Last night’s episode felt like something of a filler. With all of the action we had last week in Bushwick, “Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too” was nearly inaudible. I know it is important for the audience to experience how Hannah and Adam have a relationship, and though Marnie kept calling them weird, I found most of it pretty normal: honeymoon phase constant sex, hygiene habits revealed, a peek into a significant other’s job and a look at how that significant other […]
A Girl on “Girls”: Tiny Navajos, Cool Dad Hang, and Taxi Rides (S1/E7 “Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident”)
A massive party is a fine setting for a lot of important reveals in a small amount of time—Can’t Hardly Wait, Clueless, and The Rules of Attraction use the same device—and that is why we find the girls of Girls in Bushwick this week. “Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident” gives the audience a look at Hannah, Jessa, Marnie and Shoshanna outside the parameters of their normal, everyday lives, which is why we finally get to meet more realized versions […]
A Girl on “Girls”: East Lansing, Naked Parents, Vampire Pharmacist, and More (S1/E6, “The Return”)
“The Return” felt a bit like the audience was being punished for some forgotten crime. Without Jessa, Marnie and Zosia Mamet (sigh, Shoshanna) to keep us company, all we are left with is sad, awful Hannah. Much has been said about how Lena Dunham has deliberately made Hannah despicable, and if there was any doubt about this before last night, it is clear now that Hannah is indeed as terrible as Dunham can play her. If each decision the character […]
A Girl on “Girls”: Modular Storage, Jerkin’, Cool Dad, and Oberlin Parties (S1/E5, “Hard Being Easy”)
In “Hard Being Easy,” we learn that the soft-hearted Charlie is a master of modular storage. I am pretty sure his apartment won Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool 2012 contest, regardless of the fact that his GIRLFRIEND SINCE 2007 (see: five years) HAS NEVER BEEN THERE. I didn’t buy that little detail, considering that not even the most cruel and uninterested girlfriend would eventually have visited her man’s apartment. Marnie never had to be near his place at night? Marnie never […]
A Girl on “Girls”: Bongo Rock, Cool Dads, Camp Ramah Reunions (S1/E4, “Hannah’s Diary”)
As much as it hurts to tear myself away from Questionable Goods’ recently released Greatest Hits album, I know that it is my duty to report on the new episode of Girls. We begin “Hannah’s Diary” with a dick pic from Adam. With the series being so polarizing among viewers, the dick pic is something of a panacea for the audience. Who among us hasn’t been suddenly violated by the arrival of an unsolicited dirty photo? Hannah, Marnie and […]
A Girl On “Girls”: School Snacks and Robyn (S1/E3, “All Adventurous Women Do”)
This week’s episode of Girls, “All Adventurous Women Do,” was exponentially better than the last two. There were jokes! I had forgotten that Girls is a comedy, having been distracted by 1,000 articles about how Dunham is doing it wrong. But a strong beginning (Charlie references The Craft!) gave way to a solid half an hour about a young woman trying—and mostly failing—to make it in the big city.
Surrealist Poetry Turns Lethal: Kawamata Chiaki’s “Death Sentences” Reviewed
Death Sentences by Kawamata Chiaki; translated by Thomas Lamarre and Kazuko Y. Behrens University of Minnesota Press; 224 p. Kawamata Chiaki’s novel, Death Sentences, is the first of his numerous works to be translated into English. I like horror and science fiction, so I was excited to read something lauded by William Gibson, an author quickly becoming something of a demigod among genre devotees. But I was also hesitant, knowing that works translated from the original Japanese (a la Haruki […]
A Girl On “Girls”: Gatorade and Casting all Stones (S1/E2, “Vagina Panic”)
I went into the second episode of Lena Dunham’s Girls with high hopes. With a week between the abysmal first episode and this one, I figured I could try and look past some of my issues with the show, and the show would have settled into a more comfortable rhythm. The opening scene between Hannah and Adam is immediately comedic, with the pair engaging in what looks to be bad sex that is also meant to be degrading, though Hannah […]