Creator: Lena Dunham
Starring: Lena Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet
Certificate: 18
Season 1 of GIRLS showed the world the nitty gritty of being a confused 20-something girl trying to find her place in a big city. The not so flattering sides of sex were shown, and finally everyone knew that sometimes smart girls do stupid things. GIRLS became incredibly popular because it was something never shown before. However, the 10 episodes in season 2 underwhelmed its audience a bit thanks to far many more WTF moments, and Lena Dunham’s obsession with Seinfeld as she incorporates more episodes that are about nothing.
Instead of having a consistent story line, with one episode’s ending leading to next week’s episode Dunham writes episodes which lead her characters out of New York to spend an often disastrous time, confusing for audience and characters alike. In one episode we are introduced to Jessa’s family, another shows a bonding trip between Adam and Ray, and the third one is a long episode of Hannah finding her way into a older man’s house, and spending a perfect day with him but nothing else comes out of it. Dunham has taken a short film approach to telling some of the stories, it works, but she’s put in one too many.
GIRLS Season 2 manages to throw more things, and problems in the air. We thought we had seen the confused states of Hannah, Marnie, Shoshana and Jessa but season 2 takes them on even more of a roller-coaster: Hannah falls down an OCD spiral after feeling too much pressure from a book deal, and after a break up with Adam; Marnie loses her art gallery job, and instead of hating her new hostess job she ends up loving it and becomes a care free easy going girl, almost trading places with the now stress-ball Hannah, and Shoshana goes from being a virgin in season 1 to being Ray’s girlfriend, and lover and even exploring sexual intimacy outside her relationship with Ray. In the final episode of season 1 Jessa marries a complete stranger, and the outcome is what can always be expected from quick marriages.
There is significantly more focus placed on the boys of the show, as Ray, Adam, Charlie and Elijah are given much more attention and time to tell their stories. Lena Dunham doesn’t disappoint with the tone, and frankness in telling the story of four fairly intelligent girls who waste their times on stupid matters and stupid boys. However, too many of the episodes are made easy to skip due to their ‘out of placement’ with the rest of the season. GIRLS is a one of a kind show; Season 1 shocked audiences with bare breasts, and suggestive masturbation scenes, but season 2 is even more graphic. Not for the faint-hearted.
GIRLS: SEASON 2 is available on DVD and Blu-ray now
