Girls ‘Vagina Panic’: We’re The Ladies

‘Vagina Panic’ focused directly on the sexual themes touched upon in the pilot, opening with two contrasting sex scenes, and whole lot of conversation about the topic afterwards. Framed around what turned out to be a completely unnecessary ‘beautiful abortion’, Girls second episode was a good follow-up to the first episode, not as strong but plenty funny and interesting.

At times, the show does feel like it’s straining to paint both sides of each character: Jessa blowing off her own abortion, Marnie’s incessant Type A-ness, and pretty much anything that comes out of Shoshanna’s mouth all felt a little too mouth-piecey for a show trying to develop a subtle, laid-back vibe. For example, Marnie spent this episode repeating her issues with timeliness in the group, and her relationship to her boyfriend in nearly the same ways we did in the pilot (though we did get a really awkward “intimate” moment between Marnie and her boyfriend at the beginning).

For the most part though, ‘Vagina Panic’ is a fairly light half hour of comedy, an odd statement considering its about a trip to an abortion clinic. Of course this is supplemented by running jokes like Hannah’s awkward date rape joke during her interview, and her ridiculous fears of the consequences of what leaks out the edge of condoms. There are some that fall a little flat (her whole wanting AIDS at the end felt like a overt attempt to paint Hannah is a more unforgivable light), but for the most part, scenes like Hannah searching Google with badly-phrased questions about STD’s.

Best of all though, the normal dramatic weight of an ‘abortion episode’ is lifted somewhat by the general confusion among the girls about how definitive of a moment an abortion is. Is it a heavy emotional moment, or simply the by product of a misguided sexual experience? None of them, Jessa included, really know how to deal with the situation, and a lot of honest humor comes out of it, like Shoshanna bringing candy because she didn’t know how long an abortion took in comparison to a birth, and Marnie and Hannah’s contrasting views on how big of an event an abortion actually was. Most shows wouldn’t bother trying to provide a non-event like Jessa’s abortion with anything except the Christian approach of ‘OMG, ABORTIONS ARE LIFE-ALTERING, CHARACTER-DEFINING EVENTS!’ It might not appeal to the masses who expect a right and wrong answer to every scenario, but it’s a nice touch to soften the typical suffocating dramatic presence of an impending abortion.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

– I thought the whole conversation during the interview about NYC locations was incredibly pretentious… please don’t make this a habit. Sure we like to see real locations on TV, but we don’t need to turn it into a minute long discussion about the different sub-cultures of the five boroughs.

– At times, the four girls feel like heavy archetypes (especially in scenes by themselves). However, put them all in a room together, and the conversations are witty, interesting, and more nuanced. Something the show needs to balance out a bit better moving forward.

– Does anybody really see Adam sticking around very long? I can’t see this whole Hannah/Adam thing becoming anything real. Same goes for Marnie and Charlie, although watching a woman suffer through having a caring, loving boyfriend is both extremely unflattering and hilarious at the same time.

what did everyone think of ‘Vagina Panic’? Too much sex talk, or should all the conversations be based on orgasms and seminal fluids? Feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below!