This weekend was the season premier of Girls, the TV show written, produced, and directed by the lady who also plays the lead character, Lena Dunham. If you are an actress, actor, producer, writer, director, in fact, anyone having anything to do with the entertainment industry, and you are not watching this show by now, I highly suggest trying it out. Not only is the storyline ever changing and taking a new step in the direction of “no one knows where” every new episode, but the work behind the show is quite impressive.
Despite the constant efforts of every character to make things go right in this post collegiate life, everything seems to worsen just a bit more at each new turning point. This first episode of season 4 was fulfilling in that respect to say the least. Hannah, the main character, has been accepted into an esteemed writer’s graduate program in Iowa, and she is moving away from New York. Considering the show had to progress into the land of “where are you going with this,” at one point or another, I think it is safe to say that we have firmly reached that point and no one knows what is going to happen next.
Girls is particularly easy to relate to for anyone having a hard time making decisions in their life, but quite frankly this episode gave me a bit of an anxiety attack with a side of heart palpitations. Thoughts of what Hannah’s plan is, how will she and long term boyfriend Adam, will stay together, what will everyone else do, that she is leaving all of these people behind, and most of all, where is the show going to go from here, flooded my mind and I hate the fact that Lena Dunham achieved the assumed goal of making me feel this way. I could relate all of those situations to my own life in a way that I was not proud of. I felt as though I was leaving all of my friends in LA, although I am not actually going anywhere.
Why, oh why, must we wait an entire week to discover and look into this next 30-minute plot? Young 20 something’s all around are looking towards Lena Dunham for answers and hopefully they are gaining the intel they are looking for. Is there any shame in looking towards characters on a television show to help you make your own life choices? Maybe, but that’s no one’s business to judge.
P.S. I wish Marnie would never have crying scenes because Allison Williams just looks like she is fake crying and it makes the entire thing especially uncomfortable… even more uncomfortable than crying scenes normally are, which is an exceptional amount of discomfort. Also the fact that she was clothed during the opening sex scene, and the fact that she is never disrobed stands for something more than what it appears to be on the surface, but more on that later.
P.P.S. I absolutely loved Jessa’s reaction to Hannah leaving New York. The idea that Hannah is giving up on life there and her current goals is something that each of the other characters have refused to acknowledge, and if they have done that, it was privately. Jessa explicitly threw the reality of the situation into Hannah’s face; something a large portion of people would never have the guts to do.