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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

If this wasn’t the best episode yet of the series, it’s damn close.  Not only because it often gives us the light-hearted truffle joy we have so desperately earned eight episodes in, but also for its graceful simplicity.  It feels like not much happens, yet the slowed pace after last week’s warehouse party led to learning quite a bit about certain characters. In the case of Jessa and Marnie, we probably find out more about who they are in their […]