The best thing you’ll see all week: Girls

Posted by on June 27, 2012 in Movies

-I’m sorry you don’t get what’s so hilarious about me peeing on you.
-Okay, you are not a good apologizer. Just FYI.

Hannah Horvath sits in a dark theater, watching the tech rehearsal for a friend’s play. Opening night is two weeks out, so the edges are a little rough, but she is entranced. For good reason. The man she is watching, her friend Adam, is utterly captivating. Confident. Sexy. Powerful. Raw. Scary. She is almost alone with him in the theater, and as he shifts from his monologue to the next beat in the tech rehearsal, she seems about to lean forward and give a bit of direction. It’s a jarring moment, since while Hannah is played by Lena Dunham, the creator of the show and a woman undoubtedly able to give direction, Hannah the character could never do that. At least not competently.

Shortly after that theater scene there is a moment in this eighth episode of the first season of HBO’s Girls when the show seems to be directly talking about itself. Hannah is telling Adam why he should do the play when he has decided to quit. But Girls is not only talking about itself–plenty of shows do that–it’s also pulling thoughts out of our heads:

Do you know how unusual it is to see someone doing something like that? Like what you were doing, okay? That’s so open and honest and weird and you’re not making fun of them in your mind?

Lena Dunham has found a way to scramble our brains. She does it naturally, instinctively, just the way Adam does his monologue, and just the way he quits it. She shows us herself and not without fear, but without winking. She’s created something that is open and honest and weird and I’m not making fun of it in my mind.

  • Pogue Mahone

    This is really neither here nor there, I guess, but I can’t appreciate this show because of my own hangups. I seem to have a problem getting into anything – a book, movie, tv show, what have you – if I can’t find at least one character that I like, and am interested in. I had this problem with As Good As It Gets and pretty much every Aronofsky film ever. And I have it with Girls. I can tell there’s a deep story here, of these young women finding their place in the world and how they relate to other people, I just don’t like watching the petty little ways they screw each other over or seem to almost intentionally be unable to communicate with each other. I wish I could, man. Sorry – had to get that off my chest.

  • John

    Couldn’t agree more. This show is very good,, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It comes across as honest and not trying to please the audience. It’s just telling a story. You may not like everything about the characters – but that’s a sign of authenticity. Life, and people, are complicated – but interesting.

  • tomchick

    Pogue, how can you not like Adam Driver’s character? His relationship with Hannah is one of my favorite things on TV, like, ever. Also, if you didn’t stay with the show long enough to see Alison Williams in that dress in the last episode, you missed, uh, well…that reminds me of a throwaway moment when Adam Driver walks through the front room into a bedroom and announces, “All right, don’t come in for, like, ten minutes”.

    Frankly, I’m suffering from a little postpartum now that the first season is over.

  • Christien Murawski

    “if I can’t find at least one character that I like, and am interested in”

    I respect this as a concept, but cannot follow it based on your inclusion of Aronofsky. As Good As It Gets…well of course. That represents the worst of TV, and it’s a movie. (I would argue Girls represents the exact opposite of that, btw.) But Pogue…The Fountain. The Fountain! Is it really possible that you don’t like Isabel and Tommy? You’re really uninterested in them? I find that impossible to believe.

    But on the topic of Girls w/r/t your objection that I quote above…I can’t take my eyes off of Adam Driver. What he’s done/hopefully-doing with the character of Adam Sackler is beyond like-able and interesting. It transcends. There are these moments in episode 10 where he’s reacting, and I’m not going to give away the setting, and I felt myself welling up just watching his face. To say nothing of the way he says the word “kid”. This guy. I’ll watch anything he does from here on out.

    And the titular girls…oh how I love them. You don’t like the pettiness. I get that. But I would argue that I love it because I recognize it. I see it in myself, and it embarrasses me. That argument between Hannah and Marnie at the end of episode 9…I may have never had something that dramatic in real life, but I assure you I’ve played versions of it in my head untold times.

  • lapce

    My, there ARE some people who like that disgusting show !
    Then again, this is Tom Chick we’re talking about, a guy who likes to fuck random sluts on trains…

  • Christien Murawski

    Your post just cascaded a bunch of memories of things I also like about this show. I thank you for that.

    1. “You can hear the sound of the underground trains, and it feels like distant thunder”

    Thomas-John chooses that as his key mashup. I immediately recognized it as a song I first heard on the soundtrack of 9 1/2 Weeks. Oh Thomas-John. You’re so transparent, and your name is so douchey. And yet, I wish my parents had named me Thomas-John.

    2. Chris O’Dowd! How can you not love that guy! Really!

    3. The way Jessa reacts to the kiss.

    4. The way Thomas-John reacts to the rug.

    5. Don’t blame Tom Chick for this. Check the “posted by” above.

  • RedHerb

    Great write up.

    I normally like Chris O’Dowd too, even if (and this might just be me) but his accent has morphed into something weird.
    I tried to find you tube evidence but all I came up with was this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugh7Nx1ghx8

  • ScottDobros

    The not winking thing is right on, and it’s what gives the show that extra heft.

    How much of this do you attribute to her (Lena Dunham’s) age?  Can you imagine someone in their mid 30’s creating something like this?  I’m in my mid 30’s myself and I can still feel my 20’s right under my skin, but I don’t think I could do what she does with the material.

    All question of talent and vision and all that aside, I just think there is something there that she nails about being that age that only someone who is that age can nail.  Not to mention, who would have the fucking guts to do something like this?

    It’s such a fantastic show.  The scene in the pilot at the end as she walks out of the hotel into the streets of manhattan…and the “dancing on my own” scene with hanna and marnie…these things are just lodged in my brain.

    I’m so happy you guys like this show.

  • Pogue Mahone

    Adam is certainly something! But he’s a good example of what I mean: he’s kind of creepy. Between his somewhat pedophilic sexual fantasies and his twisting Hannah’s heart, he just seems to jerky for me to enjoy watching.

    But you busted me, Christien. I didn’t see The Fountain. I know what you’re going to say and yes, I will give it a fair shake before I go impugning every Aronofsky film in the future.

  • tomchick

    Whoa, who knew Tom Hiddleston was so goddamn dashing? Nice video, Mr. Herb!