Girls - 3x01 / 3x02 - "Females Only" & "Truth or Dare" - Early Review

It has been argued over the past few years that with the continued growth of AMC, FX, Showtime and many other emerging cable networks, HBO may have lost its long-standing title as the undisputed King of cable TV. Despite - or perhaps because of - that perceived shift, the transitional period for the network (once home to testosterone-fueled fare like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Entourage) has seen the crowning of several comedy Queens. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has taken home two Emmy awards in two years for her portrayal of Selena Meyer on the insult-a-minute Vice Presidential farce Veep; Laurie Metcalf, Alex Borstein and Niecy Nash formed a perfect all-female ensemble on the recently-wrapped freshman dramedy Getting On; and of course, this Sunday, creator/writer/director Lena Dunham returns in the hilarious and controversial Girls third season. Certainly the networks buzziest offering since the heyday of True Blood, I was at first reluctant to jump on the wagon. The first season was touted as Sex and The City for a new generation, and while I can appreciate the impact that series had on pop culture and television, it was never something I could really enjoy or relate to. Girls freshman run, then, was one of the biggest and best TV surprises in recent memory. Wildly entertaining, sharply written and terrifyingly relatable for any 20-something or anyone who’s been a 20-something, Dunham has a the rare Seinfeldian ability to turn everyday thought and struggle into genuine laughs.

The first half of the hour-long premiere ("Females Only") starts off strong, first with a quick glimpse of each girl to give us an idea of where they all stand. Time has certainly passed since we last saw them, and the opening montage is followed by a hilarious confrontation scene at Ray’s coffee shop. While Hannah and Ray discuss his refusal to come to her upcoming dinner party - he believes he can go the rest of his life without ever seeing Shoshanna - Adam shows up and catches the eye of Natalia and her best friend who are also in the shop. The scene features some of the best laughs Girls has provided in a long time, and it’s also foreshadowing of the tone that the rest of the hour follows. The premiere seems to a achieve a sort of melding of the ridiculous-but-realistic hilarity of season 1 with the darker comedy/drama of season 2. If they can manage to hold that balance together, season 3 can certainly become the shows best yet. The episodes themselves are some of my favorite of the series thus far - I’ve watched each more than once already and laughed just as hard the second time around.

Throughout the hour we play catch-up with each of the girls, and while the four are never in the same place at one time, there’s an extended dinner scene at Hannah’s apartment in the first half hour which features Hannah, Shoshanna, Marnie and Adam. Marnie is, of course, broken up over a breakup with Charlie. She’s crashing on her moms couch while she readies her new apartment - and thank God, because Rita Wilson is hilarious and just about the only thing I enjoy about this storyline. Marnie isn’t really present for much of the episode aside from a few quick scenes with her mom and the dinner at Hannah’s apartment, during which Adam dispenses some advice to Hannah’s former roommate. Hopefully we see her move past the breakup sooner than later, because Marnie hasn’t really been explored much outside of her back-and-forth with Charlie. I think that Allison Williams can definitely hold her own so I'm excited to see what's in store for the character this season.

Without a doubt Shoshanna and Jessa are the laugh MVPs of these two episodes. The characters are so well fleshed-out at this point that it feels like you’re sitting with old friends - which is pretty much the point of this series. I can easily identify any of the main four characters with a number of women in my own life. There really doesn’t need to be some grand storyline running throughout (though Hannah is indeed still working on her ebook) but if the characters are funny and changing and relatable, then everything should run smoothly. The problem with season 2, I think, was the push away from more relatable situations into more darker, dramatic territory. A bumpy second year was almost a given, though, considering how widely acclaimed the first was. While “Females Only” is a great episode, the second half hour “Truth or Dare” delivers twice the laughs and emotional punch. Most of the episode follows Adam, Hannah and Shoshanna on a roadtrip to pick up Jessa. I’m not sure how much has been given away about this storyline, but it seems to be being kept mostly under wraps so I won’t spoil much. Jessa’s adventures throughout the first episode provide wild laughs and a few of those shockingly awesome moments that Girls is known for, before eventually reuniting with her friends in the second half, now months after abandoning Hannah at her fathers home. I’m most excited about Jessa’s storyline this year; her material in the premiere is dark, funny and totally identifiable.

All things considered, I enjoyed the premiere more than just about any two episodes from Girls second season aside from maybe “Bad Friend”. Lena Dunham is indeed a triple threat, writing and directing the first episode, penning the second, and giving a hilarious and honest performance throughout. Hannah is learning to cope with her illness with the help of Adam and attempting to get her life back on track in the wake of her dark period where she, in the words of Shoshanna, “went totally batshit insane and, like, decided to cut your hair like a little boy on a fancy cookie box”. If season 3 continues to mix this many laughs with genuine characters and not too much why-are-they-going-there darkness it’ll easily win over more fans. The later seasons of HBO's Entourage should stand as a cautionary tale of what happens when a comedy series takes itself too seriously and loses the characters to outrageous storytelling. But Lena Dunham seems much more aware than Doug Ellin ever was. If “Females Only” and “Truth or Dare” are any indication, these girls are really just starting to find their footing.

Favorite Lines:

“You’re gonna end up with a baby that you don’t know how to care for - You’re gonna fucken kill your kid! You’re gonna give it spoiled formula. You’re not gonna get any milk out of those tits!” - Natalia on Hannah and Adam’s future

“You write about jerking a kidney stone out of some Puerto Rican Jew’s penis and you’re embarrassed?” - Hannah’s editor questioning why she chose to hide her mental illness

“Truth or dare is one of the most fun games in the world. It’s the game that, like, teaches children how to behave like adults. I was playing truth or dare the first time I got fingered.” - Hannah can’t believe Adam has never played

“She just does that for fun.” - Shoshanna on why Jessa’s drug and alcohol use is no big deal

“Females Only” and “Truth or Dare” premiere Sunday, January 12th on HBO.
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