GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

Pretty great (and typically epic) article by Film Crit Hulk (with a predictably infuriating comments thread):

http://badassdigest.com/2013/02/20/film-crit-hulk-smash-why-girls-is-remarkable/

All caps; didn’t read.

…But converted it to proper case and I heartily agree with the article.

Derail, but is the all-caps schtick more than just schtick? Is there some larger idea with it? If he bailed on it (which would be so appreciated) are there, like, a ton of Hulk fans who would be outraged?

There is a lot of dramatically opportune crying this season.

the one part that felt really hollow this ep was booth jonathan's 'breakdown'

I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a real breakdown or just him throwing Marnie's bullshit back in her face.

jessa telling hannah to stop being a baby and eat the rabbit was perfect. really like how the last few episodes feel like a collection of loosely linked short stories.

i really liked "probably because we both look weird" in the last ep

yeah that was nice too. this episode added another item to the long list of things that make me dislike hannah - who the fuck calls while pissing? especially when it's to tell your parents you love them.

as short stories go, though, i've thought the last few episodes have been utterly conventional. like absolutely first year writers workshop material.

Last two writing credits have been to staff and not LD, fwiw.

also, from a week ago, Ray disclosed that he "wasn't even a kike" and I was trying to figure out if the character had actually been pretending to be Jewish; he said his date from s1ep01 had "shiksa eyes".

I don't find this video particularly funny, but it's a pretty good Lena Dunham impression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v71HKkH55ec

I really liked this new episode, shading in some of the background of Jessa. Also *Ben Mendelsohn* as her Dad was genius. Hands down my favorite Australian actor (well okay it's neck and neck between him and Noah Taylor) but definitely a great choice for a fuck-up flaky Dad.
Loved everything about that ep.

lol @ jaymc's link

For a minute or so I thought it WAS Noah Taylor

lol whut

http://images.smh.com.au/2010/08/17/1782800/NOAH65726_widenative-420x0.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Ben_Mendelsohn_2012.jpg/220px-Ben_Mendelsohn_2012.jpg

you're on your own with that, sry

I always get them confused!

smdh @ all of u

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2013/03/04/130304sh_shouts_marx

oh how we all laughed

I thought it was Gary Oldman for a few seconds, then I just decided it was anyway

I'm with you DL. Was convinced it was Taylor until about halfway through. Only thing i've seen Mendelsohn in is Animal Kingdom though

ld impersonation sort of degenerates into shit girls say by the end.

not sure how i feel about the big reveal. it was done effectively -- the idea that this is real and not just more manufactured drama sort of only gradually becoming clear. but i also always feel that giving characters afflictions or whatever is lazy writing on some level, and it makes the character less interesting in my mind ultimately.

solid writing all around in this episode though, and a few really funny lines.

but i also always feel that giving characters afflictions or whatever is lazy writing on some level, and it makes the character less interesting in my mind ultimately.

gotta call you out on this. sensitive and accurate portrayals of mental illness (like this one!) are important and still unusual. Mental illness remains heavily stigmatized, and LD and co. translating and sharing the experience of OCD in this episode was really powerful and affecting for me.

i can see that. my concern is is this a way to capture an actual experience primarily, or like a rabbit out of the hat to make the character more likable and provide depth. it depends where they take it next season i guess. i'm also constantly judging this show not by tv standards, but by short fiction workshop standards, since that's what it feels consistently closest to.

ah, just googled it up and apparently its autobiographical (down to the number eight).

more and more i can tell when lena is writing
"the clay is dry"

in my experience, while I feel kinship with other sufferers of mood disorders and often use mental health as a conversational jumping off point, a mood disorder doesn't make anyone more likable. If you feel some sort of discomfort at judging Hannah's past behavior in light of the reveal that she has OCD, I don't think you're being shanghaied by a writerly device or anything.

I do agree that it depends on where they take it in upcoming episodes.

xp

its not the fact of the ocd that recasts things -- its the way her parents seemed to treat it, and also the way it helps explain away lots of her other neuroses as coming from having had an actually very trying set of teenage years. it makes everything feel too neat, somehow.

this ep was great

yeah I just watched it last night... I loved it

very shocked by shosh's behavior tbh

why would adam have ever called the girl? just a "nothing to lose" situation, or?

yeah i was into the OCD revelation! not that i know what i'm talking about, i hardly ever watch this show. but i know about the big O and i did not mind seeing somebody else recount their story about it.

shosh is my favorite character, and taking her in this direction felt like it made a lot of sense. i like the idea that growing up doesn't mean growing into a better person.

this episode makes me very excited to see the next episode. like obv hannah is gonna try to get back in touch with adam after that therapist appt, but now he's moving on to something "better"...dying to see/hear shosh processing this scandalous thing she did...dying to see how marnie jumps into this singing dream?!?!

i don't know why marnie makes me laugh so much

DID she go there cause charlie is now making money and is now successful? was she just curious about his new life and feeling bad that she had lost touch to the degree that she was not even aware of this development? also how much time is supposed to have passed between the episode where he tried to kiss her on the rooftop and this one, i wonder.

marnie is gross and materialistic and status-obsessed enough to genuinely be like "ive got to get him back asap now that he is successful"

pretty sure ny startup culture is nothing like that office. like of the things LD knows how to write, an actual office environment is, I doubt, on that list.

i was in a ny start up for like 20mins the other day, will screen the ep and report back

its decently like that office ime. not exactly but not so different that it sticks out. not like slugline

the harlem shake video thing at the end i guess, and charlie being all "did you check the flegenheim report" or whatever, thats over the top but not ridiculous

it was believe to me but i know nothing about such offices tbh

no nerf no credibility

I have never met anyone in real life who talks like Shoshanna, though I have known lots of people in real life who talk like all the other characters. Is this just me? It makes it so that I resent losing valuable moments of show time to that character.