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| Girls season two premiere review: 'These people are not meant to be loved' | Girls season two premiere review: 'These people are not meant to be loved' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Last night was a big night for Lena Dunham. She won two Golden Globes for her HBO series Girls (Dunham for lead actress and Girls for best TV comedy) and Girls debuted its second season. To kick off the new season of one of television's most talked-about shows, we've asked four of our favorite women from around the web to tell us their thoughts on the first episode. | Last night was a big night for Lena Dunham. She won two Golden Globes for her HBO series Girls (Dunham for lead actress and Girls for best TV comedy) and Girls debuted its second season. To kick off the new season of one of television's most talked-about shows, we've asked four of our favorite women from around the web to tell us their thoughts on the first episode. |
| Navigate the reviews | Navigate the reviews |
• Amy Odell, Buzzfeed Shift editor • Rebecca Traister, />• Amanda Marcotte, The Guardian | • Julieanne Smolinski, XOJane • Amy Odell, Buzzfeed Shift editor • Rebecca Traister, Salon />• Amanda Marcotte, The Guardian |
| 'I wonder what anybody who has never lived in Brooklyn while 24 gets out of it.' – Julieanne Smolinski | 'I wonder what anybody who has never lived in Brooklyn while 24 gets out of it.' – Julieanne Smolinski |
| I still wish this show were called Some Girls or These Girls, In Particular. While I continue to be Very Entertained by it, any enjoyment I have is book-ended by self-loathing. If my own feelings (and my Facebook feed) are any indication, one of the central pleasures of the series is the thrill of self-recognition, whether the characters are behaving badly or admirably. Who hasn't sent indecipherable panda emoji to someone they've slept with? Well, a lot of people, probably, but a certain subset of us probably clutched our collars in an agonized fugue of relating. I'm not immune to the show's "that's ME" charm, but it's also why I wonder what anybody who has never lived in Brooklyn while 24 gets out of it. | I still wish this show were called Some Girls or These Girls, In Particular. While I continue to be Very Entertained by it, any enjoyment I have is book-ended by self-loathing. If my own feelings (and my Facebook feed) are any indication, one of the central pleasures of the series is the thrill of self-recognition, whether the characters are behaving badly or admirably. Who hasn't sent indecipherable panda emoji to someone they've slept with? Well, a lot of people, probably, but a certain subset of us probably clutched our collars in an agonized fugue of relating. I'm not immune to the show's "that's ME" charm, but it's also why I wonder what anybody who has never lived in Brooklyn while 24 gets out of it. |
| Most of the characters remain Not Particularly Likeable, which makes for an uneasy relationship with them: we identify with these people and their romantic travails, while recognizing that they're all sort of awful. Maybe the theme of this episode is that sometimes we just want to be with somebody, regardless of whether they act like monsters at a party, have cruelly rejected us, or are gay. As usual, there were several sharp one-liners and throwaways, but the wish-fulfillment aspect of the writing still looms large. Of course Charlie's new girlfriend is awful. Of course the boy who scorned nightmare-person Shoshanna is secretly enchanted by her. Of course, Jessa is a white woman who pulls off vacation cornrows. None of this is particularly convincing! And for personal reasons, I'd like to know where one finds a guy who looks like Donald Glover who is thrilled when you generally act bonkers or show up at his apartment late at night, where he lives alone, and is happy to see you. | Most of the characters remain Not Particularly Likeable, which makes for an uneasy relationship with them: we identify with these people and their romantic travails, while recognizing that they're all sort of awful. Maybe the theme of this episode is that sometimes we just want to be with somebody, regardless of whether they act like monsters at a party, have cruelly rejected us, or are gay. As usual, there were several sharp one-liners and throwaways, but the wish-fulfillment aspect of the writing still looms large. Of course Charlie's new girlfriend is awful. Of course the boy who scorned nightmare-person Shoshanna is secretly enchanted by her. Of course, Jessa is a white woman who pulls off vacation cornrows. None of this is particularly convincing! And for personal reasons, I'd like to know where one finds a guy who looks like Donald Glover who is thrilled when you generally act bonkers or show up at his apartment late at night, where he lives alone, and is happy to see you. |
| 'Girls has a lot in common with the Real Housewives series' – Amy Odell | 'Girls has a lot in common with the Real Housewives series' – Amy Odell |
