GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

that picture was from when the show was premiering, was dumb then and is dumb now

"Nepotism" would be like if Lena Dunham was Judd Apatow's daughter and Marnie Williams was the daughter of an HBO exec. There are an awful lot of actors/writers/directors in the world who are children of other successful people.

I kind of want to make an "Inherent Nepotism" poster now:

starring
JAMES BROLIN'S Son
RIVER PHOENIX'S Brother
SAM WATERSTON'S Daughter
GAVIN NEWSOM'S Second Cousin

Directed by
MINNIE RIPPERTON'S Son-In-Law

shouldn't that me

GHOULARDI'S Son

?

Featuring Music from SCOTT YOUNG'S son

^^Canadian posters only, obvs.

man alive tom

you don't have comic "relief" when the show is a comedy

mark my words, elijah will be the fonzie of girls

I wonder how much sway Bad Company's drummer has at HBO. "Shit, boss, you'd better answer this one. It's the drummer from Bad Company. If we don't do what he asks we're toast."

it is more a testament to the accuracy of casting than nepotism. a show abt a group of people from privileged backgrounds is acted by a group of people from privileged backgrounds.

jessa's transatlantic accent is proper weird this season

im still into marnies character but would not've minded jettisoning zosia & jessa for this season, def seems like they don't have much to do

This show is not a comedy morbz

i've proper LOLLED several times of late tbh.

The OMG privilege! thing with Jemima Kirke is that her mother is a Dellal; she's cousins with Alice and Olympia Dellal. LOL at the idea that the dad is the signifier of advantage on that poster.

i've proper LOLLED several times of late tbh.

I have too but the show's willingness/eagerness to go for long joke-free stretches, sometimes entire episodes even, makes it p clear they expect the audience to be invested in the drama end of the characters' lives. which I am not tbh. p much everybody is loathsome, they work better as comedy.

I always found it hard to care much about the characters too -- it's like the show lacks a certain awareness of just how easy it's going to be for these people to have perfectly fine lives in the long run, and expects us to be invested in the drama of whether they'll be ok. But there's still a certain amount of enjoyment in the often witty dialogue and just the sheer recognition factor of it being fairly accurate about certain aspects of the lives of people fairly close in age and geography to me.

I really like a lot of Adam's lines this year. He continues to be one of the best parts of the show. The one where he's complaining about LDRs and talking on the phone and says something to the effect of "we talk about a bunch of dumb things i don't care about" hit p close to home. Also the one that was like "I have enough friends" --> "zero is enough?"

idk maybe i'm not critical enough but i'm enjoying this season enough. (only disappointments are not enough shosh and too mcuh marnie singing with dude who looks like shitty chris o'dowd)

xp ^ beaten to it

really enjoying the season so far but hated the scene in the last one where hannah called out her classmates' shortcomings to their faces and they were all like 'LOL yup guilty as charged, u know me so well hannah', it seemed really unconvincing.

yeah I was waiting for Hannah to overreach and say something explicitly racist about the black guy (which, come ON, is totally what would have realistically happened). the way she ended that little diatribe was v funny tho

the parts of the show that worked (in the first 2 seasons) were the comedy. Also comedy is not just explosive diarrhea / lady problems etc.

yeah I was waiting for Hannah to overreach and say something explicitly racist about the black guy

i'm waiting for the other shoe to drop wrt to that character, because right now he is crazily badly written. and given the show's previous controversies concerning its lack of characters of colour, i'm really uncomfortable with how the show seems to suggest he's getting an easy ride from his classmates, for reasons other than his skills in writing.

the parts of the show that worked (in the first 2 seasons) were the comedy. Also comedy is not just explosive diarrhea / lady problems etc.

I agree w all this. but I am not exaggerating when I say there was basically nothing that was even trying to be funny in a few of these recent episodes until Elijah shows up.

I dunno I think Hannah's time in Iowa is played for lols, falling off her bike, getting chased by the bat, relationship with classmates, bike getting stolen etc

that was a different episode

ie the second one

but the first and third were p much joke-free except for Elijah

I haven't watched any of season three, where did they film her Iowa scenes?

New Paltz, I think.

Someone I work with from Iowa City said they did some filming there (though she may have been fibbing).

In re: that Nepotism poster-thingie. That's not nepotism, unless all those named relatives were in charge of the hiring for the show. That's merely straight up privilege, coming from a family with connections.

this show has definitely entered the super-stupid soap opera phase

this episode made me really loathe Hannah in a way I haven't before; like before she was hilariously immature and self-sabotaging but now she's just infuriatingly immature and self-sabotaging.

I felt that way last season already

mark my words, elijah will be the fonzie of girls

― #Research (stevie), Thursday, 5 February 2015 11:44 (5 days ago)

i think he already is! the fact hes in iowa with hannah just shows some desperation on the part of the writers, and that well, the show needed him to be there with hannah. a real feeling that this show is running on the spot this season.

I'm glad she's left Iowa. Absolutely nothing interesting or convincing was happening there.

Oh I could have watched several more episodes about bitterly passive-aggressive writer workshops. Logan made a good nemesis for Hannah and the showdown over the letter had some good digs at campus culture.

i just didn't feel the other characters were up to much, or were very convincing: uptight waspy blonde, posh fratboy, black writer from the streets… they weren't characters, they were barely types.

This show's been lazy this season, but I'm enjoying it more.

i think her leaving Iowa though just made me realize how frustratingly repetitive this show is going to be and made me just stop caring about her struggles; like since season ONE Hannah has been working towards finding direction and she keeps getting jobs and opportunities but then finding some quasi-legitimate issue with them and then she finally finds her whiny narcissistic me-me-me perfect dream thing but then like 2 weeks in she's a baby and she doesn't like it and she has 0 drive or perseverance so she gives up, okay, vmic, but how are you going to sustain this as a show and keep it interesting?

it's not fun watching people fuck up in the exact same way over and over and over and over forever

I wonder how young writers feel watching this. She's blown more great chances than most people ever get and if the message is that she shouldn't really be a writer than season 4 is a long time to wait to deliver it.

I hope LD is clever enough to be conscious that that's the message she's delivering and then to actually do something different or new w/ the character

though the fact that it imploded less than halfway thru the season means that maybe she is and maybe legitimately interesting things are gonna happen

Ray yelled at cars lol

it's kinda sad how this is mirroring the general direction of Sex in the City, becoming all about commitment issues and self-sabotage and who is sleeping w who etc.

just thinking of all of Carrie's ambivalence/stumbles re: her career plus the constant will they/won't they w Chris Noth

On the plus side: Gillian Jacobs

Is/has Adam been written-out/reduced this year to accomodate Star Wars?

I hope the next episode is entirely about Laird and Caroline and their new baby