TV

How Did Everyone Feel About The Girls Premiere?

Wow, Sunday was a goooood night for Lena Dunham. She won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Hannah Horvath on Girls, and the show took home an award for “Best Comedy” as well. She also managed to work an inside joke into her acceptance speech, thanking Hilary Swank’s ex-husband Chad Lowe (whom Hilary Swank famously forgot to thank when she won her Oscar for Boys Don’t Cry. The more you know!). While Dunham was busy winning all the awards, her show was airing its second season premiere. So how are the girls of Girls doing?

Marnie is pretty adrift — she gets fired by her space-case boss and has a tense lunch with her mother, played by Rita Wilson. I was surprised to learn that apparently Marnie is from New York (doesn’t she seem more like a tense Midwestern transplant?) and that her mother is one of those loosey-goosey, “my daughter and I are BFFs” parenting types. I would have thought Marnie’s mother would be more overbearing and exacting. Marnie also continues her post-breakup freakout, tailing Charlie around a party at her old apartment, noting the discord between him and his new girlfriend and turning up at opportune moments with a sympathetic expression. I mean, I’m sure she was sincere, but she also seemed to be loving it a little bit. She’s starved for attention and affection, which leads her to have sex with Hannah’s new (and, you’ll remember, gay!) roommate Elijah, which terminates about as awkwardly as you’d expect. She ends the night at Charlie’s, claiming she doesn’t want to cause trouble, she just wants to sleep next to someone. He lets her.

Shoshanna is dealing with her devirginization (and the end of her fling with Ray) by dressing like she is headed to an English garden party and spitting out lines like “just because I’m deflowered doesn’t mean I’m devalued!” When she and Ray run into each other at Hannah and Elijah’s she is impressively direct with him, telling him he hurt her feelings and she has no desire to pretend to be friends with him. Naturally, they start making out, Ray spilling beer everywhere in the process. I still like those two together.

Jessa and her weird husband are on…vacation? In Latin America? Or…they live there? Both Jessa and I were a bit confused about that, though I was not confused about how hilarious Jessa’s half-cornrowed head was.

Hannah is having sex with Donald Glover! And basically being the Adam to his Hannah, with a lot of rules about intimacy and what he can and can’t say to her. In the meantime she is still hanging out with Adam while he recoups from the broken leg he sustained when he got hit by a car while serving her with some real talk after Jessa’s wedding. He’s being his typical needy but also withholding self, and it’s not long before Hannah tells him she can’t take his nonsense anymore and she’s “tired of taking care of everyone around [her.]” I…don’t know if that’s entirely true (especially since she seemed pretty dismissive of Marnie’s bad mood at her party), but Adam is acting like a nutcase. She ends the night with a booty call at Donald Glover’s place, and can you blame her?

A lot was set up for the next season, and perhaps it was my imagination but I felt like the scenes and dialogue were tighter and more polished overall than in season one — I felt that Dunham had a surer hand after getting a full season under her belt last year. It’ll be interesting to see what the reaction is to the show now that it’s back, as well as where these characters go from here.

TAGS:

• Top 10 Reasons Why Women Are Better
• How To Avoid Devaluing Your Home
• 20 Sneaky (and Easy!) Ways to Save
• Planning Retirement, And Everything That Comes With It