun next to a wrapped present … That doesn’t make any sense”

-“We’re Mexican! We don’t know the rules!”
-"You know how hot you are. That's why you're such a bitch" - How accurate is this?

Grade: B+

What did everyone else think?