GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

unless you're a ridiculous gaybot like Elijah, who will probably go on like that til he's 60 or we all get nuked.

Michael Sicinski‏
@msicism
So take note: you're a narcissistic child until you have a baby. A trajectory even Dunham's right-wing haters could love.

she's STILL a narcissistic child at the end!

29 is much too young to stop being a narcissistic asshole anyway

i think i only fully became not an asshole around 34 - that might even be pushing it

she's STILL a narcissistic child at the end!

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, April 18, 2017 12:54 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

she has her epiphany at the end and then goes home to stoically and competently take care of her baby.

yah there wasn't much evolution or growing.. they were all still the same shitheads. hannah's mom basically said "it doesn't get better." the only conceit was you lose your friends eventually. she didn't have an epiphany in the except "i finally bonded with my baby and that's more important than all my shithead friends that didn't actually matter." (just all my take away idk)

i figured esp given her background she was suffering to some degree of postpartum depression, which is no joke

re: GIRLS, it's not quite so extreme (nobody's a murderer, for ex.) but it was also not handled as deftly imo. The show, especially in latter seasons, seemed to go out of its way to display characters' loathsomeness w out making them v relatable (imo), so when it came time for the viewer to give a shit about whatever emotional conflict was being foregrounded, it just didn't work.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, April 18, 2017 12:08 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sociopath doesn't mean "self centered" or "asshole" or "jerk a lot of the time"

I never said any of the GIRLS characters were sociopaths. If you want to argue about the Sopranos characters, that's a different story.

i figured esp given her background she was suffering to some degree of postpartum depression, which is no joke

it wasn't really played as post-partum depression though, the problem was characterized as her being...exactly the same as before.

They mentioned post partum depression as being a factor in the "inside this episode" bit after the show

The teenager she ran into reminded me of Louis C.K.'s petulant/entitled voice.

xp I can't watch those, they make me question any enjoyment I got out of what I just watched

i figured esp given her background she was suffering to some degree of postpartum depression, which is no joke

it wasn't really played as post-partum depression though, the problem was characterized as her being...exactly the same as before.

― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, April 18, 2017 3:56 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

totally disagree the handwringing over the breastfeeding and the "my baby hates me" stuff seemed to be pretty squarely conveying that

seemed more like post-partum frustration? i don't have kids though, so what do i know.

I definitely skipped that article about bottle-feeders who are upset.

I didn't particularly love the episode or the ending of the series for various reasons...

but I watched it next to my wife who was breastfeeding at that moment, so a lot of it hit home.

Like, on one hand all that handwringing and that 'my baby hates me" stuff is like. pretty par for the course even without going as far as being described as post-partum depression. I'm not sure where that line is drawn between your totally expected freakouts about being a new parent and what is "officially" ppd and I'm not sure how important that is, but for that reason I didn't need the creators to discuss ppd to understand that she's under a particular stress and perhaps acting in an extreme version of who she always has been due to it.

But the complaint online about bottle-feeding, I mean, everything in that episode is 100% accurate about that stuff and totally fair and I can't believe any parent would be pissed off. Every single study shows benefits to breast feeding...and every single parent probably comes to terms with the fact that it's hard work and may not be doable and even if it's not, your kid can still turn out ok so you just do whatever works.

I agree the show was pretty accurate, but the dialogue ("hey, this formula stuff is ok after all!") was like PSA-level risible.

I get the online bottle-feeding complaints - unfortunately. I used to work for a breasfeeding org, and there is more chance of resolving israel/palestine than the breast vs. formula people.

how did "fast car" become so ubiquitous? there was also a period in the early 00s when indie/avant garde artists embraced it and covered it (Xiu Xiu and Jim O'Rourke).

I wanted to slap the shit out of Marnie during that part. Actually, during most parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vScKQ4gexwk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkl_Vq1SWKg

Fast Car became ubiquitous when it was released and was a huge hit on MTV and radio and was a top ten hit on the Billboard charts

Fast Car became ubiquitous when it was released and was a huge hit on MTV and radio and was a top ten hit on the Billboard charts

I know. I was asking how it became so ubiquitous with avant garde artists doing totally out there versions of it. Tho tbh I can only think of.... 3 off the top of my head. Sorry this is a weird thread to post this in. I hope Lena runs in 2020.

