“Girls” is a comedy series on HBO that started a couple
weeks back. Just about every famous
funny person I follow on Twitter told me about it, and I saw that it was
produced by Judd Apatow, and I’m not really at a shortage of free time right
now, so I started watching it.
Girls is written and directed (at least the first three
episodes, others will direct later episodes) by Lena Dunham, a 25-year-old New
Yorker, who caught Apatow’s attention at South by Southwest film festival. Dunham also stars as the main character,
Hannah, who is a writer and, in the pilot, cut off financially from her
parents. Allison Williams, daughter of
NBC News host, Brian Williams, plays Hannah’s best friend, Marnie, who works as
an art gallery assistant. Jessa, played by Jemima Kirk, is her other friend who is both British and travels a lot.
After watching the first two episodes of Girls, I was not
sold. However, I did not hold that
against it. (It took me a whole season to buy into “Breaking Bad”, which, in my
opinion, is the best show currently on television.) I enjoyed the many witty lines sprinkled in
between the introduction of characters, but I was not sure if Girls was a legit
show that was worth following, or just a guilty pleasure that I was unsure I like or hate but want to see what happens anyway.
My verdict has been made up after watching the third
episode, “All Adventurous Women Do”. The
show is definitely worth watching.
Maybe it is because it takes two episodes to fully
understand the concept and relation of the characters, but I found this past episode
to be the funniest and best one yet. The
dynamic that Hannah has with each of the other characters was in top form this
episode, as her back-and-forth’s with Marnie’s boyfriend (only a matter of time before he's gone...my prediction), her detached lover,
and her former boyfriend were genuine and hilarious. Subtleties like when she
grabs the glass of wine as the conversation with the last of the three takes an
unexpected turn are on point. The type
of verbal one-upmanship that we are used to seeing from Liz Lemon was nice to
see from a character of our own generation.
The friendship aspect between Marnie and Hannah was well evident
in this episode as well. Not to say that I could not tell they were friends in
the first episode (they woke up spooning), but nothing says friendship better
than when you’ve just found out you have HPV and your friend comes home and
starts dancing with you spontaneously. I could not help but smile at this scene.
Two of my other favorite moments of this week’s show
included Adam’s reaction to when Hannah asked him if he gave her HPV. The other
one was when Hannah was talking to Shoshanna (Jessa’s cousin and new roommate) about how
to tell her ex-boyfriend that she now has HPV.
While I found humor in the fact that the virgin is the expert on the
etiquette of STD notification, even funnier was the line “Sorry I passed you
the STD but I enjoy your quirky web presence.”
At times “Girls” makes me feel out of place, but definitely
in a good way. As a guy, I am used to
relating to either the main character in ideologies or, more often, the nice
funny best-friend who appears to not give a shit most of the time until he has
his one focused episode when the viewer realizes deep down he has feelings
too. But in Girls, clearly that is not
100% the case. (Of course, broke/making
dumb decisions… I can relate to Hannah as far as tangible qualities are
concerned.)
I actually like how in Girls we see how male characters fall
into prototypes through the eyes of girls.
Marnie’s boyfriend, the overly-nice guy, is portrayed so that the
audience does not side with him; the contrast to the usual sympathetic “oh,
look, the nice guy always finishes last..but his intentions are so good!” way
of thinking. This may be because he is shown
as trying too hard in a way that’s almost creepy, even though they have
supposedly been together for three years or so.
Perhaps this character is a portrayal of how sometimes girls view the “nice
guy” and how it can be a justifiable turn-off. (And also, screw their whole
relationship, because there is no way the hottest chick on the show is putting
up with that dude for three years. This aspect of the show perplexes me.) Then there is Adam, who, in this most current
episode, is interrupted from his bench presses by Hannah, explains to her that
he eats “for fuel” and gives her the brush-off in the form of aerial bicycle
kicks. I think you can see the character
traits portrayed by him. Finally, I like
the idea of Jorma Taccone’s character being “a man, and knowing how to do
things”, but I found it missed the mark a little bit just because Allison
Williams is like three inches taller than him.
You want a man who knows how to do things, find a tall guy for the role
(signed, a tall guy).
My biggest gripe about the show is that I only seem to care
about the supporting characters when they are interacting with Hannah. To a lesser degree, Marnie and her boyfriend
are somewhat entertaining, but the show seems to shine by leaps and bounds when it
focuses around Hannah. It’s possible
that as the show continues I will care more about characters like Shoshanna and
Jessa, but as for now they are only interesting when they are in scenes with
Hannah.
The show is on a half hour after Game of Thrones, Sundays on
HBO. Or watch it on-demand like I
usually do.
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