HBO's "GIRLS" Vol. "That Was Way Harsh, Tai"...

Big J 33 said:
This episode was great. It reminded me so much of Louie. How did it not reveal anything about Hannah? She opened up about wanting to be happy and her misguided desire to take on everyone's experiences. 


The episode as a whole could also be seen as a meta commentary on the criticism aimed towards Girls. What are some of the biggest issues people have? Too self-indulgent... nothing important happens... too much Hannah nudity... focuses on the issues of privileged white women. Dunham clearly sees all that and this episode hits all of those criticisms. 

It's not dealing with inner city drug and crime issues, but that doesn't mean "nothing happens". It's a show about young women navigating their lives and unwillingly growing into adulthood. Things are happening within that world, but this show gets oddly criticized for being too narrow-minded. Why ask the show to be something it isn't? Or have the creator try to cover issues she is ignorant about? 

The nudity issue is the most tiring. I don't even notice it as much.. maybe that's part of Dunham's plan. Women have been perceived through the male gaze for decades in movies and TV, we can't see a woman naked unless she has a great body, anything other than that is offensive and unnecessary. Yeah, maybe Dunham does like being naked just to give the critics a middle finger, or maybe she figures a show about a 24 year old having a lot of sex might include nudity. Either way, that criticism doesn't seem to care when unattractive men might be naked or when women we perceive to be beautiful are naked.. it's only an issue when an "ugly" woman is naked. "Ugly" women have sex too.. and I won't stand on a soapbox and say Dunham is some brave soul for putting herself out there... but I give her credit for not giving a damn what people say and she even said so with "that's not always the feedback I've been given" META

This episode was really interesting, not only because it seemed to be everything people complain about, but because it was just a well made and acted 27 minutes of television. Say what you will about Dunham, but there's an enormous confidence in Girls and that's when it's at its best. It's a small, self-contained little episode that focuses on Dunham and Joshua as two lonely people sharing a moment, and I liked it.

TL;DR: Episode was great to me. I can understand why people might dislike it because it's everything people tend to complain about, but I liked it anyway.

And for the record, that took 4-5 minutes to type up, so I'm not spending hours thinking about the show every Sunday.

And since we didn't get to see her tonight, here's some Allison Williams from the Grammys









Those eyes 
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Are you an English teacher? That was so over analyzed lol
 
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Yeah that episode sucked. Didn't even feel like finishing it, just skipped over to see if anything else happened.
 
I hate this show now. HA.

Of course. Of course right after I catch up on the season, the first ep I check on time is THIS.

This was the episode you show that friend who clowns on you for liking this show, so that you can prove every bad preconception he had about the show was right.

This was everything I don't like about Girls turned all the way up, with all of the good things about it completely missing. :smh:

But that's just me.
 
More Adam, less Lena nudity.

As homosexual as that sounds.. Adam saves this show and there's been way too little of him this season.
 
I've heard other say they like Adam's character I just don't get the appeal. The other guy is cool I forget his name but he lives with Shoshanna, always something witty from him. Adam was just extra weird.
 
The episode was good but entirely too long; shiii the first half of the episode had me thinking this aired on Cinemax.

In all the episode was similar to the episode in season 1 where she went home to Michigan as far as the plot goes, but less effective.

Her nudity doesn't bother me but the amount of it is getting kind of ridiculous.
 
Season 1 Adam >* Adam and Hannah's interaction made season 1. Hopefully he's back to form next episode.

Ray is cool but Elijah > Ray
 
[h1]Girls: Is ‘Another Man’s Trash’ Anybody’s Treasure?[/h1]Features By Rob Hunter on February 11, 2013

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Kate Erbland and I don’t quite agree on this week’s episode of HBO’s Girls. It’s a shame too as we’ve been in such beautiful synch recently. The ep opens with a brief appearance by Ray (Alex Karpovsky) before Hannah (Lena Dunham) disappears down guest star Patrick Wilson‘s rabbit hole for a few days of the high life. That’s it… no Marnie, no Jessa, no Shoshanna and still(!) no goddamn Adam. What’s the deal?