So...Lenny Dykstra

he's been on fire ever since his interviews on Howard last year

"American Bitch" (with the novelist creep) is a great episode. I can only remember two other episodes that I thought were that good (granted, I've skipped around a lot) - the early one where Hannah sleeps with an older guy in a nice townhome and imagines a bourgeois life, the one from season 4 or 5 where Marnie hooks up with her ex. Makes me wonder about an alternate show without the standard wacky comic touches and the rest of the cast.

Yep, feel the same between "American Bitch" and "One Man's Trash." No subplots or minor characters, just a single extended story.

all three of those episodes were unique in the Girls universe as one off stories instead of part of the larger narrative. Where there others?

Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner defend 'Girls' writer amid sexual assault claim: "We stand by Murray" https://t.co/46J9Aa7SOA pic.twitter.com/cLNMpPzIwV

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 18, 2017

I finally watched the last 2 seasons of this, away from any hype/expectations. I really enjoy this show, kind of in the way I like Peep Show - the characters say depressingly funny things that touch a nerve and neatly encapsulate the type of annoying person they are, and it handles 'friendship with people you kind of hate' really well, but I don't care about the storylines particularly or how DRAMATIC Jessa/Adam's relationship is. The final dialogue with Jessa and Hannah calling it even was very reminiscent of the end of Peep Show. I guess I don't mind that the characters are flawed (awful) except when they continue to do things that are so stupid it's stretching any credibility (Hannah on that road trip, Mark with the vanity publishing etc)

The pregnancy ending throughout the final season had me rolling my eyes so hard because it's the equivalent of ending with a big wedding or w/ever but actually the final episode being about pressures and difficulties of breastfeeding and anxiety about everything making you act like a nightmare and wondering what on earth you've done (totally normal ime), rather than the actual birth, was refreshing. Maybe less so if you haven't been there.

'American Bitch' was a real highlight. In general Desi/Marnie had me laughing quite a lot but Marnie on her own was toooooo much.

I guess I don't mind that the characters are flawed (awful) except when they continue to do things that are so stupid it's stretching any credibility

this embodies so much of why I lost interest in this show. It's not nearly as plausible when they keep making the same mistakes for the 9th, 10th, 11th times

Like Nurse Jackie, it felt realistic that they kept making the same mistakes, but I was still less and less compelled to watch them making them.

more like lena dudham

xp i don't think girls got quite nurse jackie bad but i take your point

no you're right, i watched all of girls but peaced out on nurse jackie a coupla seasons before the end

If I knew anybody in the screen trade I think they'd be laughing as they throw things at the wall. https://t.co/CCUuLaaczz

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) October 29, 2018

well that should end well

so I've been idly re-watching some of these and this really jumped out at me:
https://youtu.be/3kniMAzPRAk?t=179

Natalia's prediction = the end of the show

Hannah's dad being gay is also foreshadowed in Ezra's very first scene, where he directly states that Hannah should have known that Ezra was gay in college *because of her dad*

some of this show's whiplash plot contrivances made me predisposed to not think they were capable of that kind of foreshadowing/foresight but idk now

I feel like I remember it being pretty strongly implied that he was gay early on in the show? Isn't there also something about going on "trips" with men?

sorry when I said Ezra I meant Elijah, so that reference is all the way back in the third episode, before her parents have had v much revealed about them (besides the fact that they've threatened to cut off economic support of Hannah)

yeah, I think I also remember catching that reference though

p sure I missed it the first time around

just made me think of how that particular reveal didn't come out of the blue unlike, say, Hannah's OCD in season 3

anyway, the Natalia thing was more striking, because that breastfeeding comment is so specific

*sees Lena Dunham trending on twitter*

:)

man the laughs really do start to evaporate in season 3

altho Desi's "confused Clapton" face is a welcome insufferably ridiculous addition

https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/lena-dunham-comes-to-terms-with-herself.html

flappy's looking for this one, I think

meanwhile

this embodies so much of why I lost interest in this show. It's not nearly as plausible when they keep making the same mistakes for the 9th, 10th, 11th times

― the masseduction of lauryn hill (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, June 28, 2018 9:12 PM (four months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

apparently, per the article (among other evidence), this is exactly how lena dunham has lived her life and her family deals with it through begrudging acceptance

lol

negative reviews of Camping, the HBO show she co-wrote with her Girls partner, Jenni Konner,

I had no idea this was her show. also it was terrible, couldn't make it through the first episode

There's a lot going on in that profile.

it's one of the few profiles I've read where it's clear that the writer/interviewer found the entire endeavor tiring

not to mention: Race is a chronic blind spot for her because she didn’t grow up with a lot of diversity in her New York City private school, she explains.

those last two words doing so much work