GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

man why am i spending time defending this show

sometimes, we look with a critical eye at the things we like and enjoy, because frankly, we are critical people and the stuff we do not like isn't even worth discussing

i found the last couple of seasons unwatchable. the season with the porn star in it was just risible. but s2-4 are kind of charming.

well entourage 'skated by' cause ilx types didn't really watch it that much

there were a few fairly active Entourage threads! but yeah it didn't get much close analysis because c'mon who the fuck is going to do that even if they like it

i tried entourage and found it to be, briefly, a guilty pleasure watch it rarely show
then i caught some random episode that was so fucking stupid that i never tried it again. it was during the aquaman storyline. when was that? second/third season?
another vote for veep; that had some very good moments.

I dunno I searched before posting that and they all have like 50 posts

aquaman season was the best! still stupid but def the show's peak.

well entourage 'skated by' cause ilx types didn't really watch it that much

yeah i'm not really talking about ilx here i guess

3-4 threads with 50 or so posts is exactly what i meant by "a few fairly active Entourage threads"

If I recall, Entourage was widely derided as basically a male Sex in the City, but Entourage's misogyny - not to mention its shallowness, materialism, et al. - was far worse than SatC's respective sins. Though I suppose Entourage was pure escapism - not a lot turning in that engine.

How many eps is Girls slated to have per season? Six? Eight? Ten?

Gukbe, you're right that there's a lot going on, but that's pretty typical for TV, no? The A story, B story, C story, etc. It's massively efficient at cramming stuff in. If anything, there's actually too much going on, which I read as a one of its contrivances. One thing I liked about Downton Abbey was that there were often several months that passed between episodes, so it got less bogged down in the minutia of linear storytelling and was able to bobble all its characters with broader, even more efficient strokes. That is, a lot happened, but it glossed over the quotidian in favor of the big picture.

the first season of Girls will have 10 episodes, so everyone get ready to post "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GUYS ARE TALKING ABOUT A SHOW WITH ONLY TEN EPISODES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" over and over in two months

I'd say it's typical for cable TV, yes, but I was specifically answering your criticism that it doesn't seem to be going anywhere and that it's hovering in a vacuum, when i found there to be clear narrative thrust and character arcs. Again, two episodes in and I think it's hard to know a "bigger picture" just now, but it's hardly like they're just throwing in random elements whenever just for a gag or 'to make a point', though I'm not really against them doing that either.

Downton Abbey is probably one of the worst offenders as far as contrivances that I've seen recently, tbh. I don't think the spacing apart makes the ridiculousness any more plausible (I like Downton, btw, even if only on the level of very pretty trash, and ignoring it's crazily offensive themes). A whole season of Deadwood might take place over the course of about three weeks, and Milch follows a one episode = one day rule.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fpW1thGues

Entourage didn't seem all that aspirational, they all kind of hated their lives.

wha?

Turtle was always busy trying to become who he was iirc

guess Ari did have some arguments with his hot wife

Downton Abbey is like the epitome of campy contrivance. But I liked how (season one) rolled out.

Entourage, iirc, was about meditative self-reflection and the push/pull of independence and autonomy vs. the promise of wealth and reward, complicated by the loss/confusion of self amidst the things we own and buy. It's totally existential, dude. It's also, like, post-feminist. Or something.

true enough. that time Drama and Turtle both took on that chick at sundance and 'crossed swords' was a deeply moving examination about sexuality and identity.

i was always v mystified re entourage, like it didnt have a plot

the anti-plots of drama trying to get a macguffin like "a trucker hat that will make me look younger" got pretty hilarious though

some guy i know from college wrote some pretty nasty sexist stuff about this show on my fb feed (and then used the racist twitter controversy as an excuse to dump on Lena and everyone involved in the show). i was gonna argue with him, but i just unfriended him. anyway, he constantly posts this annoying ra-ra Community posts so it wasn't a huge loss.

I have hated the girl who created the HBO series "Girls" the second I found out she existed. The revelation that she and everyone she knows are horrible racist only confirms what I have know for years: My snap judgements of people are almost always right.

i may have overreacted. idk.

there is never not a good reason to defriend somebody

the 2nd season of entourage was pretty entertaining.

Was that aquaman? I think I quit after that.

yeah, that was Aquaman. I think that season was followed up with the episode "Aquamom", an intense 30 minutes of high-pressure balancing acts when Vince had to try to get his mother on a plane to go to the Aquaman premiere with him...and he did.

Girls would should be better if the characters had clever nicknames like "drama" and "turtle"

why do you keep harping on that like anybody is actually saying "entourage roolz, girls droolz"

sorry, just have some irrational beef with entourage

mh drama

can my fiesta name be "beef"

I mean, my entourage name

to turn it back to Girls/girls, pop-culture watcher and girl Tavi has some important, interesting things to say about Girls and being a girl and representations of girls/women:
http://youtu.be/6osiBvQ-RRg

Tavi lives down the street from me...with her parents!!!! It's like a plot from Girls, but in high school. And, you know, she's successful and stuff.

ok

bright kid there

she is remarkable

was serious about everyone on Entourage hating their life - aside from the last-30-seconds deus ex machina, everyone on that show seems miserable. Loveless, aimless, addicted to drugs, etc..

I want to be cynical about a teen fashion blogger who gets people to invest in an online mag etc, but Tavi is pretty awesome

This thread has 1744 posts?!

hating your life doesn't mean it can't be interesting or that it can't be fulfilling in some ways

Man, I thought those bros had it all. Bummer.

*reconsiders priorities*

haha, funny AV Club question...

AVC: There’s a scene in the third episode of Girls where Hannah is sitting there and trying to compose a tweet and keeps deleting it because she’s not happy with what it says. It’s almost like voiceover or a musical number, where you can express emotions more directly and people will buy what’s going on.

LD: That’s such a great analogy, because it is. It’s like the moment in episode three, when Hannah tweets out her feelings about her gay boyfriend, her HPV. That was a moment when her Twitter allows her to really state her perspective on what’s just happened in the way that a facial expression would be more ambiguous. You’re totally right. That is its function....

http://www.avclub.com/articles/lena-dunham,69373/

I was definitely into personal blogs when I was younger.

Good interview.

She sounds like a nice, smart person.

Except that I have to tell you that going to a party where everybody is dressed as a sexy cat and you’re dressed as Louis is not… You feel better in your home than you do when you get to the party.

AVC: What do you see as the arc of season one, without spoiling, obviously?

LD: I think for each of the characters it’s different. I think for all of the girls, they’re getting further away from college and feeling more of a panic about establishing their place in the world. I feel as though it’s Marnie figuring out that she can’t control the world—she needs to loosen up and will be happier in doing so. Shoshanna’s attempt to figure out how to have sex and what that even means, whether that’s going to make her a fully formed person. And Hannah starts out the season with this assumption that the world is just going to provide for her, and is then left grappling with that realization and realizes also that if she doesn’t put in the work as a friend, as a writer, as a girlfriend, she’s not going to get back the results she needs, but of course she’s not self-aware enough to totally see that. And then Jessa, it’s sort of like, what is behind a free spirit? What is behind that person who acts as though they can float through the world comfortably? So there’s those personal character arcs and then all together just the drum of, “Oh, there’s some urgency to us figuring out what we have to do next.”