Next Episode Of 'Girls' To Feature Lena Dunham Shi*tng Herself During Gyno Exam While Eating A Burrito- Page 2

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/16/13 at 2:33pm

I've heard that from a lot of people, and that happens to me a lot with shows - I give them what I think is a decent shot and right after I finally give them up everyone starts going about how great it's gotten (see Homeland). I don't know about this, though. When I see Lena Dunham on things as herself I like her a lot and I think it's great what she's achieved, but I just could not handle this show.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 3/16/13 at 4:21pm

I don't have HBO, so I've never seen it. But it doesn't sound like something I would want to watch.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/16/13 at 4:34pm

It's a comedy in the way Chekhov saw his plays as comedies. It's the inherent absurdity of human life, and it's often self-destructive, deceptive, frightened, and ugly.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 3/16/13 at 7:45pm

PRS, that actually was my relationship with Homeland until I soured on it greatly in their final episodes of Season 2. With Girls, the characters can be maddening and like I said before the focus on what the show wants to be in either Hannah as a sort of Carrie Bradshaw (not to go into reductive Sex and The City comparisons but that is the best way I can describe how Hannah is the focus of some episodes) or an ensemble show can get frustrating.

It fits the awkwardness at a certain age themes that Judd Apatow's TV Shows like Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared (though that was always much broader than the other shows). Oddly the high school, college, and post-college stages seems like a natural progression for those three shows that it seems so obvious why Apatow called Dunham to make this show. Dunham and Apatow work better on 30-60 minutes spurts and I think they have much more confidence in their direction for their characters than other comedies do, certainly more than network comedies just because of episode allotment. Though I will say if this season is any indication, this was more Dunham's call because the lighter, sweeter side of season 1 was mostly coming from Apatow's suggestions according to Dunham.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/16/13 at 10:35pm

On that note, Phyll, it's become a habit at my house to watch the five minutes after the show where Dunham talks about what she intended the episode to accomplish.

I swear she could sit and talk about anything for two hours and I'd probably be riveted!

Very smart, young lady!

[Patronus]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 5:59am

I watched the entire first season and the first episode of season 2 and decided that Girls was some sort of secret military endurance test designed to weed out the weak in order to get more suitable soldiers in the event the draft was restored.

In this case I'm proud to state that I'll not need to move Canada, but would happily do so if it ensured that I can avoid ever seeing another second of this self-indulgent, try too hard, overrated crap fest.

Oh, and The Mindy Project too. Can we ban that in my Canada as well?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 6:34am

God, The Mindy Project. I thought I really liked the pilot but in retrospect I think it was just residual goodwill I had toward her because I enjoyed her book. After however many weeks it's been on I've come to the conclusion that it's just not very funny.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 8:01am

Interesting. I absolutely love THE MINDY PROJECT.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 10:23am

I'm a Mindy Project fan, too. It needs more Dr. Reed, though.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 11:33am

I think they got rid of the wrong receptionist.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 11:45am

I agree. I like how they have rubber-band-snapping Beth Grant now, but Betsy can sometimes be a bit much.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 11:52am

I like Beth Grant, but I was surprised they brought her on after all the talk about paring down the cast. I hope Anna Camp is making bank for this show because her role has been thankless.

And I'm already tired of the "will they/won't they?" stuff with Danny.

You and I are the same page about Dr. Reed, though. That dude is fine.



Updated On: 3/17/13 at 11:52 AM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 12:34pm

Poor Anna Camp is not even a regular on the show anymore, right? I thought I'd read that she asked to be downgraded to recurrent probably around episode 2 when she realized she has a terrible, terrible role. Why would you have Anna Camp in your cast and not take advantage of her? I can't stand Chris Messina's smug doctor or Mindy Kaling's trying-too-hard-to-be-quirky character, she was so much funnier as Kelly Capour.
And yes, a little bit of Beth Grant goes a long way, and I also really like her.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 6:40pm

Girls and Enlightened (not sure this is everyone's cup of tea either but the most recent season was amazing) have similar ratings and equal critical acclaim (but Enlightened easily beats it in Season 2 performance on that front) but it seems with one show the derisiveness and need for somebody to write a think piece on why they hate the show each week carries it further in conversations. The fact it is a divisive water cooler show is arguably one of the reasons why one got renewed instantly while the other is hanging by a thread for a third season.

And I feel like with The Mindy Project there is always something good within an episode I check in on. The problem is every episode feels like a different show. Watching a show undergoing that much re-tooling feels a little weird and its renewal is still pretty surprising. I agree, I don't get why they let go of the other receptionist and along with under-utilizing Anna Camp it's also a crime to also hire Stephen Tobolowsky, not use him, and pretty much mutually agreeing to let him leave too. I feel like maybe they should have had Mindy and Danny had just been friends from the beginning which would somehow make their borderline 'In real like that's a trip to HR' insults at each other at work much more understandable. The guest-star one episode runs of late have been good but again, episode to episode feels like a different show.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 7:46pm

See, Enlightened was another one! I really liked the first episode, but three or four in I just wasn't feeling it, then cut to the second season where everyone is raving.

