Girls: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Girls: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

What Happened, Ms. Dunham?

Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 6, 2017

The fifth season of HBO's Girls began shakily, as the creative team struggled to erect new character arcs on the wobbly soap-opera foundations laid in Season Four, where creator Lena Dunham and her writers room seemed intent on "rebooting" each of the show's four main characters to find new and even more outlandish ways for them to screw up. Some of the hairpin plot turns arose organically from the characters' prior history; others seemed utterly arbitrary. The same mix of credibility and incredulity winds through Season Five, which inevitably raises the question of whether Girls has reached, or even exceeded, its optimal life span. The omission of major extras from the Blu-ray package—in stark contrast to all four previous seasons—prompts suspicion that Dunham and co-producers Jenni Konner and Judd Apatow may have moved on to other projects, pushing Girls way down on their list of priorities. By the end of Season Five, the show seemed to recover its narrative footing, but it remains to be seen whether Dunham et al. will be able (or be willing to make the effort) to craft a satisfactory conclusion when Girls returns in February for its sixth and final season.

(Spoiler alert: The following assumes that the reader has seen all prior seasons of Girls and contains spoilers for those who haven't. If you are new to the show, a spoiler-free review of the Season One Blu-ray set can be found here.)

In a funhouse mirror reflection of Season Two's fairy tale conclusion, Girls ended Season Four with Hannah Horvath (Dunham) and ex-boyfriend Adam Sackler (Adam Driver) joining hands over Adam's newborn niece, who is the daughter of Adam's lunatic sister, Caroline (Gaby Hoffman), and Hannah's downstairs neighbor, recovering heroin addict Laird (Jon Glazer). As Adam implored his ex to return to his arms, Hannah tearfully declined—and suddenly the story fast-forwarded six months to the sight of Hannah walking arm-in-arm with Fran (Jake Lacy), a fellow teacher at the charter school where Hannah has been teaching English (and regularly clashes with the school's befuddled principal, played by writer/director Douglas McGrath).

Hannah and Fran were an unlikely pair from the outset, and Season Five traces the painfully acrimonious decline of Hannah's attempt to maintain a relationship with a "normal" guy whose conventional behavior includes showing up for work on time, keeping uncomfortable private matters to oneself and not blurting out every inappropriate thought that crosses one's mind. It's hard to imagine why such a strait-laced square would ever be attracted to a woman who, from the moment they met, wore her dysfunction assertively on her sleeve, but Girls keeps them locked in combat for most of Season Five. When the relationship finally explodes (Episode 8, "Homeward Bound"), the blast radius extends for miles.

Marnie Michaels (Allison Williams), having accepted the proposal of musical partner Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) in Season Four, now attempts to plan her ideal wedding to a weepy narcissist who is nothing like the ideal husband about whom Marnie has been fantasizing since childhood. The wedding occupies the entire first episode of Season Five, and it's punctuated by bad weather, screeching arguments and emotional collisions that foreshadow the trials of the marriage to come. "Settle in, son, and let the nightmare wash over you", advises perpetual cynic Ray Ploshansky (Alex Karposvky), whose love for Marnie remains unrequited. As it turns out, this is not Desi's first attempt to reach the altar, and the antics of corralling the runaway groom are just one of the day's many disasters.

By mid-season, Marnie will find herself stomping angrily out of the couple's apartment to wander the city alone, where a chance encounter sends her on an impromptu odyssey into her past (Episode 6, "The Panic in Central Park"). She is accompanied on this journey by a familiar figure whose identity I will not disclose, although it is revealed in the excerpts that play over the Blu-ray's menu. The chaotic, dangerous, alternately exhilarating and terrifying adventure serves as a wake-up call, prompting Marnie to reevaluate her life for the umpteenth time. But as the former "good girl" rapidly discovers, fresh starts aren't so easy to manage when her musical career is just taking off, and the husband she's come to despise is an essential part of the package.



A fresh start seems to be exactly what Shoshanna Shapiro (Zosia Mamet) has been granted in Season Five, as she pursues the marketing job in Japan that she accepted on the advice of Girls' resident voice-of-reason, Hermie (Colin Quinn), owner of the coffee bar managed by Ray. Between learning Japanese, exploring Tokyo nightlife and basking in the romantic attentions of office heartthrob Yoshi (played by Japanese heartthrob Hiro Mizushima), Shoshanna might almost forget that she left a life on hold in New York that includes boyfriend Scott (Jason Ritter), who is eagerly awaiting Shosh's return. When her employment prospects shift unexpectedly, Shoshanna has to decide where she really wants to be. It gives away nothing to reveal that the fledgling ex-pat ultimately succumbs to homesickness, resurfacing in her familiar Brooklyn neighborhood with new hair, a Japanese wardrobe and a surprise job opportunity.

