Girls (Season 2)

[Lucky]

Still, does the episode need to begin and end with public urination?

Which probably recurred due to having sex in a graveyard. I mean, having "cum on my thigh crease" in a graveyard...

[amberlita]

http://badassdigest.com/2013/02/20/f...is-remarkable/

Seriously good read.

He should rethink his all-caps policy. Yes, that's the primary thing I got out of that article.

[number8]

He should rethink his all-caps policy. Yes, that's the primary thing I got out of that article.

That's nothing. At least the readers of BAD know him and are used to it, but last year he wrote a 14 pages long Looper set visit for Entertainment Weekly and their readers went insane:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/09/26/lo...ilm-crit-hulk/

[Qrazy]

Which probably recurred due to having sex in a graveyard. I mean, having "cum on my thigh crease" in a graveyard...

It probably recurred because she hadn't gotten rid of the UTI yet. Neither of which is here nor there though because my point is she wrote the script in this fictional world so set it up to begin and end with public urination which to me is stupid and to her is funny.

[Lucky]

It probably recurred because she hadn't gotten rid of the UTI yet. Neither of which is here nor there though because my point is she wrote the script in this fictional world so set it up to begin and end with public urination which to me is stupid and to her is funny.

I was agreeing with you. You thought the bookended nudity was enough as it is, and I was saying it was provoked by yet another scene of nudity.

[number8]

I would argue that a very large part of the show is about sexuality, so I am very much not keen on the show cutting back on its depiction of sex. I think Jessa is the only one of the four girls whose main story is not focused on figuring out her sexuality.

[Lucky]

This girl is pretty good.

[youtube]v71HKkH55ec[/youtube]

[romantisaurusrex]

Possibly my favorite moment of the series so far, in "Boys" Shoshanna's "like....does she think you're a Marmie or an Amy?"

[number8]

If People Talked About Seinfeld Like They Talk About Girls

[ledfloyd]

What are people's thoughts on the OCD thing? I thought Vanderwerff's write-up did a good job of delving into how it both works and doesn't work. I'm interested to see where it goes, but it was certainly jarring when it cropped up.

[DavidSeven]

What are people's thoughts on the OCD thing?

I'm willing to roll with it for now, but it felt totally contrived and distracting to me. For better or worse, this show is centered around a sense of naturalism. Something like this felt like the transparent product of a writer's room discussion. And now you're asking Dunham to make it convincing through performance. This would be hard enough for an experienced and versatile actress. Doubt Dunham can pull it off.

Easily the worst part of the episode. I enjoyed the other story threads.

[Thirdmango]

I didn't really care for the other threads, I thought I might, I'm starting to be okay with Adam but I still have a hard time with him.

[amberlita]

I'm willing to roll with it for now, but it felt totally contrived and distracting to me. For better or worse, this show is centered around a sense of naturalism. Something like this felt like the transparent product of a writer's room discussion. And now you're asking Dunham to make it convincing through performance. This would be hard enough for an experienced and versatile actress. Doubt Dunham can pull it off.

Easily the worst part of the episode. I enjoyed the other story threads.

I loved the quiet shot of her sitting at the table with her parents at dinner listening to that lady sing. And the quiet torture she was going through at the therapist's office. While I agree that Dunham isn't a terrific actress and her performance registered the story development as manufactured for the most part, I think she pulled off those two scenes beautifully.

And wow, Allison Williams has a voice.

[Qrazy]

I was agreeing with you. You thought the bookended nudity was enough as it is, and I was saying it was provoked by yet another scene of nudity.

Ah sorry, my misunderstanding.

[ledfloyd]

What a great episode.

[number8]

What a great episode.

Yep, really impressive stuff there. This is what I meant when I said earlier that the show is primarily about sex. That cut from Adam's disappointment to Hannah in the bathroom pretty much said it all.

[Ivan Drago]

I'll never clean my ears with a Q-tip again.

[Qrazy]

Yep, really impressive stuff there. This is what I meant when I said earlier that the show is primarily about sex. That cut from Adam's disappointment to Hannah in the bathroom pretty much said it all.

It's primarily about four girls in a city and their lives and the guys in and around their lives. Dunham just happened to simplify that into a narrative mostly about sex because it's easy. You have titillation built into every episode that way as well as physical comedy, grotesque humor and all the messy drama that goes along with sexuality. The weakness of her grasp on the complexity of human psychology comes to the fore when she focuses on that which does not involve sex (see Jessa and her dad's dramatically strained encounter or Hannah's two-dimensional father figure). Also, on an unrelated note Dunham shoots every party scene the exact same superficial way.

All criticisms aside I thought the last two episodes have been quite strong in relation to the show in general.

[number8]

I'll never clean my ears with a Q-tip again.

You're not supposed to. Any ear doctor will tell you that. Q-tips are really bad for your ear canals.

I believe they even say that on the boxes.

[number8]

It's primarily about four girls in a city and their lives and the guys in and around their lives. Dunham just happened to simplify that into a narrative mostly about sex because it's easy.

