Girls falls into veritable venn diagrams of comment board criticism. It lives where “I Could Do Better Than That” meets “Not Accurate to My Experience”. Between “Products of Nepotism” and “Acknowledge Your Privilege”. “Trifling” and “Oblivious”. But let’s consider the show’s influences.
A Girl on Girls: Maybe I Want to be Wendi Murdoch. Maybe That’s My New Thing (S2/E1 “It’s About Time”)
We begin again, this time with an unsmoteable “Previously on Girls” montage befitting of your weirdest weird uncle. The series had already been picked up for a second season by the time the first season finale rolled around, so the show left us with plenty of loose ends: Shoshanna lost her virginity to Ray, Jessa ran off with new-husband Thomas-John, Marnie was making out with a weird dude while Charlie looked on and Hannah was getting called a monster by […]
A Guy on Girls: Lena on Two Stations, Newfound Elations, and Laughably Bad Penetrations (S2/E1: “It’s About Time”)
First thing’s first: the decision to kill off Shoshanah in that meth lab explosion will go down in TV history as one of those “Where Were You?” moments, like when Sammy Davis, Jr. kissed Archie Bunker, or when Cliff Clavin died in that angel dust lab explosion.
Carl Sandburg: American Master
“Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens, Studs Terkel and a shouting “performance poet” show up in the trailer for The Day Carl Sandburg Died, which pemiers Monday, Sept. 24, at 10 p.m on PBS.
A Girl on “Girls”: Save Your Strength, We’re in it for the Long Haul (S1/E10 “She Did”)
Getting to know Girls has been a long, strange journey. Tonight’s episode, “She Did,” marks the series’ tenth episode and season finale. It’s no secret that I have had problems with Girls in the past, but tonight’s installment only served to underline a growing fear I’ve had throughout: I like this show, and I identify with Hannah Horvath and Lena Dunham. With a sizable supporting cast, it is easy to forget that we are essentially gaining entry into the rich […]
A Guy on “Girls”: Matrimony Gone Phony, The Isle of Coney, and Did Marnie Bone Thee? (S1/E10, “She Did”)
In searching for grand summation of the season-in-full, perhaps the best I can offer is that last night’s season finale continued the show’s habit of defying where you think it’s going. The moments you would think to be massive (such as the disbanding of the Hannah-Marnie household) are often brief and void of shmaltz. Meanwhile, things that seemed comparatively irrelevant (Jessa’s telling off of “Thomas John”) are without warning made massive. I was particularly intrigued by the prospect of Marnie […]
A Girl on Girls: Your Granddad is Both a Gentleman and a Renegade (S1/E9 “Leave Me Alone”)
With what has happened over the last couple episodes, it is easy to forget that Hannah is in the position she’s in because she wants to be a writer; otherwise, she would have gone back home to teach English by now. This week’s episode of Girls, “Leave Me Alone,” reminds us of Hannah’s plight by starting off at a book party for a former classmate played by comedian Jenny Slate. Author Talia Schifferin (SP, since I am just going with […]
A Guy on “Girls”: Cafe Grumpy, Friendships Bumpy, and the Hive Mind’s Jumpy! (S1/E9, “Leave Me Alone”)
While it’s often thought that every hero needs a nemesis, this is acutely true of a particular brand of self-mythologizing comedian. I have always relished, for example, that Seinfeld had a Newman, and that their beef seemed a mutual delusion of grandeur. This week we met Hannah’s enemy of the mental state, the infuriatingly successful Tally Schifrin (Jenny Slate, well cast as the sugary gal who other women either adore or resent). Tally’s is a name that evokes both irritable […]