Jessa Johansson (Jemima Kirke) appears to be making a serious attempt at sobriety and career advancement, attending AA meetings (where Adam is a frequent fixture) and applying to graduate programs in psychotherapy. In episode 5 ("Queen for Two Days"), another member of Jessa's elusive family appears, sister Minerva (Marianna Palka), who is less than supportive of her sibling's new ambition. Jessa's capacity for self-destructive behavior is now well-established, and although she may be able to resist the allure of substance abuse, a new temptation arises that is potentially even riskier. By the season finale (Episode 10, "I Love You Baby"), Jessa's life ignites into a combustion of rage and violence from which it is unclear how she will recover.

As in Season Four, some of Girls' best storylines focus on supporting characters. Hannah's parents, Tad and Lorleen (Peter Scolari and Becky Ann Baker, both superb), are struggling to adjust to their new circumstances now that Tad has come out as a gay man. The result is a curious roll reversal, as the older Horvaths find themselves leaning on their neurotic daughter for emotional support. ("I think you guys really did fuck me up", Hannah says to her mom at one point, and it's hard to disagree.) Hannah's friend and roommate, Elijah Krantz (Andrew Rannells), finds himself in alien territory, when he is seduced by a handsome celebrity newscaster (Corey Stoll) for whom he develops genuine feelings, which is an unfamiliar sensation for a man who prides himself on sardonic detachment. Elijah's new beau takes him on exciting adventures, but the emotional neophyte gradually comes to realize that they want different things from each other.

Dunham says in the extras that she wanted Season Five to show the girls of Girls grasping at some form of maturity, but none of the characters' fumbling efforts appear to be moving them any closer toward balance and stability than in previous outings. Then again, as the show's older characters routinely demonstrate, maturity remains a moving target for most of us.

Girls: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The image on HBO's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays for Season Five of Girls is comparable to that of Seasons One, Two, Three and Four, which is to say that it shares the same smooth, detailed look supplied by digital photography, and provides the same excellent black levels and contrast. The sequences with Shoshanna in Japan are the Season Five standouts for their rainbow of bright and exotic colors not typically seen in Girls' New York environs. As with previous seasons, I watched Season Five during its initial broadcast, and the image on Blu-ray is noticeably superior to the HDTV picture on Time Warner Cable, with better detail, less noise and superior stability overall. Average bitrates for each episode hover around 25 Mbps.

Girls: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Season Five's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 delivers a sonic experience similar to that of previous seasons, supplying an effective sense of environmental ambiance but remaining mostly front-oriented. The dialogue is clearly rendered and appropriately prioritized, and Michael Penn's underscoring continues to provide an essential component of the show. Girls' use of carefully chosen pop songs remains a highlight, including a cover by Aurora of David Bowie's "Life on Mars", which plays over the credits of episode 5 ("Queen for Two Days"); Brenda Lee's "Someday", which sets the tone for a key scene in episode 7 ("Hello Kitty"); and Franki Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", which is crucial to the season finale ("I Love You Baby").

Girls: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Previous Blu-ray releases of Girls have been richly annotated with cast and crew commentaries, behind-the-scenes explorations, table readings, interviews, blooper reels and musical performances. Season 5, by contrast, arrives with nothing more than brief promotional featurettes and a handful of deleted scenes. Did HBO suddenly get cheap, or have Dunham & Co. so lost interest in their creation they couldn't make the time?

• Deleted and Extended Scenes: Even fewer than on Season Four (which was already less than previous seasons):
• Disc 1 (1080p; 1.78:1; 11:46)
• Episode 1
• Elijah & Evie
• Episode 2
• Ray Yells in the Street
• Parents Are Humans
• Episode 3
• Fizzy Cider
• Yoshi Asks Shosh Out
• Hannah Forgives Fran
• Cider Dance
• Toast to Shosh
• Random Guy
• Jessa Ignores Adam
• Episode 5
• Comfort Equals Death
• Meet & Greet
• Branded for Life


• Disc 2 (1080p; 1.78:1; 7:34)
• Episode 8
• Shosh Zones Out
• Where's Caroline?
• Hannah & Hector
• Episode 10
• Garden of Surgery
• Tad & Keith



• Inside the Episodes: As on previous Blu-ray sets, each episode is accompanied by a brief interview with Dunham (and, in some instances, other cast members). These featurettes can be accessed from the "Features" menu of each disc, which includes a "play all" function, or individually from the episode menus.
• Disc 1 (1080i; 1.78:1; 16:32)
• Disc 2 (1080i; 1.78:1; 18:03)

Girls: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hannah ends Season Five on a hopeful, almost buoyant note. It won't last long, but it's one of the few moments when the perpetual kvetch finds herself in a better place than most of her friends. For five seasons, Girls has drawn both humor and drama from an often painfully close inspection of untidy lives. It will be interesting to watch the creative team's effort to engineer a denouement that is both true to the show's pessimistic aesthetic and satisfying to the legions of fans who regularly tune into Girls knowing that its characters will make a mess of whatever they do but still hoping—against all odds—for a happy ending. After a rocky start, Season Five manages to rebalance Girls on its customary knife's edge between laughter and discomfort. The Blu-ray presentation is solid and recommended, despite the disappointing lack of extras.