Rating summary
Movie | | 4.5 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.5 |
Extras | | 4.5 |
Overall | | 4.5 |
Girls: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review
Faced with These Loreleis, You'd Be Demoralized
Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 7, 2015
(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.)
The test of a hot-button TV show is what happens after it ceases to be a cause célèbre. Is the
quality still there when the buzz has flitted to fresh topics? In the case of Girls, the answer is a
resounding "yes". In the show's third season, which ran two episodes longer than each of the
previous two, the creative team seemed almost emboldened by no longer being the new kid on
the block. Led by series creator Lena Dunham and fellow executive producers Jenni Konner and
Judd Apatow, Girls' talented stable of writers, directors and regular cast explored new
dimensions of characters who had become familiar enough to command viewers' loyalty but, as
Season Three revealed, have not yet discovered everything they are or could be. One of the
advantages of a series about characters in their twenties is that they are still growing and
changing as they confront the myriad challenges that life tosses in their way (or they create for
themselves). Anything can happen.
Season Three first aired from January 12 through March 23, 2014. Unlike Season Two, it
concluded without the kind of apparent resolution that caught so many viewers by surprise.
When Season Four begins on January 11 of this year, the possibilities for these characters, and
for several who joined during the course of Season Three, are wide open.
In almost any other show, the shockingly upbeat fairy-tale conclusion of
Girls'
Season Two
might have been mistaken for a series finale, with each of the four leads having achieved a
character-appropriate milestone where, at least in theory, we might leave them. Even Jessa,
whose absence was dictated by the pregnancy of actress Jemima Kirke, could be envisioned
floating somewhere abroad in a free and easy state, enjoying her newly divorced status in the
kind of adventurous romp that could only happen to Jessa. In one of her commentaries, however,
series creator Dunham reports that she received criticism for having so many of her heroines find
their satisfaction in a man's embrace, even though, as Dunham notes, her character, Hannah
Horvath, was being embraced by a recovering alcoholic who had fallen off the wagon.
Besides, this is
Girls, where reality always slaps everyone in the face as soon as happiness
glimmers. It was show business reality that selected Allison Williams' Marnie as the first to fall,
when actor Christopher Abbott, who played her love interest, the newly wealthy Charlie Dattolo,
decided not to return for Season Three. The season opens with Marnie crushed by the loss,
searching for a new apartment with her mother (Rita Wilson), who is urging her to get over it and
move on. But Marnie has never been good at moving on, and Williams' exploration of Marnie's
descent is one of Season Three's most consistently intriguing narratives. After years of
unsuccessfully attempting to make life fit into the preconceived patterns in her head, like the
pictures in a glossy catalog, Marnie's frustrations build to the point of explosion as she suffers
rejection on every front, watching others take jobs for which she's more qualified, seeing even
her neurotic best friend Hannah in a stable relationship (or so it appears), and unable to make the
world bend to her pretty smile as it used to.
Before long, Marnie will find herself doing things she never imagined and can barely believe.
She begins a relationship that she finds sexually fulfilling but of which she's so ashamed that she
won't tell anyone. (Caught
in flagrante and obviously in ecstasy by one of her friends, she
retreats into a variation of the classic little kid's defense, "He made me do it!") Then she gets
dumped by someone she considers beneath her, because (he says) she's not good enough for him.
Ultimately, she ends up angling to be the other woman in a stable relationship, setting herself up
for a catfight from which, win or lose, she cannot emerge as the Goody Two-Shoes she believes
herself to be. As Hannah eventually tells her best friend, "
You will
never judge me again!"
Jessa's adventures have landed her in rehab in upstate New York, where in her usual fashion, she
has become the agent of disruption to the point where the facility’s administrators arrange for her departure, whereupon she returns to Manhattan
and moves back with her cousin, Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet). But some of the chaos that Jessa created on her travels follows her home, and
new chaos she creates on her arrival piles on top. As we learned when we met Jessa's father in
Season Two, her indifference to the consequences of her actions is an inherited trait, but in
Season Three these consequences become so extensive and profound that even Jessa cannot
ignore them. By the end of the season, Jessa is brought up short by events to which even she
cannot remain blasé.