No, I think that's backwards. I see it as a show about the complexities of sex that simplifies it into the familiar "four girls in a city and the guys" narrative because that's easier to understand.

[Qrazy]

No, I think that's backwards. I see it as a show about the complexities of sex that simplifies it into the familiar "four girls in a city and the guys" narrative because that's easier to understand.

You see sex as more complex than the entire spectrum of a human's psyche and the sociopolitical dynamic between four individuals? I agree with you though that the milieu is irrelevant except in so far as it impacts and shapes their lives.

To be clear I am not talking about the basic plot of the show as you have phrased it, I am talking about the potential to explore four fully realized characters and all their emotional, intellectual and spiritual intricacies.

Ehh, personally I'm just sick of the pervasiveness of graphic sex in art. Freud is too widely embraced by artists for me and I don't find that ceaselessly portraying it communicates all that much of interest after a certain point. But that's just me, to each their own.

[slqrick]

Best episode of the season. The scene with Adam at the end was brutal...I like how they've managed to give his character some sort of humanity so when he does shit like it that the reaction is not all just revulsion. I kind of wish that the girl wasn't just an anti-Hannah, because it made things too easy when he saw Hannah outside of the party and it was supposed to be one of those, "these two crazy kids are meant for each other" type of moments.

Strangely enough I found Marnie's song to be the most disturbingly cringeworthy moment of the week. Loved Ray's reaction.

Again, I don't think it's a coincidence that the best episodes of the show find a way to manage all the characters instead of just focusing on Hannah. I hope its a trend that continues. As far as I'm concerned, the less Hannah, the better.

[number8]

You see sex as more complex than the entire spectrum of a human's psyche and the sociopolitical dynamic between four individuals? I agree with you though that the milieu is irrelevant except in so far as it impacts and shapes their lives.

To be clear I am not talking about the basic plot of the show as you have phrased it, I am talking about the potential to explore four fully realized characters and all their emotional, intellectual and spiritual intricacies.

Right, you're talking about potential. I'm talking about what it is as it stands. In this season, especially, I see the things you're talking about being used as catalysts to explore sexual desire and compatibility. These characters' attitudes towards sex and how they use them are being more interestingly explored by the show than their romantic relationships.

The Adam/Hannah/Natalia thing is probably the most pronounced. We're used to Adam being a weirdo, and when Natalia came in, I kinda expected the eventual fallout would be based on his behavior, or how her togetherness in life is so different from Hannah's, but we actually see that they're pretty good to each other (even his falling off the wagon, he ordered the same girly drink as hers, which struck me more as a genuine attempt to, as he said, "be able to have fun with you"). Instead, the fallout we get is that dark episode bookends about sexual consent.

Episode opener: "I like how clear you are with me." "What other way is there?" And yet, when Adam's kinks come into it, Adam was being explicitly clear about what he wanted, and Natalia wasn't, but only because she was trying to be game. Consent itself is pretty basic stuff, but I think the working reality of it, especially between people who are still figuring each other out like this, can be a complex subject.

Mostly, though, I'll admit I'm just really happy that there is a TV show that recognizes how immensely important sexual satisfaction is to successful relationships and present it as such, since most shows--hell, most movies--use couples' sexual encounters as punctuation rather than a maintained significance.

[Qrazy]

Right, you're talking about potential. I'm talking about what it is as it stands. In this season, especially, I see the things you're talking about being used as catalysts to explore sexual desire and compatibility. These characters' attitudes towards sex and how they use them are being more interestingly explored by the show than their romantic relationships.

The Adam/Hannah/Natalia thing is probably the most pronounced. We're used to Adam being a weirdo, and when Natalia came in, I kinda expected the eventual fallout would be based on his behavior, or how her togetherness in life is so different from Hannah's, but we actually see that they're pretty good to each other (even his falling off the wagon, he ordered the same girly drink as hers, which struck me more as a genuine attempt to, as he said, "be able to have fun with you"). Instead, the fallout we get is that dark episode bookends about sexual consent.

Episode opener: "I like how clear you are with me." "What other way is there?" And yet, when Adam's kinks come into it, Adam was being explicitly clear about what he wanted, and Natalia wasn't, but only because she was trying to be game. Consent itself is pretty basic stuff, but I think the working reality of it, especially between people who are still figuring each other out like this, can be a complex subject.

Mostly, though, I'll admit I'm just really happy that there is a TV show that recognizes how immensely important sexual satisfaction is to successful relationships and present it as such, since most shows--hell, most movies--use couples' sexual encounters as punctuation rather than a maintained significance.

Nice thoughts and agree on the last paragraph. I'm also perhaps unfairly holding Dunham to a higher standard than most of television although I think in my critiques I'm holding her to about the standard I have for most high end television amc/hbo/etc.

[number8]

In an episode full of painful moments, the one that stabbed me right in the gut and almost made my teeth shatter was Marnie singing "You can be my white Kate Moss tonight" to Charlie.