Girls ‘Hard Being Easy’: Batshit Little Pervs

Girls is becoming a show totally obsessed with sex and how it affects the relationships that are based around them. Charlie and Marnie, Hannah and Adam, Jessa and her ex… ‘Hard Being Easy’ is essentially a jumble of character vignettes about the different ways a long-term sexual relationship can play out. Unfortunately, an imbalance in the balance of story between the four main characters made the episode feel more like an episode of “Hannah and Marnie Have Shitty Relationships”, and less of a coherent exploration of the episode’s themes.

Let’s talk about Marnie first, who is strongly making her case for biggest selfish bitch on the crew – with Jessa on the sidelines for 90% of the episode, she didn’t have much time to strengthen her claim. It’s clear from moment one that she’s only entertaining the idea of getting back with Charlie because she’s not trying to be ‘the dumped’ of the relationship. So she does what any normal girl would do: slowly coaxes Charlie back into a comfortable position (literally), and then drops the bomb on him. Seriously, who breaks up mid-coitus like that? Not that Charlie didn’t kind of deserve it, with his incessant whimpering about abandonment and what he wants from their relationship. And in reality, we all knew their relationship was a toxic one, but seeing Marnie’s selfish plan in action made for uncomfortable viewing.

Of course, the most unsettling moments are reserved for Hannah, who tries to flip the table on her Mr. Harrassment, and seduce him. It backfires, of course, and leads to her quitting. I’m looking forward to the whole ‘sexual harassment of women in the office being acceptable to said women’ story line coming to a quick close, but would Hannah really just quit a job that she desperately needs while her boss is insisting she keep? On one hand, it was amusing and humanized the boss’s character a little bit, but it’s hard to believe a girl who can’t pay for rent would quit because she was embarrassed.

The other awkward half of Hannah’s journey stems from the same issue that led her into the first situation in the office: she desperately wants some experiences to write about, even if its sleeping with her old, hairy boss, or watching Adam jerk off while she says uncomfortably deprecating things to him. It draws parallels to Marnie, who is using a different kind of sexual pleasure to achieve her endgame – except in Hannah’s case, she just needs some pizza and cab money. She’s willing to indulge his weird sexual requests (except stepping on his balls) for a little bit of cash and some pages for her notebook, although there are some unrepulsed parts of her that actually sees something in the man of no shirts and a penchant for honest statements.

Not much from Shoshanna (who doesn’t even have a line) and Jessa, who seduces an ex-boyfriend in order to prove a point. That’s all: she uses sex as a revenge sort of thing because a man she obviously loved is moving on with another, older woman. Like Marnie, it’s exploitative in nature; and like Hannah, Shoshanna watches people do sex stuff, unwillingly at first but increasingly interested. Not much to say here, except that it’s pretty damn obvious that Jessa is going to mess up her nanny job by banging Jeff, right?

‘Hard Being Easy’ tries to draw parallels between all the women in the house by giving them all a bunch of uncomfortable scenes focused around the same two themes (oddly enough, the themes that were background in the pilot to finding a path in life): love and sex, and how it mucks up everything else in life. However, last night’s episode wasn’t the funniest or most consistent examples of this, focusing too much on an obvious situation (Marnie being manipulative) and giving us not a single scene of these girls together, which according to the title, is what the show should really be about.

Grade: C+

Other thoughts/observations:

– we’ve all been in these kind of relationships, in one form of another. But familiarity with a relationship archetype doesn’t always make for emotionally engaging storytelling. Hopefully, we’ll move away from Charlie and back toward the art dealer from a few episodes ago.

– I hate Ray. Seriously hate his character and everything that comes out of his mouth. He’s way too abrasive for no reason except to make himself feel good, and its not amusing or interesting, it’s just sickening.

– I’d love to have a suing app on my iPhone. Who wouldn’t?

– what happened to Jenna’s makeup in the sex scene? It should’ve been messed up, not completely gone, right?

– Love the flashback. Best scene of the episode.

– Marnie’s conversation in Charlie’s apartment, Hannah’s repeated comments about seeing her ‘boyfriend’ later, Jessa’s scene preparing to see her ex… sometimes Girls is WAY too obvious about where its going, telegraphing the shit out of stories early on. A little subtlety will go a long way.

What did you think of ‘Hard Being Easy’? Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments below!