GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

xp It IS a great quote, I lol'd. But it still misses something about how privilege actually works. But at some point I start to feel like a real bore for parsing that so thoroughly. And OTOH Adam Driver is from a pretty ordinary background and an ex-Marine.

I kind of just want to respond, "Is this really what you think, like, the landscape of Hollywood, is, is like, as long as you're talented Judd Apatow will just somehow randomly come across the first film you ever make and get you a TV show?"

Finished season 2; I am NOT gonna discuss the reaction to the "get on all fours" scene cuz I don't need another R*nan Farr*w thread.

Did enjoy what I saw of the DVD extra where LD is talking to the male actors, and she basically says to Christopher Abbott, "Well, your character started out as a pussy..."

haha i mean its a great quote in the sense that you have to live in a very weird world for the sentence "My mother has one photo in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art" to mean what she thinks it does

that level of unselfawareness is the least palatable part of her

my primary reaction to Marnie's crooning of "Stronger" in last season's finale was that in isolation I wouldn't know if it was sposed to be good or bad. Now finding out it's by Kanye West I still wouldn't know.

The whole Hannah OCD arc was kinda Cronenbergian.

i just thought Marnie did such a good job with that song lol

definitely my favorite character.

I loved that it wasn't clear if the room was too cool for her or if she was giving a bad performance. I think it was her sincerity that came through, and the show is all about misguided sincerity from all the gals.

OR if she was actually just putting on a good "show". and tbh not many people could pull that off on key.

but yea ppl's looks around the room were priceless

Really? I thought that scene was pretty clearly about her oblivousness and self-centeredness. It kind of didn't matter if the performance itself was "good," so much as that it was really embarrassing and uncalled for that she did it all.

but then again, it was in a "killer app" HQ, so the most appropriate thing to do for a party would be to bring a locked and loaded Uzi.

or at least use Ray's line "Are there prostitutes here?"

kinda. but it was also about the fact that she just didn't really give a fuck, and did something that no one else would do, and had a p good voice too

well she had two semi-breakdown scenes right after, so it prob was fully intended as a misstep, however sincere

i basically read it in 2 ways: like she was making fun of the party, and what's his name. and that she wanted to "misstep." in public. by doing something completely embarrassing, but smiling and staying on pitch the whole time. kinda cute.

essentially i wish i had done that at a stupid yuppy party

I don't know, I think my interpretation is backed up by her later embarrassing youtube video, and the scene at Hannah's birthday where she cluelessly forces Hannah to come up on stage and sing with her -- something Hannah clearly does NOT want to do but that Marnie does solely for her own benefit (get attention, show off her totally awesome voice).

lol true enough. apparently an acquaintance of mine was in the same a cappella group in college with her or something.

but yea you're right, she was basically just taking Ray's advice to "just sing" in every inane way she could

I think I said upthread that it works much better that she has a pretty good voice. If she was just genuinely bad it would be easy comedy. Instead, she's like just good enough to make it through a couple rounds of American Idol or something, but probably not good enough to make the bigtime.

fancy ppl wanna work with me was my favorite line of the current season so far

I really didn't like the Ray/Marnie fight about "Africa" -- I feel like a few times Dunham has tried to subtly convey this attitude that she thinks people who have political positions about things are full of shit. Again, Apatovian conservatism.

― Burt Stuntin (Hurting 2), Thursday, February 20, 2014 2:59 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

btw this is not at all what I got out of this scene, altho possibly I am too much of a 'Ray' to have clear perspective

― my collages, let me show you them (bernard snowy), Thursday, February 20, 2014 2:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

have caught up w e6 but not yet e7: when this scene started i was expecting because of the earlier gawker scene a whole comic point-counterpoint on this, like, ray talking abt world bank economic prescriptions turning developing countries into chaotic extraction pits for western corporations, and marnie talking abt schools and roads and saline bags, but they didn't. still i dunno if ray's vague position is apolitical. it's certainly no more so than marnie's. (nb. i am so much a ray that sometimes i wonder if exgirlfriends whom i know to watch this show throw stuff at the screen when he's on.) also i think that marnie's crisis-ridden self-belief is probably as, idk, nourishing for ray to be around as his Real Talk or whatever is for her. if anyone's good for anyone.

anyway some of this show is still pretty real to me. hannah's dawning horror that she's wandered into a career in advertising. i liked that adam got a callback by supposed luck immediately after hannah suggested he actually try to get a callback.

I thought John Cameron Mitchell was a funny publishing asshole; I'm not looking fwd to the character's death unless it was onscreen and painful.

anyway some of this show is still pretty real to me. hannah's dawning horror that she's wandered into a career in advertising. i liked that adam got a callback by supposed luck immediately after hannah suggested he actually try to get a callback.

― difficult listening hour, Friday, February 21, 2014 9:37 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah both of these. I liked the GQ scenes a lot -- very subtly but deliberately fable-like, with the "Look Hannah, you can have all the gourmet snacks you want, they're FREEEEEEE. Yesss, we love all your ideas Hannah. Stay a while Hannah. Stay. We're all writers..."

It made me so happy to see the side of Jerry Saltz's head in that one scene. I miss seeing him every week in Work of Art (sorry, I liked that show).

DLH and Hurting otm, the scenes at GQ made me go :(

I lol'd at the Modhatter. When he suggested it I told my roomie "that's not a thing" and then when the editor said the same thing a few minutes later I high fived myself

I think about "the kewl dad" a lot, being an urban dad.

It seems an awful lot of these characters (besides LD) are sposed to be transplants from the Midwest? cuz that wd explain why so many of them pronounce Hannah as "HEEEEEAYnah" in that Rust Belt nails-on-a-chalkboard way?

Short vowels, people.

LD's character is supposed to be a transplant from the midwest

I don't remember if they ever say where the other ones are from. I assume Shosh is supposed to be from Long Island or Westchester or something.

I know that hannah is, yes (is Marnie the only other one who went to Oberlin?).

I figured Hannah was thinking of the doctor guy from episode 2 when she mentioned the kewl dad

Is there a reference to Hannah and Marnie going to oberlin in the show? Allison Williams did not IRL.

Season 2

Actually I don't remember if he was kewl or not

I'm getting my dads confused

Marnie and Hannah became BFF at Obes

Oh right now I remember, there's the flashback to Oberlin when she's dating the gay guy and Marnie and Charlie are there (I think)

that's how i recall it

no tabes, alas :)

I also enjoy thinking LD said "for my therapist, let's get the first actor who performed a blowjob in a studio film"

The Obies were: Hannah, Marnie, Elijah, Charlie and Jessa (who didn't finish). Shoshanna *has* to be from Westchester/Long Island and is at NYU.

really enjoying this season. lol'd at Ray's Roxy Music reference, Richard E. Grant showing up again, Marnie's street hug/clothesline, the totally made up Patti Lupone interview

the look on Marnie's face when Adam started reciting his lines in the bathtub was awesome

Marnie? Hannah, I mean, gah

great episode. i find every scene marnie sings in to be utterly excruciating to watch.

also, <3 ray's Long Goodbye poster.

DLH and Hurting otm, the scenes at GQ made me go :(

― 龜, Monday, February 24, 2014 11:12 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously how i met your mother handled this issue with more nuance and less bathos

I didn't think it was bathetic at all, I thought it was done in a very light way that didn't pity Hannah too much.

I thought it was v funny

i do still like this, but i feel like i can really see its wheels turning like 'how can we get several characters together?' brainstorming the last few eps