Keep reading as Kate and I struggle to answer that question below:

Kate: So. This was either the best episode of Girls ever or the worst. It’s certainly the most unique, and it’s profoundly different in terms of look, feel, motivation, and aim.

Rob: I’ll happily set the record straight on your confusion Kate… it was neither the best nor the worst. (Her outfit on the other hand was definitely the worst.) The episode was one of the most ridiculous though. Maybe if Hannah was still trying new drugs I’d be able to chalk this up to a drug-induced haze, but the fact that they’re playing this as real is just insulting to people with brains. Unless of course Joshua really is an “old ghost.” Or Hannah got hit by a car on her way to apologize and is barely clinging to life. Or she’s actually a young ******ed boy in a 1940s mining town and the entire world of Girls is in his head. Or…

Kate: I will admit, during the episode, I wondered more than a few times if this was some strange dream sequence. And yet, I do sort of get the idea that both Hannah and Joshua were playing make-believe with an existence that neither one of them are truly interested in living. Hannah isn’t ready for that type of domesticity yet, and Joshua might have been trying to get his mojo back post-separation. But did that get properly telegraphed?

Rob: It all makes sense from Hannah’s perspective of course in that he’s someone who has it all together professionally and represents the proper adult world. Adding to that he’s affectionate towards her, can clearly provide and even calls in sick just to spend time with her. But I just don’t see his attraction to the situation. I think casting Patrick Wilson was a ploy to subconsciously get viewers to believe it could happen, because Wilson is a known sex freak obviously, but I just don’t see this character finding her attractive either physically or personality-wise and then devoting all this time to her. It’s just nonsensical. Did he not see her outfit? In fact the only believable moment was his reaction to her sob story.

Kate: Would you have had less of a problem with Joshua being attracted to her if he was played by some other, less traditionally handsome, actor?

Rob-chose-this-Patrick-Wilson-image-that-is-clearly-not-from-Girls...-e1360622963539.jpg

Rob likes to pretend this is a deleted scene from this week’s ep.

Rob: Probably. And I know this veers dangerously close to me being labeled an *******, but this pairing just doesn’t happen without a lot more character work. The social and intellectual differences are a part of it of course, but the physical details can’t be ignored. Nothing about his (albeit limited) character presentation says he would see any part of her as appealing. I view this ep and this pairing as more akin to wish fulfillment on Lena Dunham’s part than anything else. And before you say it, I feel the same way about sitcoms that pair Kevin James, Jim Belushi and Mark Addy with women far outside of their league. Am I making sense or just digging a ****-shaped grave for myself?

Kate: I can understand what you’re saying, but I think that, good looks aside, Joshua just seems kind of blank and sad. Perhaps the allure of having some young, random girl popping up in his house, one who kisses him, was appealing enough on its own.

That all aside, what did you think of Hannah’s freak out post-ill-advised sauna-shower?

Rob: I’m still not buying the coupling, but the post-sauna scene was the only part of the episode I truly enjoyed. It was the first glimpse of honesty from both of them. For him it allowed a believable reaction, but for her it allowed a window into a character who until now has always seemed superficial and phony. She’s never been afraid to share, but her outbursts have always felt like they were coming from a braggart and attention hound doing it for the audience… meaning both other characters in earshot and the show’s actual audience. This time though I felt that Hannah was talking more to herself than to anyone else.

Kate: I agree about the honesty level that finally comes out of Hannah. It was refreshing and didn’t seem like something she was just spouting about so that could write about it later (a common feeling I get from her), but I still feel as if it was not complete breakthrough for her. Even after fessing up to her desires, she still says something offhand about being “too smart” for that sort of thing, and that’s Hannah’s major problem – even after knocking and dragging herself down, she’s still convinced that she is a special snowflake, but she’s done nothing to prove that that’s the case.

Rob: Agree 100%. I am curious if this new self-awareness will continue throughout the season, and while my guess is that it won’t I’m still hopeful that Dunham recognizes the necessary growth of her character.

That said, who the hell cares about Hannah because Adam’s finally back next week!

Kate: She does seem to be, if not fully “growing,” but getting closer to a place of growth in fits and starts as the season goes on. I think we are still far away from a real Hannah breakthrough, but I can feel it coming.

