What I’m Watching: Girls

Girls: Season 4, Episode 2 “Triggering” (B+)

I didn’t expect to like this episode as much as I did, but I really found myself enthralled by all of the dialogue and where the story is heading. It’s interesting to see that Hannah, self-centered as she always is, becomes the sole focus of the story, with Marnie skyping in then freezing, only to have the computer closed on her, and Shoshanna and Jessa only referenced as far as Shoshanna not understanding how to accept a collect call. Hannah’s new life in Iowa is equal parts dream and nightmare, as evidenced by her shock at what $250 could get in real estate and her subsequent terror at the arrival of a bat in the house. I couldn’t have been more excited to see Desiree Akhavan, who broke out as the director, writer, and star of “Appropriate Behavior,” which played at Sundance last year and should be arriving in theatres right about now, cast as Hannah’s new classmate and friend who inadvertently help get her bike stolen. Hannah’s story was dark and awful, and she really did have a tough time accepting the critique it received. I like that Hannah is being forced to grow up though resisting it at every turn, regressing to youthful immaturity when Elijah came to town and dancing up a storm, stopping during the night to tell an undergrad how life really is. This episode had a lot of great lines as delivered by Lena Dunham, particularly “Because it’s an affair, and those are generally kept secret,” “TMI is an outdated concept; this is the information age,” and “We’re no different than George W. Bush.” I also heartily enjoyed that her parents asked her what her friends’ names were and then hung up on her so that they could finish playing Scrabble.