Strummer, I totally agree about each episode of Mindy feeling like a different show. I just thought it never reached the heights of the pilot, which I thought was really funny. That line about the hot, mean doll having a boyfriend still makes me laugh.

I also feel like the title is kind of jenky. When I first heard about it sounded like something the show would be called when it before it had an official title, but I felt like the first episode kind of gave it a context, but after that I never really felt like it fit.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 9:19pm

|And I feel like with The Mindy Project there is always something good within an episode I check in on. The problem is every episode feels like a different show. Watching a show undergoing that much re-tooling feels a little weird and its renewal is still pretty surprising. |

This is how I feel about The Mindy Project. It also seems lik when they get a good thing going, suddenly it's dropped.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/18/13 at 9:07am

Was this an urban myth about last night's show. I missed any trip to the gyno, let alone one in which, etc... Of course I did go to the kitchen for a - well not for a burrito - at one point so I could have missed it.

Still it seemed pretty clear that Hannah never left the apt. last night.

I thought the season was terrific and the finale superb.

p.s. just got that this was from The Onion; another example of their spoof being utterly credible, at least judging by the headline alone.


Updated On: 3/18/13 at 09:07 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 3/18/13 at 10:39am

Speaking of spoof, has everyone seen this video?
Lena Dunham Auditions for Zero Dark Thirty

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:14pm

I didn't care for the pilot of Mindy Project, but after that, I fell in love with it. Gave up on Enlightened after episode 3. I really just didn't care what happened to her or anyone else.

I think Kad's post really sheds some light on Girls for me:

It's a comedy in the way Chekhov saw his plays as comedies.

And I can't stand Chekhov.

It's the inherent absurdity of human life, and it's often self-destructive, deceptive, frightened, and ugly.

All things I don't particularly want to watch.

Personally, I much prefer the new British series, My Mad Fat Diary.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:21pm

Dammit, I actually really liked the damn finale. "You're here." "I've always been here." Somehow that was super sweet.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:36pm

I don't know, for both Hannah and Marnie I saw their relationship reconciliations as undeserved and just perpetuating their negative behaviors. I feel like the two characters who have learned and grown the most are the two we see the least of, Jessa and Shoshana.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:36pm

With The Mindy Project, it seems like just as I start really liking something or someone--they are dropped. I actually grew to like Mindy's sport agent asshole boyfriend and to suddenly have it revealed he had a secret girlfriend seemed a bit much (I get that the concept of the show is her remaining single, but...). I was a big fan of Amanda Setton (sp?) from One Life to Live so liked her as the receptionist, but she was fired (I've seen countless frankly misogynistic comments saying that both her firing, and the contract downgrade of Mindy's blonde friend from True Blood were due to Mindy herself not liking to work with "prettier" women.) Returning to the IMHO not remotely funny older receptionist seems a ste backwards.

I loved the Girls finale--but I get that it's a show that simply won't appeal to many.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 5:51pm

Dammit, I actually really liked the damn finale. "You're here." "I've always been here." Somehow that was super sweet.

I'm with you, JerseyGirl. I loved that moment, but I didn't really like that the entire episode revolved around the men though and the one character who was trying to find an identity away from men was gone from the season a bunch of episodes,as if the show can't imagine what storylines she'd have in a different context. I don't buy that Marnie had a happy ending, I just don't trust Charlie at all, but maybe I'm wrong and we were supposed to actually be into the two of them together. I'm looking forward to the new season though, I love Dunham and I love the show, it almost wouldn't be worth watching if it wasn't as divisive, one of my problems with the MINDY PROJECT is that it falls back too many times on typical network show traps that something like 30 ROCK or ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT generally avoided.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 8:05pm

It bothers me that in the print ads for the Mindy Project, Mindy's skin tone is lightened considerably and she slimmed down and the Girls ads Lena is trimmed down as well.

GO GIRL POWER! WTF?

I guess Lena had a squirting vagina scene that was nixed by HBO-I guess there are some standards.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 3/19/13 at 11:53pm

I really don't think we are supposed to take the relationship reconciliations on face-value or as a good thing. I think for Adam and Hannah they have this idea they are each others comfort, and these two are both heavily damaged people. With Marnie and Charlie, the power structure has completely switched but it really is the same two people that are probably going to bug the hell out of each other again but this time in different ways. Shoshanna and Ray knew when to just end it for now and I am not even sure their relationship ever came close to being as toxic as the others.