| Girls has a lot in common with the Real Housewives series, for me – I watch the show and feel so happy to be living my life in a completely different way from the characters. (Of course, both shows are also highly scripted, so there's that.) But this is a real testament to the success of Girls. | Girls has a lot in common with the Real Housewives series, for me – I watch the show and feel so happy to be living my life in a completely different way from the characters. (Of course, both shows are also highly scripted, so there's that.) But this is a real testament to the success of Girls. |
| Lena Dunham completely gets the awkwardness – and horror – of being in your early 20s: thinking it's cool to not want to be loved, like Hannah, who tells her new hookup "don't say love to me"; Adam drinking out of a mason jar not because he thinks they look so pretty on Pinterest but because he's a huge sloppy loser with nothing else to drink out of; Marnie's ex's new girlfriend Audrey wearing leather shoelaces around her head and a some sort of skimpily altered, diseased-looking hospital gown to a house party; Marnie having sex with someone you know is gay but claims to be bisexual; and Marnie going to your ex's bed at the end of a night because you don't have the willpower not to. | Lena Dunham completely gets the awkwardness – and horror – of being in your early 20s: thinking it's cool to not want to be loved, like Hannah, who tells her new hookup "don't say love to me"; Adam drinking out of a mason jar not because he thinks they look so pretty on Pinterest but because he's a huge sloppy loser with nothing else to drink out of; Marnie's ex's new girlfriend Audrey wearing leather shoelaces around her head and a some sort of skimpily altered, diseased-looking hospital gown to a house party; Marnie having sex with someone you know is gay but claims to be bisexual; and Marnie going to your ex's bed at the end of a night because you don't have the willpower not to. |
| But, happily, unlike everyone on Bravo, you know that eventually all of these characters will grow out of whatever personality trait makes them sad weirdos. Hannah will eventually want someone to love her, Adam will eventually probably at least buy Solo cups, Audrey will stop dressing like Urban Outfitters's worst nightmare, Marnie will not try to have sex with outwardly gay men and stop sending confusing signals to her ex. So for all its nuanced awkwardness, I am a proud fan of Girls, something all the harsh criticism of the show cannot change in me. Now that I'm no longer in my early 20s, I'm comfortable admitting what I like. | |
| 'These people are not meant to be loved' – Rebecca Traister | 'These people are not meant to be loved' – Rebecca Traister |
| The episode made me recall the argument of a fierce Girls season one critic, who countered the suggestion that Dunham's project is self-skewering satire. No, he wrote: "These people are meant to be loved." However debatable that might have been then, it's clear that this year, "these people" – especially Dunham's Hannah Horvath – are not "meant to be loved". Hannah, who was always narcissistic and spoiled, but also winningly direct and smart-ish, seems now barely meant to be liked. | The episode made me recall the argument of a fierce Girls season one critic, who countered the suggestion that Dunham's project is self-skewering satire. No, he wrote: "These people are meant to be loved." However debatable that might have been then, it's clear that this year, "these people" – especially Dunham's Hannah Horvath – are not "meant to be loved". Hannah, who was always narcissistic and spoiled, but also winningly direct and smart-ish, seems now barely meant to be liked. |
| The season premiere drew a bright line around this point when, after 20 minutes of minor generosities – assuring Marnie she's there for her, helpfully ejecting Elijah's drunk sugar-daddy from a party, tending to the hypnotically weird Adam (who had that great gnomic line: "When you love someone, you don't have to be nice all the time") – Hannah announced that she's done being "selfless". | The season premiere drew a bright line around this point when, after 20 minutes of minor generosities – assuring Marnie she's there for her, helpfully ejecting Elijah's drunk sugar-daddy from a party, tending to the hypnotically weird Adam (who had that great gnomic line: "When you love someone, you don't have to be nice all the time") – Hannah announced that she's done being "selfless". |
| We rarely see truly unsympathetic women as television heroines. And where Hannah's heading is not just simpering Ally McBeal or materialistic Carrie Bradshaw territory. She's going full-boor Archie Bunker/George Costanza/Larry David unpleasant. It's uncomfortable and kind of exciting! | We rarely see truly unsympathetic women as television heroines. And where Hannah's heading is not just simpering Ally McBeal or materialistic Carrie Bradshaw territory. She's going full-boor Archie Bunker/George Costanza/Larry David unpleasant. It's uncomfortable and kind of exciting! |
