I have tried really hard to like season 2 of Girls. And for the most part I do. But it is the fashion in which the latter part of the season has unfurled that really has me worrying for the future of the show. And yes, I do worry about the future of shows, because I really love my television. Season 2 begins with Adam and Hannah having broken up, Elijah replacing Marnie as Hannah’s roommate, and Ray and Shoshana being all awkward after he takes her virginity. I loved the premier simply because I think Elijah and Hannah together are very entertaining to watch and their chemistry is undeniable. The first part of the season has stayed true to what I thought the show was about the lives of 20 somethings in New York, as they struggle through the much too familiar phase of being broke and being ambitious simultaneously. What makes it most watchable is that amidst the borderline hipster drama, there is humour, always. There are some fantastic one-liners (“you don’t need two republicans to make a republican”) and the episodes are entertaining by themselves. Hannah going on crack, Booth Jonathan being a let down in bed (after having proclaimed to be a “man” that can “do things”), Jessa punching Thomas John in the face are some of my favourite moments of the season.
However, episode 5 onwards, as Hannah gets more melancholy, the show gets worse (for me at least). Because let’s face it, the only reason one should put up with young adults whining about their lives instead of doing something about it, is the humour. Once the humour is gone, we are forced to take them seriously and that is not fun to do, because the show, on its own, doesn’t mean anything. Apart from being a memoir of Hannah’s life, it doesn’t mean anything. And if Hannah’s life gets boring then the show gets boring. Now, it indulges in quirks, shiny enough to distract us from the fact that Lena Dunham has run out of things to say or do. To top it off, the season finale seems like someone cut up the last 5 minutes of every Meg Ryan romantic comedy ever made, and compressed it into a single half hour of clawing cliches that will make you want to throw up and well up at the same time. If I had to use an analogy to describe what I feel about the show (and I love analogies almost as much as I love my television), I’d say that it is like a younger sibling; it annoys, frustrates, entertains you and you want to punch it in the face but sometimes, it ends up saying something so insightful that you want to love it all over again. So this is not me trashing the show, this is me hoping and praying that someone on that talented staff of writers reins the show in.
Review by Nandini Godara
