HBO: Girls

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

I thought this season was the best...surpassing even 1.

Hated Mimi Rose the psycho....

Glad Hannah rejected Adam. I think Marnie was almost character assassinated this season. Jessa can go back to rehab. Still love Shosh and her crazy ways. Her new boyfriend is hot as hell. Too bad she's going to Tokyo.

[SFK]

I totally agree that it felt like nothing really happened this season. I think they abandoned Hannah at grad school too quickly, they could have gotten more mileage out of that. The six months later ending was weak imo, I'm sure I'll still watch, but I'm not by any means eagerly anticipating the next season.

[SouthOfSoap]

I also felt like very little happened this season, because excluding the finale, none of these Girls ever experience personal growth. The finale was silly because *suddenly* they all simultaneously start to grow up - Hannah realising Adam isn't good for her, Marnie not falling apart because Desi flaked out, Shosh taking a job over a bf, Jessa getting a career direction. The 6 month jump is fine too - I'm sure Shosh is back from Japan already, Marnie has lost her record deal and is more needy than ever and Jessa has been expelled from her therapist training course for extreme human cruelty.

But to be honest, I don't watch this show for the storylines. I find the dialogue and character interaction to be really fascinating - there aren't many shows that explore people failing to get their [!@#$%^&*] together despite actual attempts to do so. It's closer to life than most shows that give characters linear reward for linear effort or glorify slackerdom.

[Mr. Vixen]

I just started watching this show last week on HBO Go. I'm on season two now. I have to agree with this about Shoshanna. I absolutely HATED her on United States of Tara. I thought the actress was awful and that's part of the reason I was hesitant to get into this show. But I absolutely love her here.

I would say Jessa is my favorite, but I think that's because I relate to her quite a bit. I also relate to Hannah a lot, but she kind of pisses me off as well. I don't like the way she did Adam like that. She all but begged him to fall in love with her, and when he did, she dumps him for it. That really had me heated.

[Bright Eyes]

If Jessa is your favourite, I don't think I can ever acknowledge your existence again. Change everything about yourself.

Of course, season two made Marnie the Queen of the show. Ever since, she has been my everything.

[Mr. Vixen]

Well, don't forget, I'm only on like episode 3 of season 2!

Marnie is my least favorite, as of right now. She's uptight and self absorbed.

I don't have a clear favorite really. I love Shoshanna. I love Jessa. And I love Hannah. But at the same time, they drive me [!@#$%^&*] nuts. Marnie I just can't relate to at all.

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

Marnie is very hard to relate to but I sorta get her. Like me she wants this perfect life and sometimes she gets in denial about how horrible her situations or crushes really are.

I like Shosh but I'm nothing like her at all. I'd say my rankings in terms of reliability are Hannah, Marnie, Shosh, and then Jessa. Jessa had an amazing season 1. Since then its been pretty much downhill.

I def want to rewatch this season cuz it was so good. But first I need to watch the HBO documentary on Scientology.

[Mr. Vixen]

Yeah I don't relate to Shosh but I love her.

I am basing my Jessa love on season one. I'll let you know if that changes. I wasn't here for her marriage, I thought that was dumb. But at the same time I totally got it. Which is why I think I'm so drawn to Jessa.

[Skin]

I think Marnie is the easiest character to relate to on Girls. Everything about her is understandable, more so than Hannah or Soshanna, easily. Marnie wants a perfect life -- she wants to win and be successful. She wants the cute boyfriend/husband, a successful career, secure/lavish financial situation ,etc. She wants what pretty much every single millennial in this generation wants.

I've always thought that her and Jessa had the best storylines.

[Mr. Vixen]

I think she is hard for me to relate to because she's honestly so different than me. I want the same things as her, in a sense, but we just don't approach anything the same way. I'm far more akin to Hannah or Jessa, who tend to !@#$%^&*] everything up and push everyone away but yet still want the things they've deliberately pushed away.

[Mr. Vixen]

One thing that bothers me about the show is the way that Hannah has been shoehorned into the lead role. I get that Lena is the creator and writer, and honestly I love Hannah immensely and I think she's a great character. But this particular show works so much better as an ensemble, which is how it was marketed from the beginning. I think things work best when we are seeing elements of ALL the girls lives, and how they each play into each others lives (whether it be as friends, frenemies, fighting, supporting each other, etc.). For example, the season 2 finale was excellent in that we got a lot of exposure to what Hannah, Shosh, AND Marnie were going through. Jessa's absence was glaring, which brings me to...

I don't like that characters (particularly Shosh and Jessa) just disappear for episodes at a time. We saw Hannah go with Jessa to visit her father, which was a really nice look into what makes Jessa who she is. And then Jessa just disappears. And Marnie just plays it off as "This is what Jessa does. She disappears". Which is fine, and it's consistent with what we've always heard about Jessa. But why are we not seeing it? Why can't we follow Jessa on her journey? I mean we have had whole episodes based solely on Hannah (such as the one where she had the weekend affair with that doctor who's trashcans she was using). So why is it we can't get that for the other characters as well?

I just finished season two, so I don't know if things change, but that's kind of where I'm at now.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore this show. I just think that things are occasionally a little disjointed. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about season 4 with Hannah living away from the rest of the group, because I think Hannah works best as a character when she is surrounded by Adam and the other girls.

Sorry to ramble!

[Bright Eyes]

I'm pretty the time you're talking about with Jessa is when the actress had to be written out for maternity leave.

[Mr. Vixen]

Oh, damn. I didn't even know she had had a baby. I guess that makes up for that particular instance but, in general, I feel like Jessa, Shosh, and even Marnie (though to a lesser extent) get a bit sidelined for Hannah. Which is fine, I guess, because Hannah's story's are often the most compelling. I just wish that there was more balance. I feel like, at least with where I'm at in the show right now, Shosh has remained pretty unexplored. She's a great character and we know her superficially, but I don't feel like we know her the way we know Hannah, Marnie and Jessa.

[Skin]

Lena has said that she likes doing Bottle cap episodes at least once a season, so I think that's why we get episodes that center solely around Hannah. Which is why we got the date episode with her and the doctor, and then in the next season we get the "Flo" episode and this past season we got "Sit In", all of which revolve around Hannah's journey. She says that she feels those one off episodes work really well for her in terms of character and creating real moments. I think it would be nice if each character got an introspective episode each perhaps for next season, to really see where they are and get some character insight and work, but I don't know if the narrative might ground things to a halt. I think for an ensemble to work, you need to have various storylines continuing each week. But I would be all for an episode that highlighted Marnie, Jessa and Soshana on their own.

[Mr. Vixen]

I agree, I like those episodes. I would just like all 4 girls to get one.