GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

Feel this is mostly otm: Working Girls

Jessa is the most sympathetic character to me now. I've been in rehab, and I was playing the Jessa role there, I guess. Someone needs to do that, since for-profit rehabs are horrible institutions, run by fools, that only care about getting their numbers up.

Interesting. I've never been to rehab but in those scenes it looked like she was sabotaging peoples' sincere if hackneyed attempts at sincerity and - if they are buying into the idea of group therapy - recovery, and also like she had no sympathy for uncool/unglamorous/pathetic people, which is an attitude I am put off by.

She wasn't targeting the institution is my point, and certainly not for principled reasons. I was repelled by her behavior but also I loved those scenes because I could understand why she was resistant to cooperating, as if to do so would mean aligning herself with this sad, broken lot.

i feel like discussing those scenes as if they were naturalistic is mb beside the point

I'm a little unclear as to how/why Jessa landed in rehab in the first place

She's an addict

Her grandmother 'intervened'?

I can't remember the full spiel she gave but it sounded like her rent/living expenses/money from grandma was contingent on her doing rehab, and that maybe this was a regular cycle

"You don't show em the tits they wanna see, and show em the tits they don't wanna see!"

OMG, this is awesome. I demand t-shirts, posters, bumper stickers, all emblazoned with Paul Newman's mug.

Speaking of continuity issues, and/or dubiously intentional post-Louie surreality (and with a hat tip to Get Bent for piping up about this):

IRL it takes about two hours to drive from NYC to Woodstock. In the show, they start during the day, stop over for dinner, STAY in a MOTEL OVERNIGHT, and arrive at the rehab center sometime THE NEXT DAY.

Part of me thinks it was a hyooge meta commentary on how the characters are so dysfunctional it takes them two days to make what should be a two-hour trip.

Haha okay yeah part of me was seriously doubting the length of that trip. I've driven from Philly area to way upstate many times and it never took more than a day

Was it def in Woodstcok through or was that just part of the lie she told Marine?

maybe that was a really long hike lol

Could have been Woodstock, VT!

the acting in this is still pretty good. apart from that i can't think of anything positive to say about either of these episodes. i was a huge fan of season 1, btw.

actually some of the photography is pretty good and so was the scene with adam and the ex-gf, so i exaggerate. It wasn't even though it was just dull and uninspired.

I definitely thought "why is this trip to Woodstock taking so long?" but then thought maybe they were in Woodstock at the point she made the phone call but the destination of the drive was farther

like in no scenario would you need an airport to get from Woodstock to NYC, maybe she's up in New England or something

i enjoyed the exchanges between Shosh & Adam, and I definitely saw the Richard E Grant turn coming from a long way off.

I think if anything it probably just confirmed all the things that rehab was trying to get Jessa to let go of, the innate distrust/keeping your personal shit locked down tight

guys, have u ever followed the subway trip in The Warriors? Makes no sense at all.

The more we talk about it, the more I think the 2 day epic journey to woodstock is (intentional) comedy gold.

My impression was that Woodstock was where they stopped to eat.

Wasn't super excited by the first two episodes. I thought the rehab scenes kind of seemed to be mocking all the addicts in a very cheap and mean way and I didn't like that at all. Marnie and Shoshana are almost unwatchably annoying, and Marnie's mom is worse than either of them. Jessa and Adam remain the characters that make the show enjoyable for me, although I enjoyed watching Hannah sort of give in to wanting to be in a relationship.

Sorry that came out unclear, but what I mean is that I felt like the show was actually kind of taking Jessa's view of them as pathetic and whiny and unsympathetic.

the song over the end credits of this ep was amazing

i think by these ppl (39 twitter followers currently) - https://twitter.com/ZeroDeZire

seems to be impossible to find anywhere on the internet to listen to that song. at least in the 30 seconds I looked.

As I was watching the third episode of season three, I couldn't help but think the birthday party was like coming to the IL Xor message board.

Then I thought, who would be Hannah? Who would be Shosh?

I think we should start a thread entitled "Match the GIRLS personage with the IL XOR user".

lol'd at multiple Smashing Pumpkins refs in this one

well okay two

two more than i expected. but the ep did manage to make me feel old, what with it being the token "old guy" character wearing the same pumpkins shirt i used to have.

Marnie and Shoshana are almost unwatchably annoying

Aren't they supposed to be?

Marnie's whole Edie Brickell video was amazing and will forever justify this show's existence.

xp sure, but how many times do I need to watch Shoshanna being shrill and breathless and one-note and doing her caricatured, sheltered jewish summer camp girl schtick? It's exhausting.

I'm going to take a chance and say you don't need to watch Shosh at all or, conversely, you can watch her as many times as you desire, because no one is forcing you to watch the show.

I'm sorry if someone or something is, however.

First Ray doesn't want to be friends w/her and now you, Hurting 2?!

will still keep watching but show jumped the shark

no one is forcing you to watch the show.

Excellent point. And if you love the show so much, why don't you marry it.

"no one is forcing you to watch the show"

why do people who say this exist?

no one is forcing you to watch the show.

Excellent point. And if you love the show so much, why don't you marry it.

― signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Tuesday, January 21, 2014 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Your pseudo-question presupposes that I have not.

"no one is forcing you to watch the show"

why do people who say this exist?

― flopson, Tuesday, January 21, 2014 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like how confrontations in this show are never satisfying or cathartic. ray just looked and felt stupid in this episode.

otm, i actually really liked the way ray's fight just kind of petered off with a p minimal impact on everyone else

What did we think of John Cameron Mitchell?

ray just looked and felt stupid in this episode.

As the bridge between his old life chasing young ladies and his new life as the mgr of Ray's (or Grumpy's or whatever they're calling it), I felt this was pretty comparable to the storyline of Jessa and the dad where she was an au pair.

Normal Adam is uninteresting, as well. I want to see more of late season 2 Adam.

I want to to see a comedy spin-off where Adam's sister gets discovered and has a team of handlers to get her through the day while she dances like a sub-par Elaine, rolls her eyes like a madwoman and hangs out bottom-less in bathrooms frustrated at not being able to break plastic sippy cups. Hi-jinks!

I do have to say that that bit where she tried to harangue Ray into dancing with her and then biting him... man that just hit too close to home to not be funny. I have totally had similar things happen to me at shows

^^^

I'll be slightly offended if they just introduced this character who handles her mental health issues somewhat worse than Adam (though they both are obviously quirky at best) and then conveniently discard her.