Rating summary
Movie | | 4.5 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.5 |
Extras | | 4.5 |
Overall | | 4.5 |
Girls: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie Review
Nothing Respectable; Not So Delectable
Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 9, 2013
(Spoiler alert: The following assumes that the reader is familiar with Season One of Girls. If you
haven't seen Season One, proceed at your own risk. A review of the Season One Blu-ray set can
be found here.)
The second season of HBO's controversial Girls was as divisive as its first, but the controversy
was more interesting. The initial season sparked debate between fans who immediately embraced
the show and those who condemned it as self-indulgent garbage. However, as one actor observes
in the Season Two extras, a lot of people who hated Girls kept watching it, because people who
complained to him about the show seemed to know details from even the latest episode. In the
second season, though, it was the fans who complained loudest. Expectations for the second
season of a hit show are usually pitched at such an impossibly high level that disappointment is
inevitable, but Season 2 of Girls divided its fan base. The split became so extreme that
Entertainment Weekly, in its March 8, 2013 issue, ran a "Love It"/"Loathe It" debate between
two staff members under the title "The agony and the ecstasy of 'Girls'". The "Loathe It" writer
complained: "The friendships of last season, once fraught and fun, are now practically
nonexistent."
"Practically nonexistent" is an overstatement, but there's no question that the four main
characters in Girls interact less in Season Two, as each one finds herself traveling a separate and
often lonely path. That development should come as no surprise, though, to anyone who was
paying attention in Season One, by the end of which each of the four main characters had taken
off in her own direction. The season concluded with the surprise "impulse" wedding between
Jessa and the straight-laced rich guy played by Chris O'Dowd, who barely knew each other (they
met when O'Dowd's character clumsily tried to inveigle Jessa and Marnie into a threesome,
without success). By that point, Hannah and Marnie had angrily parted as roommates, and
Shoshanna had finally lost her virginity and belatedly begun to explore "sex and the city" as a
participant rather than a voyeur. If the girls of Girls were ever a close-knit group (which is
doubtful), it was certainly clear that they no longer were.
Admittedly, Season Two did introduce new elements. The pregnancy of actress Jemima Kirke
forced revisions in both storylines and shooting schedules; her character, Jessa, barely appears in
the season opener, and then in only five more episodes. Producers Lena Dunham and Judd
Apatow managed to smuggle Jessa into the season finale, which they co-wrote, but she's just a
voice on the phone. The humor in Season Two turned darker and sadder, with even more
emphasis on embarrassment (Apatow's favorite subject) and unrelieved discomfort (borrowing a
leaf from the book of the late Andy Kaufman, whose life-size image is the most prized
possession of the ill-humored Ray Ploshansky). And the voices of the series grew more diverse,
as Dunham worked with a larger writing staff and relinquished more of the directing duties to
other hands.
In Season One, people complained that Girls was too insular. Then, in Season Two, they
complained that it ranged too far. As one is so often tempted to say to Dunham's character,
Hannah Horvath, there's no pleasing some people.
Season Two picks up at some undisclosed time after the wedding of Jessa (Kirk) and
Thomas-John (O'Dowd), who are still out of town on their honeymoon, which has presumably
been lengthy. Hannah (Dunham) is now sharing her apartment with the former college boyfriend,
Elijah (Andrew Rannells), who turned out to be gay, but she is also helping to care for ex-boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver), who is immobilized while
recovering from injuries sustained at
the end of Season One in a freak traffic accident. Hannah makes it clear that their relationship is
over, but Adam feels differently. As soon as the cast comes off Adam's leg, things get ugly
between the former lovers.
Where Hannah's life in Season One was dominated by a lack of funds after her parents refused to
continue supporting her as a writer, in Season Two she has almost the opposite problem. Every
time she has a chance to earn money as a writer, she blows it. A trendy online magazine offers her
a freelance position, and it becomes an excuse for a coke-fueled train wreck of relationship
crackups. Then an eccentric e-book publisher (John Cameron Mitchell,
Hedwig and the Angry
Inch) gives her a sizeable advance, and the result is writer's block and the return of anxiety-induced symptoms that Hannah thought
she'd banished in high school. She insists, however, to a
mild-mannered shrink (Bob Balaban)—who just happens to be a successful author himself—that
she's really fine.
While alternately missing and fearing Adam, Hannah tries to find someone else, with little
success. Her relationship with a genuinely nice guy, Sandy (
Community's Donald Glover), falters
over his political views. In the controversial episode 5, Hannah glimpses herself momentarily
through the eyes of someone much older and differently situated, when she spends the weekend
with a doctor Joshua (Patrick Wilson), who has just separated from his wife. Being Hannah, she
cannot help but turn what for most people would be a casual fling into a tearful psychodrama. It
says a lot about Hannah that the most devastatingly accurate assessment of her is delivered in the
season finale by her neighbor Laird (Jon Glaser)—who happens to be a recovering drug addict.