Thank goodness! What do we think he’s been doing? Jailbirding it up?

Rob: Adam seems so angry in the teaser, but that’s to be expected. He can’t have been in jail this whole time, it was only unpaid parking tickets after all, so I assume he’s been holing up planning his revenge on Hannah. Maybe we’ll find out next week that Joshua was actually Adam in a Mission: Impossible-style mask! It’d be just as believable…

Kate: Adam Driver is…Tom Cruise.

Rob: I’ll take it! And that seems like as good a spot as any for us to sexit.
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If it wasn't for her constant nakedness, this would've made me wanna watch the ep again.
 
Lena Dunham’s nudity makes me uncomfortable.
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That really does sum it up. And I understand the gender politics at work, and that she's doing a lot more than just rubbing it in the face of her critics, but this episode just came too soon. This is a journey you have to earn, and when so much of this season has been all Hannah all the time, with a little bit of Marnie and almost no Shosanna and Jessa, it says something else. On its own, in a vacuum, ot might be profound and deeply ambitious, but here...now. It just feels incredibly self-indulgent and forced and navel-gazing. It feels more like an excuse for her to be naked as much as possible than it does a greater statement. This is an episode that needs to be earned to me, because this show isn't Louie. It isn't Hannah either. But this was Hannah Unclothed and I'm not sure it was anything I want a part of.
 
i find it strange this show is being dissected so much...

the same thing is happening with Scandal...
 
Big J 33 said:
[h2]Lena Dunham, "Girls," Fat-Shaming, and an Honest Male Perspective[/h2]
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LOL @ fat shaming. Fatties SHOULD be ashamed. There is nothing commendable about being overweight and sloppy. Any honesty Lena's trying to expose here is trumped by her insistence upon forcing HER image down our throats. A better way to do it would've been to have multiple different body types casually nude and spread throughout different episodes. Not her body repeatedly nude EVERY episode. I don't have a problem with Lena's body and it doesn't make me uncomfortable to see her nude. The first few times she was naked I responded how I would if presented with a less than ideal bodied girl in real life. A shrug and then I moved on. But by so obviously forcing it every episode she's making it unpalatable. What does she want? Us to be comfortable with the image of a sloppy woman? That's not going to happen because that's not desirable in real life. I think we all understand that Hollywood's depiction of women isn't realistic. But Dunham's depiction of women (or woman, as she's focusing on herself only) passed daring and is now annoying.
I view this ep and this pairing as more akin to wish fulfillment on Lena Dunham’s part than anything else.
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Definitely my first thought when I watched this episode.
 
I also think it was very telling how the pairing with Patrick Wilson happened almost in a vacuum on the show. Had there been interactions with more people aside from Ray in the beginning Dunham would've been forced to have to deal with reality. The responses from people in public and her friends to the obvious mismatch of a very handsome, older, young, rich, doctor to a borderline ugly, sloppy, unfashionable, broke girl with an abrasively quirky personality would not sit well with most. Even just to walk down the street together would've been seen as odd. I would've respected it more though because although rare, its possible. She neutered the scene/episode so she didn't have to deal with reality. That's why the whole thing came off like a dream sequence. Heck I'm still not sure if it was meant to be reality with the way it ended.
 
Just because there's nothing "commendable" about it, doesn't mean it warrants shaming. 

And she actually isn't forcing anything on you. You're choosing to watch or not watch. 
 
in regards to the nudity i think we could all agree if lena dunham had some big floppy ******* we'd all be fine with it
 
Big J 33 said:
Just because there's nothing "commendable" about it, doesn't mean it warrants shaming. 

And she actually isn't forcing anything on you. You're choosing to watch or not watch. 
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Difference of opinion. It's a very American trait to be accepting of obesity. I'm not for one second going to be made to feel guilty for not appreciating a woman being overweight and sloppy.

And you're right she isn't forcing me to watch. And if she continues down this path I will no longer be watching. That last episode was utter trash and I agree with the camp that thinks she spends to much time on herself and not the many smaller characters which have great potential and actually make the show interesting. Hannah is the least interesting part of the show.
 
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