At the opening of Girls‘ second season, the main characters all find themselves in some kind of transition. Hannah’s dealing with a new boyfriend and new roommate; Shoshanna’s getting used to post-virgin life; and Marnie finds herself without a job or a real place to live. The first half of ‘It’s About Time’ was spent setting all of this up – and the second half was about knocking it all down, unraveling everyone at a housewarming party for Eli and Hannah (even though Hannah’s not new there), in an interesting – though largely unfunny – half hour.
I’m a little disappointed the time line on the show advanced this much in the time off-air; there are some jarring changes to the status quo – and even though most of these are expected, it leaves a lot to be desired in filling in the blanks of where these characters have been emotionally in the last month. The best example of this is Donald Glover’s character Sandy, who literally just appears out of nowhere (being introduced in the season’s first sex scene), and although its clumisly explained that they met somewhere, their budding relationship isn’t introduced very well. It’s like “here’s a black guy!” and then he disappears for the entire episode.
But his presence does put Hannah in an interesting spot: she’s taking care of Adam, who insists that they didn’t break up, even though they have (something that also disappointing happens in between seasons). It takes her the whole episode to tell him she doesn’t want to take care of him anymore – although we’re really not sure why, outside of the fact that she likes Sandy (who likes her for reasons we also don’t understand yet). When we last saw them, Hannah was trying to make her way to visit him in the hospital, and the volatile change in her attitude is brushed over in the premiere.
Of the four main characters, Marnie’s downward spiral is best documented, after she gets fired and goes to the party, running into her old boyfriend Charlie with his new girlfriend Audrey (who just acts like a bitch, says she isn’t stoned enough, and leaves). She then gets drunk, tries to sleep with Eli (knowing full well how upset it would make Hannah) and when that doesn’t work, she shows up at Charlie’s house to seek out his consolation. Her showing up at his apartment is a loathsome move on her part (can she stop fucking with this guy?) but it does show a vulnerability Marnie’s hidden under her bitchy exterior thus far on the show. It looks like it’ll be a depressing, self-centered spiral for her this season, a train wreck we won’t be able to look away from.
As always, the best part of ‘It’s About Time’ is Shoshanna and Ray, although their interactions hinge on another big character change that inexplicably happens off-screen: Ray tells Shoshanna he doesn’t want to date her, although it’s pretty clear both in last season’s finale and this season’s premiere he’s completely smitten with her. I like the comedic material it brings out of both actors, but the premise of it all I find hard to believe – at least, hard to believe without seeing it go down.
Now, this isn’t just the regular case of a show telling and not showing; in here, it brings major changes to these characters – changes that the show made a point exploring in the first season. Why leave all that great material out, and have the audience accept the new situations of these characters? While I enjoy where most of the material goes in the episode, I can’t feel like I’ve been robbed when Hannah stands up to Adam’s demands, or Eli gets uncomfortable with his boyfriend trying to get more serious. I want to connect with these characters, but the break of narrative tone between seasons left me wanting in the episode’s biggest moments.
Because of these off-screen plot machinations, ‘It’s About Time’ has to spend most of its time re-building its reality in the premiere, which means there are only hints as to what’s going to come this season. Marnie’s life struggles and Eli and Hannah’s relationships are definitely in play – as is Jessa’s life as a married woman: in her only scene, she gets into a cab with Thomas John and can’t even give the cabbie directions back to his apartment, because she doesn’t know where she lives. In other words, there are some stories I’m interesting in seeing play out – I just wish we could’ve seen the big changes that led to the events of ‘It’s About Time’; it would’ve given everything a little more meaning and context, not just an episode of playing catch-up.
Grade: B
Other thoughts/observations:
– Marnie’s a little too comfortable with being a bitch: “I talk a lot worse to my friends” is not something you ever want to say.
– Hannah running will always be funny.
– Almost didn’t recognize Charlie with all that hair on his head/face, until I saw him staring at his feet when talking to Marnie.
– Dunham: stop putting Allison Williams in awkwardly cut sex scenes where her no nudity clause can become painfully obvious. Her various movements (along with the jarring cuts by Dunham) were just terrible.
– Eli: “Do you miss your hymen?” Shoshanna: “I don’t miss it… it just feels like something’s missing.”
Don’t love this show as much as critics; but still enjoyable in parts. Has some great moments. Liked this episode a lot.
This is a really good review, spot on actually.