Marnie (Allison Williams) finds herself failing to rebound from the on again/off again breakup
with Charlie (Christopher Abbott) that lasted for most of Season One. Worse, she loses her art
gallery job and find herself stuck in a "pretty girl" position as a hostess at a fancy club, where her
primary function is to be polite and get ogled. Perhaps the worst blow to Marnie's ego is a
relationship with the famous artist Booth Jonathan (Jorma Taccone), who propositioned her at a
reception in Season One—or at least
Marnie thinks it's a relationship. Booth Jonathan views it
differently. Having mapped out her entire life with the precision of a wedding planner, Marnie
can't understand why nothing is working out as she anticipated, because until now it always has.
Meanwhile, her old boyfriend Charlie is unexpectedly on an upswing, having started an internet
company that is a raging success.
Jessa and Thomas-John return from their honeymoon on a high, but shortly come bumping back
to earth as they face married life together. A dinner with Thomas-John's parents (a hilarious
Griffin Dunne and Deborah Rush), who are meeting Jessa for the first time, goes from bad to
worse. In episode 7, Hannah accompanies Jessa to a remote country town upstate to visit her
absentee father, Salvatore (Ben Mendelsohn, who played industrialist Daggett in
The Dark
Knight Rises and was the spooky gangster Cody in
Animal Kingdom), and Salvatore's current
wife, Petula (Rosanna Arquette). It's the first peek ever granted both Hannah and the viewers
behind Jessa's blase exterior, and it shows sides of her character one never imagined.
Shoshanna's (Zosia Mamet) story in Season Two is dominated by her excitement at no longer
being a virgin and her conflicted feelings for Ray (Alex Karpovsky), the man who finally got her
over that hurdle. As they struggle to define the terms of a relationship that, at first, neither of
them even admits, their incompatibilities become more obvious. Because of their twelve-year age
difference, Alex and Shoshanna are at radically different stages in life, and they want different
things (though one of Shoshanna's problems with Alex is that he doesn't seem to "want"
anything at all). By the end of the season, these issues reach critical mass.
An important subplot that parallels Hannah's attempt to date a nice guy is Adam's effort to date a
normal girl. Her name is Natalia (Shiri Appleby), and she's the daughter of a well-meaning but
pushy attendee from an AA meeting (a cameo by comedy stalwart Carol Kane). Natalia is a
sweet, good-natured person who, like her mother, instantly takes control of a situation. But she
soon discovers that, when it comes to matters of sex and emotion, Adam isn't easy to control.
Girls: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
The image on HBO's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays for Season Two of Girls is comparable to
that of Season One, which is to say that it
shares the same smooth, detailed look provided by
digital photography, and provides the same excellent black levels and contrast. A similarly muted
color palette is on display, although occasional scenes require more saturated hues, such as the
greens of upstate New York during Jessa's journey (with Hannah) to visit her father. I watched
this season of Girls 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.
Girls: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
As with Season One, the lossless DTS-HD
MA 5.1 delivers a nice sense of ambiance, especially
in a distinctive environment like the Staten Island Ferry. In venues with more enveloping sound,
like Charlie's office party, the surround presence is more immersive, but Girls continues not to
offer obvious occasions for discrete rear effects or pans. It does, however, have some specific and
precise sound effects, such as the one that opens episode 10, when Hannah is recovering from an
ear injury, that the crisp lossless track reproduces with perfect fidelity. The dialogue remains
clear, and Michael Penn's underscoring continues to provide one of the series' crucial sonic
components. Penn's instrumentals for the season finale are a particularly fine example of how
music can enhance the emotion of scenes without being manipulative or corny.
Girls: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Commentaries: All of the commentaries are interesting, but it's the solo commentaries
by the directors (Peretz and especially Shepard) that provide the most insight into the
creative process behind each episode. Shepard's discussion of Episode 5, which was
junked and rewritten at the last minute and is radically different from any other episode of
Girls to date, is particularly illuminating.
- Episode 1, with Allison Williams (Marnie) and Andrew Rannells (Elijah).
- Episode 3, with Director Jesse Peretz.
- Episode 4, with Zosia Mamet (Shoshanna), Alex Karpovsky (Ray) and Director
Jesse Peretz.
- Episode 5, with Director Richard Shepard.
- Episode 7, with Director Richard Shepard.
- Episode 9, with Creator/Executive Producer Lena Dunham (Hannah) and
Executive Producer Jenni Konner.
- Episode 10, with Creator/Executive Producer Lena Dunham (Hannah) and
Executive Producer Judd Apatow.
