For its entire four season run, Lena Dunham’s Girls attempted to explore the dichotomy between childhood and adulthood, something anyone in their 20s can relate to on a regular basis. While always in the mind’s eye, this concept has—at best—been flirted or tickled with in the past. Even when the HBO show was good, it never fully obtained its goal.
That has changed, though. Girls’ latest episode “Daddy Issues” is the first time we see our protagonist Hannah (Dunham) tackle the prospect of adulthood in a productive and thoughtful manner. Always in the entitled mindset that she’s an adult merely because she’s in her 20s and living on her own, Dunham’s character now must finally address the true complexities of what it means to be an adult in an adult world when her life gives her an unusual curve ball.
Her family life is coming part as she and her mother Loreen (Becky Ann Baker) deal with Tad (Peter Scolari), Hannah's father and Loreen's husband, recently announced homosexuality. Meanwhile, after last week’s disastrous piercing incident with middle-schooler Cleo (Maude Apatow, producer Judd Apatow’s daughter) makes her realize she not only has to face responsibility but become a person with complex, concentrated emotions which don’t always get expressed or emoted in irrationalized tangents. It’s — dare I say it? — actual character growth for a character known primarily for her stubborn angst for maturity.
As weird as it sounds, especially for someone who doesn’t hate-watch Girls nor dislikes Dunham’s character, it’s refreshing to see Hannah in dour times. She seemingly always gets whatever luxury she wants or benefit of the doubt when starting and quitting everything from jobs to grad school. So to see her fully processes the consequences of those around her and not receive the satisfaction of sympathy or proper attention makes her far more interesting and relatable as a character, especially a primary one.
Even when she obtains the acknowledgement she so desperately wants, it comes at the price of cold-hearted honesty. Most notably, this is seen in the fantastic scenes with Elijah (Andrew Rannells), both when they day-drinking at a bar early on or are at Hannah’s house where Tad goes through his brief but semi-graphic gay history. She deals with the cold-hard facts of the situation even if she doesn’t understand or really want to comprehend what’s happening around her. Add in some genuinely great classic Hannah remarks, like her constantly defending her non-homophobic ways and statements like “I'm a famous liberal. Ok? My beliefs perfectly align with having a gay father,” and it’s evident the old-school vibrato of Girls is alive and well again.
To add some Larry David-esque humor to the situation, of course things go swimmingly for (at least some of) those around her. Ray (Alex Karpovsky) inches closer towards public recognition in his chairman of the board position. Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) celebrates his success after helping his campaign and Marnie (Allison Williams), as seen last week, is now engaged to her band-mate Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Things aren’t great for, say, Adam (Adam Driver) or Jessa (Jemima Kirke), but Hannah doesn’t know anything about that of course.
Speaking of Jessa and Adam, while it may have seemed odd from the on-set, “Daddy Issues” implies there may be some romantic kinship to come from the two in next week’s season finale. It’s hard to tell if this is truly where Girls plans to go, as Dunham’s program tries to strive on unpredictability, for better or for worse.
Of course, if it does happen it wouldn’t be completely unpredictable, as this writer literally just predicted it now, but based on their sporadic pasts and honest personas, this may be a perfect couple and definitely something Dunham would try to pull out of her sleeve. It would certainly be a better partner for her than Ace (guest star Zachary Quinto), a character Quinto plays in stride but felt a tad too broad for Girls’ own good.
While a damn shame Dunham and her team decided to make Mimi-Rose (Gillian Jacobs) a flat, near cartoon character in her last two episodes—it seems this is the last time she’ll appear in the show unless she makes a quick cameo in the finale—it’s nice to see Girls finally get back to its humble, honest roots. Just when one gives up on Dunham’s program, leave it to the creators to make something perhaps even better than its origins to prove it still has moxie and hutzpah. All one can say at this point is keep it going.
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