GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

like, is it a parody of recaps? does it have to be so painful?

gawkers gotta gawk

if it's a parody of shitty writing, it at least gets points for accuracy

it's pretty funny, though. but i don't know why he's mean to that's so raven, and korean pork belly tacos are sort of amazing.

jeez reading that gawker recap was a monumental waste of time, even by my standards.

this was maybe my favourite episode yet! marnie was kind of 'awful' (as we like to say) here, but on the other hand, it's the kind of situation where i'd imagine most people would be awful in some manner. likewise hannah's particular brand of awfulness is one that makes a lot of sense coming from someone who spends a lot of time in her own world. jessa, i have more difficulty with, but when she's great she's great, and i assume she'll do some kind of learning at some point. in the world of non-awful people, may ray and shoshanna's relationship blossom. (okay, ray's awful too, though not in this episode.)

i'd take to dancing like adam, but i don't think i'm strong enough.

in the previous gawker recap, the write admits he legit hates the show, which somehow makes his criticism worse (like it reflects poorly on his personality and writing ability if he actually MEANS all that shit to be critical).

There was a bit of a blow-up in the AV Club thread about this past episode. It's linked in this article, which I think is very good: http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/05/29/491372/lena-dunham-girls/

This was probably the only episode that I've enjoyed more of than I've actively disliked. I've basically just been watching this show out of a sense of duty to the cultural moment or some bullshit.

I mean, minute for minute I'd take any given episode of any other cable half-hour dramady over this (Weeds, The Big C, Hung, Nurse Jackie, whatev).

Also things like that av club article are the sorts of reasons I sympathize with a gut-reaction of despising the show entirely.

That said, maybe the closest analogue in terms of maturity of characters and attitude towards them is Skins, though even the worst characters there were more uniformly likable.

hey man, Chris 4-eva.

i hate/am totally bored by most tv, including those shows you listed, but i love this show

and i wish more tv were like this

me too

there are episodes in curb where larry genuinely behaves badly (it seems 2 me) but most of the time i feel like it's just an inability to pick his battles that stems i guess from a malformed sense of proportion.

VG otm about jessa's attitude towards being shoshanna's crack spirit guide; it has zero to do with shoshanna; it is just a diverting thing to say seeing as there's nothing else going on just now. but of course there are plenty of people who behave like this and they don't even make particularly bad friends as long as you also have some friends who are aware you exist. plus they tend to grow up. marnie, meanwhile, still repels me on some fundamental sub-cognitive level, like nixon did to HST (but not to me, not like marnie); every time she speaks my muscles tighten. dunno. hannah's sweet (the glee on her face while dancing w/ adam, with her bag still on her shoulder) and the show is somehow managing to successfully flesh shoshanna out using nothing but broad I Accidentally Smoked Crack or I Accidentally Witnessed My Roommate Fucking plots. not unlike how it's fleshing adam out without betraying his detached brusqueness, which looks like cruelty in some lights but half-formed wisdom in others. good show!

in the previous gawker recap, the write admits he legit hates the show, which somehow makes his criticism worse (like it reflects poorly on his personality and writing ability if he actually MEANS all that shit to be critical).

yeah, though i played along with the suggestion that it might be a parody, it doesn't read like one. instead it reads like snarky, self-impressed idiocy by someone who doesn't even understand the level the show is playing at. not, it's not supposed to be the greatest party ever thrown. it's just supposed to look intimidatingly cool to relatively sheltered hannah and shoshonna. no, penisless band isn't supposed to sound "hip," "now" and "downtown". they're just supposed to sound penisless, and they do. omg, the author has noticed that the girls are white, unlike the problem-having black people joe strummer once mentioned in a song. oh shit, and the show show has blown the lid on secret bushwick, exposing it to tourists and korean pork belly tacos (lol specificity). fuck this guy.

i can't even tell if he really thinks there will be girls-themed tour buses, and i should be clear on that point; this is what happens when your hate just totally swamps your control and suddenly you're not actually writing for anyone or about anything that isn't an invisible monster in your aching head

gawker's mission statement iirc

really good pork belly tacos are a thing of beauty.

there are like five korean taco trucks in new york now, and they are all wonderful. as far as i know they're a manhattan thing more than brooklyn or hipsters or twentysomethings or whatever. and before that they were an l.a. thing.

i feel very protective of my korean street food.

