Girls S3 E4

This week’s episode gets off to an awkward start with some great moments and some ‘why is this here?’ moments.  While Hannah’s story arc starts off great, a bit of black humour weaved into a terrible tragedy.  It’s too bad we are quickly whisked off to watch Marnie run around the city. And chin up, several extremely fake looking chin ups. I guess it was supposed to show her trying to move on with her life or something like that. It really isn’t clear since, having a post workout snack doesn’t really instill a sense of empathy or endearment within me.  It’s okay though, since Dunham and co. make up for this later.

The episode centers on Hannah’s inability to feel any kind of empathy after the death of her publisher David. She is fully committed to the idea that she and her upcoming eBook is what is truly the victim of this tragedy. Along the way we encounter what are some clichéd moments that are wonderfully dark and comedic. Hannah’s detachment from the entire affair is perfect. Dunham finally gives relents and shows Hannah for what she is, a horridly self-interested young woman who makes believe that she is a good person. The end of the episode, with Hannah sitting there, spinning her faux tale, is probably one of the best written indictments of Generation Y put to screen. The way Hannah steals Christine’s story without a hint of remorse or sheepishness is diabolical.

This is where we see Adam finally shine, aside from one moment early in the episode which can be easily brushed off. For two seasons the show has used Adam as a piece of furniture until now, this season he finally shows signs of growth. He calls Hannah out on her lack of empathy and generally carries on with an insightful intelligence that has only been hinted at before. It’s kind of odd that it took the show this long to actually develop a character.

The other bright spot of the episode is Marnie, who for the first time this season is not a waste of screen time. The scene where Marnie rips into Ray and his boss is mature and verbally brilliant in its delivery. Her moment of comedic weakness forever haunts her, but Marnie uses it as a jumping platform to finally break out from her funk. The great thing about this is that it perfectly captures the frustration of gen Y. Told to go to school, earn good grades and follow your dreams. Congrats now you can work at a coffee bean! Marnie’s frustration with this is palpable and finally finds common ground between her whiny bitch character and the audience she serves.

Sadly not all is wonderful, as great in this episode at this point my review will change tone, drastically. Christine, as Adam warned us in the last episode, has vastly over stayed her welcome. The whole time Hannah spends with Christine and Laird is one big cluster fuck of wasted time and potential. It’s full of zany and quirky moments, god I wish you could hear the sarcasm in my voice as I type these words. Cartwheeling in graveyards, dead turtle in bottles and Laird even cries as he and Christine has a psychotic emotional connection. Fuck you Dunham! The last half of the episode is bloated with all this zaniness. It’s as if, while writing they couldn’t decide what zany thing the crazies should do. Instead, they decided to cram it all together into one shit meatball which reeks of the show’s great failures. The forcefulness of the scene robs all the emotion from the meaning and Christine dissolves into nothing more than a wacky for the sake of wacky character.

Another problem is Jessa and Shoshanna. Firstly, Jessa needs a new shtick. Her pseudo-freshman psychology bullshit has outgrown its tiny boat. It goes nowhere and just makes the show look dumb. Then after this all said and done we get what Dunham thinks is an apology? A joke? A reference? I’m not sure what it’s meant to be, but it sure as shit doesn’t work on neither a dramatic nor comedic level.  Jessa winds up finding that one of her supposedly dead friends isn’t dead and is really just trying to ditch Jessa. It’s quite pointless up until the caricature from the IT Crowd strolls in. He’s black, he’s got a fro and he’s hip, aka he’s got no fashion sense. The scene is so douche and handled so poorly that you’ll exhale in relief as soon as the scene is over.

Finally, we have Shoshana. She has no story arc, no growth and almost no screen time. In fact, she shouldn’t even be in the episode, but I guess Dunham wanted to stroke her own ego by showing everyone that she’s just like Seinfeld and David and can include every character in every episode. And that’s how we learned about Shoshana’s bandana collection. Just ignore it, it doesn’t last long and it’ll be forgotten by next week.

The last three paragraphs said and done I must say, the episode is good. Dunham uses Hannah in this episode as possibly the greatest critique of my generation thus far. Vain, self-involved and out of touch with what should really concern us. While possibly the smart commentaries on this new media literate generation it is half the time to bloated to be completely effective, filled with unnecessary quirkiness that steals attention from what matters. Marnie’s story gets off to a rocky start but actually pulls through ahead and for the first time this season.  Jessa’s terrible arc can be largely ignored, mainly due to the strength of the philosophy and good, sharp writing.

Halfway through the season and we have yet to see a terrible episode. Maybe, the show has turned it around. I’d like to think so, but on the other hand I have a sinking feeling that when the show does trip and fall, it will be the biggest slap to its viewership in the shows history. Prove me wrong Dunham, prove me wrong.