First off, I gotta get something off my chest. I've heard rumblings, starting in season 3, that Girls isn't what it used to be, that people are kinda disappointed. I agree that Girls isn't what it used to be-- it's better. I am about 85-90% comfortable saying that Girls never relied on shock value to draw in the majority of their viewers, that there was always content. But I've noticed that the less vulgar it's gotten, the funnier it's gotten, the more poignant it's gotten, and the richer it's gotten. Maybe that's just because there's been so much character development over time, and that's why the 3rd and 4th season of any show is usually its sweet spot. Maybe it's because all the characters have grown and are in different places, and seeing that kind of movement keeps things fresh. I don't know, but I say seasons 3 & 4 of Girls trumps seasons 1 & 2, and I stand by that.
Now, on to my impression of the season...
1) Adam is the voice of reason in season 4. I can't believe I even typed that, considering he started off as the creepiest character on the show, and I actively hated him. But he's grown over the years, thanks much to his rocky relationship with Hannah. In season 4, Adam was the one who kept saying what I was thinking, like "you're all nuts," "why are you talking about this," stuff like that.
This does NOT mean that Adam is off the hook for his other behaviors. It's bad enough to get a new girlfriend before officially ending things with your old girlfriend, but to move ALL her stuff out of HER apartment and put it in storage, then knock down a wall in, again, HER apartment?!? That was unforgivable. And it's not like Hannah was moving to China for two years. Grad school has this thing called "breaks": fall break, Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, spring break, summer break. Did he really think she would NEVER come back for one of those???
As sad as it was by the end of the season when Adam realized his mistake, I was on Hannah's side when she said "no." That would just be way too hard to come back from. I'm totally cool with the fact that six months later, Hannah is with
2) Jessa. I get why she was a bitch to Hannah before she left and why she set up Adam with Mimi-Rose and even why she was terrible to Hannah when she came back. (I thought Hannah was going to punch her in the face during that scene in her room-- I wish she had.) Jessa felt completely abandoned by Hannah, so she was being completely heartless in return. The fact that after their fight they still hung out and never talked about it makes sense too. These girls have been through so much together by now that to hash out anything further probably felt too exhausting. They know each other, accept each other, and are too self-absorbed to really sit and listen to the others' feelings anyway. Is this healthy? Of course not. Is this going to lead anywhere good? No. I expect an explosion in season 5. Like, Jessa and Adam becoming friends…am I the only one who thinks something may happen between them? And then KABLAM.
I also loved all the workshop stuff. (I think anyone who's ever been through a workshop would.) Hannah's inability to take any criticism was cringingly awful/wonderful. When she slams her classmates at the bar and says she just wants their relationship to be "honest," we see why she's friends with Jessa, Marnie, and Soshanna-- because they can fight like that. They can be really mean to each other and still be friends. Maybe that's because no one else will be friends with them-- the group stays together because they're all equally awful. How can Hannah function in an environment where her delusions are not being validated? How can she function if she's forced to interact with people who are different from her? It makes sense that she left. I do wonder though if Elijah had never shown up if she would have stayed-- he really helped her regress.
4) Maude Apatow as Cleo. This girl's a real actress now, you guys, not just Judd's kid that he puts in movies. She also favorited a tweet Stacie sent of her dog, so let's just all root for Maude.
5) Marnie. Her relationship with Desi is such a horrible train wreck, but I don't feel sorry for her at all. She went from having insight about the relationship to being delusional to having insight to being delusional, and he's the worst, and I'm looking forward to seeing how ridiculous this engagement business goes. I always remember when Lena Dunham said that Marnie was like the Michael Scott of the group, and that was never more apparent than when she 1) told Ray, of all people, that she and Desi were engaged, and then 2) turned Ray's election victory into her own engagement party.
Speaking of which, you know what struck me about Ray's speech? It obviously wasn't about community building-- he was looking at Marnie the entire time-- but everything he said actually fit more with him and Shoshanna. Hmmm.
6) I usually hate parental story lines, but Hannah's dad realizing he was gay actually really worked, and Becky Ann Baker is fabulous, and seeing how Hannah's parents are with each other and with her makes you really, really understand Hannah. It's kind of hard to blame her for being boundary-less and selfish when you see that she learned it all from them.
7) Was Gabby Hoffman really pregnant? I feel like she had to be. I think I need to google this.
8) I just realized that Laird is Jeremy Jamm.
9) I love how things ended with Shoshanna and Jessa, where one decides to go to Japan and the other decides to be a therapist. We know both ideas are probably going to go terribly. But at that age, you get ideas in your head, and you're all inspired and delusional, and you just do stuff. Maybe I'm just cynical or something, but I thought it was hilarious. Was I not supposed to? Was I supposed to take them both seriously?
I'm very excited to see what will happen next season. If there's one thing you can say about Girls, it's that it doesn't sit still, and there's always more going on than what you're watching on the surface. Each character is a world all by themselves, and each relationship is it's own world too. Even when I can't relate to one of the story lines, I still feel like it resonates with me emotionally, and I've heard the same from others. I'm not quite sure how the writers do that, but it's a rare and wonderful thing.
I'm kind of feeling like the end of Girls-- whenever the end may be-- will not be like Friends, where everyone is together and happy. All the relationships are so toxic that I feel like the characters will continue to grow further apart from each other until they're just…apart. And yet, I want to keep watching. This show doesn't make me afraid of directions like that. Because it's so damn good.
So what do you guys think? Can you even remember season 4 since it aired so long ago? Did you like or dislike the season overall? Did you love or loathe any particular story lines? Any predictions for season 5? Lemme know!
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