Tako

Yaki

see now there's a street food we need more of in new york. i would tolerate such a hipster wave just to have more takoyaki joints than the one sorta meh place with long lines by st. marks.

Are you planning on bringing you intellect to bear on the show at any point sterling, because all I'm getting is "0/5 stars".

*your

i dont get how he can make fun of BEST PARTY EVAH when the characters themselves make fun of that idea, never mind the show

& that criticism of the gawker piece can really stand in for his entire criticism. garbage post

Andrew, not necessarily? I think I mainly weighed in on this thread because he brought up korean pork belly tacos. I mean I think the thread itself covers the ground pretty well in that it is sort of an ok comedy about people who are young and narcissistic and have bad ideas and make lots of mistakes. But I also think there's a poe's law element where you cannot make a show about people who are unaware and self-involved so critical that some people do not think it is about them in a complementary way.

idk man you enjoy episodes of Weeds, The Big C, Hung, Nurse Jackie and something called 'whatev' so your opinion is sort of tainted

Guys we should send John Cook a letter or email or something urging him to stop writing about shows he doesn't understand

Though he did have a point abt like why us this totally hip warehouse party playing top 40 and not, like, Grimes?

because of hipster irony

the ghostface song felt accurate but i have never been to such a party

it seems like they'd play ghostface? they should.

also it was really really sad/embarrassing to see a writer talk about "ironic t-shirts" in 2012

if I was at that party I would be shoshanna (ie pre cracksmoking, standing terrified in a corner)

Though he did have a point abt like why us this totally hip warehouse party playing top 40 and not, like, Grimes?

― a parker full of poseys (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 30 May 2012 11:46 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hipster loft parties in montreal often play top 40

tbh though i kind of like the way the show isn't meticulously hip & the references aren't super topical or up to the minute

otm. and parties everywhere mostly play music people like to dance to

i mean it seems p clear that marnie and hanna and co. arent really "hipsters," they are like hipster hanger-ons or whatever, second-generation post-w'burg/greenpoint gentrification hipsters or something

hipsterrunoff.com

I really dont like any of the characters, except Adam, who I kinda half like. But I still have decided that I like the show. Marnie is the worst. She should be on Good Morning America, though, and follow in her dad's footsteps (kinda).

judd hipster apatow

I don't watch much TV, but strangely I have watched most episodes of HBO's new series Girls. Of course, the show is produced by Judd Apatow, the man who gave me my first good acting job, playing a freak on the television show Freaks and Geeks, and my first great comedy role, Saul Silver in Pineapple Express, but that's not why I've been watching. I got pulled in at the beginning simply because it seemed to portray my world -- the one inhabited by struggling creative types in New York. I'm not saying I have to struggle to pay the rent like Lena Dunham's character, Hannah, but there was a point, right before Judd cast me in Freaks and Geeks, when my parents cut me off because I wanted to go to acting school instead of UCLA. I worked at McDonalds, and my first suggestion to Hannah would be this: get a fucking job. If you really want to have experiences to write about, go to work; and if you really want to be an artist, take responsibility for yourself and wait some tables. You might mature a little in the process.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-franco/girls-hbo-lena-dunham_b_1556078.html

my world of struggling creative types in New York

I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding. I watched Steel Magnolias incessantly when I was in junior high school, and I can get off on female bonding.

They say living well is the best revenge, but sometimes writing well is even better.

otoh, this is a killer line

I don't watch much TV, but strangely I have watched most episodes of HBO's new series Girls.

http://cdn1.hark.com/images/000/017/663/17663/original.0

James Franco should stick to acting.

Fictional Hannah thanks u for your advice James Franco.