| Then there was the introduction of Sandy, Hannah's new boyfriend, who's black and thus a direct response to the critique of Girls' lily-white first season. Are we supposed to believe that Hannah, so willing to debase herself for men who treat her badly, would easily wind up with a kind, mature, foxy guy who literally pursues her through a bookstore declaiming about his hard-on? That Hannah would smoothly tumble into this without it exploding her world is about as plausible as the idea that this guy – a young, black, hipster New Yorker – is a Republican. But I still loved the episode. Because while the lives of privileged young white women are not unexamined territory, previous examinations have never quite looked or sounded or felt quite as raw or exciting as this. | Then there was the introduction of Sandy, Hannah's new boyfriend, who's black and thus a direct response to the critique of Girls' lily-white first season. Are we supposed to believe that Hannah, so willing to debase herself for men who treat her badly, would easily wind up with a kind, mature, foxy guy who literally pursues her through a bookstore declaiming about his hard-on? That Hannah would smoothly tumble into this without it exploding her world is about as plausible as the idea that this guy – a young, black, hipster New Yorker – is a Republican. But I still loved the episode. Because while the lives of privileged young white women are not unexamined territory, previous examinations have never quite looked or sounded or felt quite as raw or exciting as this. |
| 'Shoshanna is the quiet hero of the show' – Amanda Marcotte | 'Shoshanna is the quiet hero of the show' – Amanda Marcotte |
| In a strong season opener with a bunch of big revelations – that Hannah really does want to quit Adam and that Donald Glover will happily wear stupid hats for a good role – my favorite was that Shoshanna is the quiet hero of the show. Not only does Zosia Mamet run away with every scene she's in, but in this episode, we learned that despite her girlish pretensions and half-baked superstitions, Shoshanna is by far the most sensible of the four main characters. She sees right through Ray's attempts to charm her, and calls him out for feeling entitled to her friendship just because he wants it. Sure, she ends up making out with him anyway, but she's way ahead of the emotional curve of Marnie and Hannah, despite being less sexually experienced. | In a strong season opener with a bunch of big revelations – that Hannah really does want to quit Adam and that Donald Glover will happily wear stupid hats for a good role – my favorite was that Shoshanna is the quiet hero of the show. Not only does Zosia Mamet run away with every scene she's in, but in this episode, we learned that despite her girlish pretensions and half-baked superstitions, Shoshanna is by far the most sensible of the four main characters. She sees right through Ray's attempts to charm her, and calls him out for feeling entitled to her friendship just because he wants it. Sure, she ends up making out with him anyway, but she's way ahead of the emotional curve of Marnie and Hannah, despite being less sexually experienced. |
| It seems that Hannah and Marnie have slowly been changing roles since the beginning of the first season. Last season, Hannah was flailing around, and Marnie was playing the role of the stable, mature friend. Now Hannah's the one who feels like things are looking up, and Marnie's the one who is feeling pathetic and helpless all the time. | It seems that Hannah and Marnie have slowly been changing roles since the beginning of the first season. Last season, Hannah was flailing around, and Marnie was playing the role of the stable, mature friend. Now Hannah's the one who feels like things are looking up, and Marnie's the one who is feeling pathetic and helpless all the time. |
| By the way, good on Lena Dunham for writing Allison Williams' weight loss into the show. It's sadly predictable how already thin and beautiful actresses will start losing dramatic amounts of weight once they land a role on TV, but most shows simply expect the audience to roll with it as if we can't see it happening. It's a touch that shows that Girls is far more self-aware than most observers seem to grasp, and suggests good things for the upcoming season. | By the way, good on Lena Dunham for writing Allison Williams' weight loss into the show. It's sadly predictable how already thin and beautiful actresses will start losing dramatic amounts of weight once they land a role on TV, but most shows simply expect the audience to roll with it as if we can't see it happening. It's a touch that shows that Girls is far more self-aware than most observers seem to grasp, and suggests good things for the upcoming season. |
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