Review: Girls ‘It’s Back’ – She’s A Fucking Hustler

Girls has bounced around quite a bit this season, separating most of its major characters from each other,  checking in with different characters and their situations in haphazard fashion, all thinly connected by the presence of Hannah. ‘It’s Back’ returns to NY after last week’s trip upstate, and it feels like the rest of the season: its narrative is light and scattered, but it always finds its best moments when addressing its male characters. Considering the show is called Girls, I feel like this may be a bit of a problem.

For all the great Ray and Adam material (not on a shared adventure, unfortunately), ‘It’s Back’ throws some major curveballs at the audience. The first of these almost jarred me right out of the episode: seemingly out of nowhere, Hannah’s counting everything like she’s OCD. After I counted her steps, however, it made at least a little bit of sense: last season during the big Hannah/Marnie fight, Marnie mentioned Hannah masturbating eight times a day (which ultimately comes up later in the episode, while Hannah’s visiting a shrink). I’m not saying it can’t be something for her character to deal with – but there has to be more establishment for a serious disorder than one line (unless there’s been something I’ve missed all season).

The second of these, is Shoshanna’s sudden fling with the doorboy of her friend’s hotel. The friend is like Hannah’s OCD – she comes out of nowhere and reminds Shosh of her past, inviting her to a party before riding away on her “vintage” rollerskates (Ray almost cries at the sight of her ‘ironic’ ‘uniqueness’). Ray and Shoshanna’s budding romance has barely had any time to breathe, and Shosh is suddenly becoming a free spirit, afraid of married life because she’s dating a 33-year old who doesn’t want to party. I suppose her little fling in the back room is her trying to cling onto her youth (as she initially says to the door boy, she doesn’t feel like she belongs at the party) – but again, these anxieties find an odd, almost uncharacteristic way to manifest themselves. Part of this may be due to Shoshanna’s limited presence on the show so far (without the most insightful dialogue at times), and it left me feeling like it was an arc created out of convenience, than actual emotional stakes.

Elsewhere, Marnie continues to be insufferable: she shows up at Charlie’s work to harass him about nothing (it’s hilarious how he thinks she wants money or something). She’s dumbfounded at how he’s become the successful man she’s always wanted, and has pushed him so far away that he doesn’t even smile when he sees her anymore. It’s karmic justice, yes, but Marnie doesn’t seem to be learning from it much. She goes him and reveals to Ray that she wants to be a singer… again, another unfounded character trait that pops out of nowhere.

‘It’s Back’ isn’t a terrible episode by any means, however: it’s uplifted by Adam (of course) a character we haven’t seen enough this season. He finally starts taking steps to move past Hannah, going on a charming little blind date with the daughter of someone from his AA group. Of course, Hannah’s about to run back to him (as she says to the therapist, “I can’t decide if he’s the greatest person in the world or the worst), and it will be interesting to see how Adam reacts to his persistence finally paying off, right when he’s decided to walk away from that part of his life.

Packed with guest stars and interesting moments, ‘It’s Back’ suffers from an odd structure of taking the three females left in New York, and revealing a completely unfounded (until now) character trait about them. Either way, it sets up some interesting material for the last two episodes, even if those plot lines don’t really feel like they’d cross each other naturally at any point. Season two of Girls has been quite ambitious in its scope – even dedicating an entire episode to Ray and Adam, two guys who don’t really know each other – and although it’s struggled at times a bit to juggle everything at times, it still has plenty of strong moments.

Grade: B-

Other thoughts/observations:

– Shoshanna’s friend is like, “totally the richest Hindi I know.”

– Charlie is not interested in the new Jack Johnson album – and not really into seeing him in concert, either.

– I hate to be a nerd, but I think (don’t quote me here) that Charlie’s app Forbid would technically be illegal.

– Adam’s honestly is always beautiful and eloquent: “I wanted to show someone everything.”

– Marnie summed up by Ray in a single sentence: “Marnie learns another life lesson. How adorable.” My sentiments EXACTLY.

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