Allison Keene

Oh my.  I’m not sure what to do with this season of Girls.  It’s been all over the place — from a strong, legitimately funny start to some strange, meditative episodes (Hannah and her affair with the doctor, Jessa’s trip back home), to the odd and boring (“On All Fours”).  This season has become less of a commentary on girls, these or otherwise, and more of a ritualistic humiliation that has zapped one character off of the map completely (please come back, Jessa, please!)  As for this week, the best I can do with “On All Fours” is that it seemed to be about returning to your base instincts and coming to terms with who you really are.  Or something.  Hit the jump for why “I’ve been known to dabble in the Macintosh arts.” … READ MORE

With Jessa out of the picture this week on Girls (for how long and how far we know not), I felt as nervous as Shoshanna.  When will she be back?  When she put Hannah in her place for not knowing the difference between when something is a sexual escapade and when it’s not?  We know Jessa will be ok — as Ray points out, “she’s a fucking hustler.  And not in a good way.”  But what about us?  Will we be ok dealing with Hannah’s sudden onset OCD and Marnie’s insecurity issues for half an hour?  Or will we need Shoshanna to help save the day?  Hit the jump for what came back, and why “pantomiming is an inadequate way to express yourself (we have talked about this!)” … READ MORE

This week’s Girls actually found a way to improve upon last week’s fantastic Adam-Ray adventure by focusing, finally, on Jessa.  Jessa has often been a caricature at best, and while we have see a few glimpses of real emotion and fragility with her relationship with Thomas-John, she’s always existed on the fringes of the Girls group, floating in and out of episodes or even the frame (as she did last week).  Jessa’s breakdown with Thomas-John also hinted at a damaged past, one where the stability of a “normal” man would be something she innately seeks, even if consciously she doesn’t recognize it.  In “Video Games” she mentions briefly about how he doesn’t even want to work on their relationship, but suggesting in her tone that she did want to.  She doesn’t want to be her father, and “Video Games” showed us exactly why.  Hit the jump for why “I am the child!” … READ MORE

Forget everything else that happened on this really depressing episode of Girls and focus solely on Adam and Ray and the possibilities, oh the possibilities, they could have in a spin-off.  One of my favorite things narratively is when two characters are put together who either have never met (but have big but separate presence on the show), or who rarely interact alone together (they may have been on screen together before, but in a group) because it really opens them up in ways we haven’t seen before.  The scenes between these two very different men, who decided maybe they aren’t so different (“because we’re both pretty weird looking”), and the way they went from antagonistic to friendly to antagonistic again were the best things Girls has done all season.  There was plenty more to unpack in this episode, including a lot of really fake crying, so hit the jump for more on why really, your date should pay $4 for a taco … READ MORE

First thing this morning, critics who had seen this Girls episode ahead of time were filling up my Twitter timeline about who would love it and who would hate it, and what about it should be loved or hated.  Most were split.  I was nervous.  Frankly, there’s nothing about this episode that I should categorically like — readers will note I have always disliked Hannah-centric storylines and episodes, which this season has (with a mere five episodes) already had in spades.  So the weirdest thing about “One Man’s Trash,” besides it being entirely about Hannah and Hannah co-opting Jessa’s storyline from last week, is that I didn’t hate it.  Hit the jump for my take on this likely polarizing episode … READ MORE

After last week’s shambolic offering, I was still looking forward to this week’s Girls largely because of the title, “It’s a Shame About Ray.”  “At last!” I thought, “less Hannah and more Shoshanna!”  It was blessedly true, with a lot more Jessa thrown in as well, and a dash of Marnie.  As irritating as the show can be, when it sticks to a theme (in this case, the idea or question of financially parasitic relationships) and shows real emotion (which came from a variety of sources — basically from everyone except Hannah),Girls finally lives up to the hype.  Hit the jump for more on why “when I’m 30 I’m going to look like I’m 50, and I’m going to be fat, really fat like Nico, because I will be full of experiences!” … READ MORE

Did anyone count the seconds Shoshanna and Jessa turned up on screen in this episode of Girls?  More than twenty, but less than a full minute, surely.  The problem with any episode that focuses entirely on Hannah is that Hannah is, by far, the least likable of the foursome.  In small doses she can be fine — the cold open was a thing of beauty to anyone who works in, or pays close attention to, media.  Hannah, looking to do some kind of Woody Allen-esque “I just want to talk about how awkward I am” piece, or maybe some kind of long-form old-school journalism is told, “have a threesome with strangers you meet off of Craiglist.  Or go on a cocaine binge.  Just an idea.”  Hit the jump to see how that played out, as well as why you should “look at the doll and describe her!” … READ MORE

Already the critics who lauded the first season of Girls for being the defining series of the Millennial generation (funny how none of those critics actually are Millennials, hmm) started to turn their backs on the series last week, saying that the broader humor wasn’t better.  I disagree, and “I Get Ideas” is a great example of how more standard humorous exchanges, with beats for jokes and speedily-delivered one-liners that may not reflect the cadence at which people speak in real life, is still representative of the situation’s reality while still being enjoyable to watch.  Now that the characters (except for Marnie) aren’t spending all of their time complaining about not having money, they’re just having conversations.  With that as the core, the dialogue has really elevated into its own art, and “I Get Ideas” had an incredible amount of great quotes (such as anything/everything Jessa and Shoshanna say).  Hit the jump for more on why “I’m not, personally, attracted to you, but that’s only because I know you.” … READ MORE

“I watched Girls, but I didn’t really have an opinion of it” – said no one ever.  Last year the show started off shaky and turned some viewers off, but got progressively better as the reality of what the series is — and not what the divisive hype claimed it was — became clear.  Girls is really a fine show.  Series creator and star Lena Dunham is not “the voice of the generation” (which was a satirically uttered line that HBO turned into a sincere tagline), but she has moments where she gets it really right.  So maybe getting the most out of the show means accepting it as an ironic embrace of White Girl Problems, without being dismissive of its truths.  Hit the jump to find out where all of the girls are now, and why things are already so much better than before … READ MORE