- Deleted and Extended Scenes: Most of these scenes were obviously cut for pacing and
running time. Some are discussed in the accompanying commentaries.
- Disc 1 (1080p; 1.78:1; 29:51)
- Episode 1
- Original Intro
- Work the Door
- Episode 2
- Video Message
- Gallery Interview
- Wedgebrook Interview
- Guys Who Like You
- Tough Day at Work
- Episode 3
- Laird's Lair
- Laird in the Chamber
- Episode 4
- The Harvard of Ohio
- Life is But a Dream
- Episode 5
- Freestyle Tap
- Kitchen Physical
- Disc 2 (1080p; 1.78:1; 26:26)
- Episode 6
- Episode 8
- Teach for America
- AA
- Party Entrance
- Dinner
- Dessert
- Therapy
- Episode 9
- Splinter Call
- Q-Tips
- Dress Shopping
- Hospital Check-In
- Episode 10
- Both Directions
- Adam Buys an iPhone
- Laird's Help
- Haircut
- Ending
- Inside the Episodes: Each episode is accompanied by a brief interview with Dunham
discussing its place in the overall arc of the season. 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; 15:55)
- Disc 2 (1080i; 1.78:1; 15:54)
- Episode 5 Table Read (disc 1) (1080p; 1.78:1; 23:08): This is not the entire table read of
episode 5, but picks up at the point where Hannah first encounters Joshua outside his
brownstone. What makes it noteworthy is that Dunham and guest star Patrick Wilson read
the entire shooting script, including both material included as deleted scenes and other
material that was cut and, according to director Richard Shepard's commentary, will
never be seen.
- Charlie Rose Interview with Lena Dunham (disc 1) (1080i; 1.78:1; 28:54): This is one
of Charlie Rose's better interviews, in large part because Dunham talks so fast that Rose
can't easily interrupt her. The interview was taped shortly before the premiere of Season
Two.
- The New Yorker Festival 2012: Emily Nussbaum Interviews Lena Dunham (disc 1)
(480i; 1.78:1; 1:25:53): This interview was conducted before a live audience between the
airings of Seasons 1 and 2. The interviewer is a columnist for The New Yorker who had
profiled Dunham and written about the series. The interview is uninhibited and ranges
broadly across many of the issues raised by Girls, both intentionally (sexual frankness)
and unintentionally (racial diversity or "the voice of a generation" exchange in the pilot
episode). The last twelve minutes, when the audience asks questions, are fascinating.
- Guys on Girls (disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1; 18:21): This roundtable discussion hosted by
Dunham gives the recurring male co-stars an opportunity to talk about their characters
and the show. The participants are Christopher Abbott (Charlie), Adam Driver (Adam),
Alex Karpovsky (Alex) and Andrew Rannells (Elijah).
- The Making of Girls (1080p; 1.78:1; 15:03): Without too many spoilers, this short
feature provides an overview of the process of designing the story arcs and developing the
scripts for Season 2. It includes excerpts from table reads other than the longer episode 5
read included as a separate extra, plus footage from the set and brief interviews with
Dunham and Apatow, who is a major participant in the planning stage.
- Gag Reel (disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1): Adam's mock "PSAs" are some of the best moments.
- Part 1 (5:43)
- Part 2 (4:20)
- Music (disc 2): Judy Collins appears in episode 8 ("It's Back"), and Daniel Johnston's
song "Life in Vain" is heard at the end of episode 9 ("On All Fours").
- Judy Collins," Song for Judith (Open the Door)" (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:58)
- Judy Collins, "Someday Soon" (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:21)
- The Swell Season (with special guest Daniel Johnston)—"Life in Vain"—Austin
City Limits, 2008) (1080i; 1.78:1; 4:37)
Girls: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Anyone who still insists on identifying Lena Dunham with the character she plays should take
note that, when Hannah is handed a golden opportunity to shine as a writer in Season Two, she
crumbles under the pressure. Dunham, by contrast, rose to the challenge when HBO came
calling. She has continued writing, producing, directing and starring in Girls for millions of
people to watch and react to, even as many of those reactions have been sharply critical and often
brutally personal. Hannah may be Dunham's nightmare version of herself (as I suspect Apatow's
loser comic heroes frequently are for him), but that doesn't mean anything beyond the usual
observation that writers typically start from something personal.
Both Dunham and Apatow like to keep people guessing, and by the conclusion of Season Two,
Girls had veered sharply from the season's relentlessly downbeat tone into something else
entirely. It's something that won't last, but it brought the season's dramatic arc and its larger
world into a kind of focus, if only for a moment. In Season Three, things will get messy again,
and the viewer complaints will start anew. Highly recommended.