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Review: 'Girls' still up to bad behavior in season 2

Lena Dunham's show still one of TV's best, if most divisive

By Alan Sepinwall Friday, Jan 11, 2013 9:00 AM

<p>Lena Dunham in "Girls."</p>

Lena Dunham in "Girls."

Credit: HBO

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Hannah Horvath is getting her act together. If she can.
 
Hannah, the twentysomething heroine of “Girls” (played by the show’s creator, writer and director Lena Dunham) spent much of the HBO comedy’s first season alienating every person in her life — including many of the viewers who didn’t see the appeal of a show built around a young narcissist fumbling her way through the world. By the season’s end, she had chased away her best friend Marnie (Allison Williams), her boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver) and was alone on the beach at Coney Island, with a piece of wedding cake her only companion. 
 
As we enter the second season (it debuts Sunday at 9), Hannah has gotten off the sand and attempted to break with bad old patterns. She’s in a new relationship with Sandy (Donald Glover from “Community”) and declares, "I'm going to make logical and responsible decisions when it comes to you." With Marnie moved out, Hannah is now living with gay ex-boyfriend Elijah (Andrew Rannells from “The New Normal”) and taking on airs of maturity and worldliness.
 
Of course, these airs tend to only betray her ignorance. — when Elijah says he wants to turn their party into a French salon, Hannah replies, "I've always felt I was secretly really good at cutting hair” — because what fun would “Girls” be if Hannah stopped being an epic screw-up?
 
The new episodes occasionally nod to some of last year’s criticism. Donald Glover seems there partially in response to the complaints that this was a very lily-white cross-section of Brooklyn — but also because Donald Glover is fantastic and fits seamlessly into this world — and in a marvelously uncomfortable scene in the second episode, he gets to give voice to the viewers who find Hannah (and her world) vacuous and narcissistic.
 
But there’s a difference between a character who’s oblivious and spoiled, and a show that is. And what continues to be clear about “Girls” is that it is incredibly smart and knowing — and, even more than last season, funny — in how it depicts the many ways that Hannah and friends inadvertently wind up hurting each other. 
 
Take Elijah, for instance. The performance Rannells is giving here isn’t too far removed from what he’s doing on “New Normal.” The difference is that “New Normal” doesn’t seem to realize that his character comes across as an obnoxious brat, while “Girls” not only knows it, but embraces it. The new season’s third episode has Hannah agreeing to use cocaine for the first time for a website writing assignment, with Elijah along for the ride. The episode starts out as farce, and an illustration of how Elijah’s presence encourages all of Hannah’s worst instincts, but like the best “Girls” installments, it’s capable of turning on a dime and getting to a great emotional truth about its characters.

The second season digs deeper into the relationship between Hannah’s fellow barista Ray (Alex Karpovsky) and her neurotic friend Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) in a way that humanizes Shoshanna without taking away the raw comic energy Mamet brings to the role. The most pleasant surprise of last season was the role reversal between Adam and Hannah, where at first their relationship made her look bad for wanting to be around this disgusting oaf before our sympathies pivoted and we began to wonder why he was with her. Season 2 brings with it another shift, and an opportunity for Adam Driver to continue giving one of the more memorable, strange performances in all of TV comedy. And though the impulsive marriage of Hannah’s obnoxiously bohemian pal Jessa (Jemima Kirke) to a wealthy Wall Street type still feels slightly out of key with the rest of the series, it inspires a great set piece where she gets to meet her husband’s horrified parents, played by character actors Griffin Dunne and Deborah Rush.

But the drawing card remains Dunham, who’s only grown more confident as both a writer and actress. She’s more aware of what she can get away with having the characters say and do, but there’s even more vulnerability and more bite to her performance, as well as a greater willingness to go for physical comedy.
 
It takes an enormous amount of talent to make a show about a character this annoying be this watchable, and funny, and touching. Fortunately, Dunham has that kind of talent. “Girls” was one of the best shows on television last year, and based on the first four episodes, it has a good jump on the competition for 2013.
 
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com  
Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Related Searches: Girls, Lena Dunham, Zosia Mamet, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke

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  • Default-avatar

    Ben Kabak

    They sold me after Ep 5.

    January 11, 2013 at 10:58AM EST Reply to Comment
  • The-critic-thumb_talkback_profile

    BrettPoker

    I'll check this out initially to see how D. Glover fits in... but this is the most unappealing HBO show to me of all time.

    January 11, 2013 at 12:34PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Jardo I guess you never watched Entourage.

      January 11, 2013 at 2:33PM EST
    • The-critic-thumb_talkback_profile

      BrettPoker The first couple of seasons of Entourage were very entertaining. It was only the last 3 years of that show that were absolutely abysmal.

      January 11, 2013 at 2:36PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      marc obligatory ARLI$$ post

      January 11, 2013 at 3:53PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      adud I can't respect anyone who puts Entourage over anything, specially a good show like Girls.

      January 11, 2013 at 4:58PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    evolution1085

    my issue with girls is I loathe every instance in my life where I have to be exposed to people like Hannah (so pretty much every time I head into the gentrified sections of Brookyln). I get the same douche chills from girls that I do driving through Williamsburg. I recognize that it's a well put together show, but I've tried a half dozen times to get through the pilot, and I just can't do it.

    January 11, 2013 at 2:48PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    maryploppins

    O.k., so far you and Jace are a "thumbs up" and Mo is a "so-so" on the first 4 eps of S2. So I'm trying to temper my expectations for Sunday. ;-) Glad your review is on the positive side though, after Mo and Jace's reviews, I was a little afraid of what side of the fence you might fall on haha. Can't wait for Sunday.

    January 11, 2013 at 4:41PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Greg

    If Community has taught us anything, it's that Donglover could be getting with way hotter Jewesses than Hannah.

    January 11, 2013 at 8:32PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    jack

    This is show is so uncomfortable to watch, yet realistic.

    January 12, 2013 at 12:04AM EST Reply to Comment

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