Following last week's season premiere, the big question of Girls' fourth season was: if Hannah is now away from her pals in New York City living in Iowa to go to grad school, how were the other characters going to be involved, if they were at all? As it turns out, they're still around, but are much more in the background.

Oh yes, for it seems season four of Girls is Hannah: The Show, which both leads to some great comedy moments and also some of the show's biggest blunders. Lena Dunham, as a writer or director, can do great things by herself off-screen, but on it she is much more dependent on her co-stars. By taking away those key players, Dunham is forced to do her schtick ad nauseum. Whether it be buying a house, falling off a bike, buying her books or trying to defend her writing, Dunham is a character that's a great one to laugh at, and is best seen as a fixture than a sympathetic figure. Focusing squarely on her is both repetitive and mostly disinteresting, save for some key times.

Season one got this beautifully, while season two kind of got this and season three mostly forgot. This season, as we can see so far, will probably fall closest in line with Girls's more experimental second season. For there is a hyper sense of self-awareness throughout this second episode, "Tripping," and it comes with a unique twist. Girls, as seen in this installment, is deciding to go the more meta route, having addressed the complaints and criticisms Dunham has received online about herself, her work, her likeliness to her character and, of course, her appearance. It creates some great moments here, but it also creates some painfully obvious ones too. It's all a bit of a mixed bag this week.

Thankfully making an withstanding appearance this week — and apparently this season — is Elijah (Andrew Rannells), Hannah's gay friend and ex-boyfriend in her undergrad. After being one of last week's best features, he turns up here out of the blue and gives another stellar appearance. Rannells is a performer with great range and capabilities, and he, much like Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna, knows exactly what his purpose is and pulls it off flawlessly. Even his obligatory party scene with Hannah works based solely on him.

The writing, written this week by Jenni Konner & Dunham, is still sharp and filled with wit, but the plotting is becoming a lot more predictable and apparent than it was before. I have said since season two that Girls needs to wrap itself up sooner than later. No matter how talented Dunham is, she can't make this show last up to six-to-eight seasons. There's just not enough engaging and interesting about Hannah or her friends to support that many seasons, and this episode makes that even more apparent. Hopefully its already picked up fifth season will be its final one.

The change in scenery adds some interesting aspects to this show, most noticeably with its beauty rural-laced cinematography from Tim Ives. It's hard to tell exactly where this show will go quality-wise. This is likely going to be its weakest season thus far, and the distinct lack of Adam (Adam Driver) and even minimized appearance of Hannah's friends save for Marnie (Allison Williams) in this episode is distressing. But there's still enough to like in this series for any dry humor-loving individuals like myself to give up on it.

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