Shoshanna, who is planning her graduation from college this season, feels the gap closing
between herself and the other members of the group. Having broken with boyfriend Ray
Ploshansky (Alex Karpovsky)—even after he kicked himself into a new level of adult
responsibility as a restaurant manager to impress her—Shoshanna has broadened her sexual
horizons to the point where she is now just as comfortable gossiping about men as any of her
friends. Having cleared this hurdle, Shoshanna now views them all more critically. What have
they accomplished in the four years since college? What gives them the right to treat her with
such condescension? In Season Three, Shoshanna becomes the voice of every
Girls viewer who
has ever shouted, "Get over yourselves!" at the screen, and her most powerful expressions come
during the memorable episode 7 entitled "Beach House", when Marnie plans a getaway to her
mother's Long Island home for the foursome to reconnect. Naturally, the opposite occurs. (The
episode is also noteworthy for the reappearance of Hannah's gay college boyfriend, Elijah,
played by Andrew Rannells, who is summering in the same neighborhood with a group of
friends. He remains for the rest of the season.)
Dunham’s Hannah turns 25 in Season Three, and she remains the series’ center, whose adventures continue to fall into the twin categories of career
and relationship. On the latter front, Hannah and Adam Sackler (Adam
Driver) begin the season in what appears to be cohabitational bliss, but the prospects for two
such demanding and self-absorbed individuals as they buckle down to the day-to-day work of
maintaining a loving relationship aren't optimistic. Family complications arise when Adam's
estranged sister, Caroline (Gaby Hoffman), appears on the scene, and Hannah appoints herself
the family mediator (assuming, as she always does, that she is qualified to solve everyone else's
problems). Hannah's own parents (Becky Ann Baker and Peter Scolari, in recurring roles) let her
know that they don't think much of her long-term prospects with Adam, and Hannah's own
doubts are stoked by Adam himself, when he suddenly find himself with a career that absorbs all
his time and energy, leaving very little for her.
On the career side, Hannah has managed to complete the e-book for which her eccentric editor,
David Pressler-Goings (
Hedwig and the Angry
Inch creator John Cameron Mitchell), threatened
to sue. But as a result of both chance and labyrinthine machinations of the publishing industry,
the book isn't the career starter that Hannah hoped for (and, as we know from Season Two, the
advance was spent long ago). Still, in Season Three, Hannah gets the best writing job she's had
since leaving college, with good pay, benefits and security for the long term. The only drawback
is that it involves advertising, and the idealistic Hannah regards the work as a betrayal of her
"calling". (The scenes between Hannah and the rest of the staff are both painful and hilarious,
because she's right—they've sold out—and they're right—she's a self-righteous prig—and
none
of them are doing anything but complaining.) By the end of the season, though, a new
opportunity appears that could potentially change both Hannah's life and
Girls itself. But we
won't know until Season Four.
Girls continues to be enriched by its impressive roster of guest stars. In addition to those already mentioned, British actor Richard E.
Grant (
Withnail & I and
Hudson Hawk) appears as one of Jessa's fellow rehab
patients, and Broadway staple Debra Monk (
NYPD Blue) is the facility's
exasperated director. Comic legend Louise Lasser (
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) plays Beadie, an aging art photographer who hires Jessa to assist in cataloging her
archives (and for other purposes she doesn't initially disclose). Deirdre Lovejoy (
The Wire) and Amy Morton (
Chicago P.D.) play Hannah's feuding aunts, Sarah Steele (
Please Give) her supercilious cousin and June Squibb (
Nebraska) her grandmother in an episode (no. 9, "Flo") that digs deeper into Hannah's background than we've ever
seen. Jennifer Westfeldt (
Friends with Kids) has a
memorable turn as the wife of Hannah's editor, and Broadway diva Patti Lupone plays a parody of herself in an interview sequence that gives Hannah
a terrifying glimpse into the heart of darkness that is the life of a successful actor (and that actor's significant other).
Girls: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
The image on HBO's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays for Season Three of Girls is comparable to
that of Seasons One and Two, 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. The
color palette for this season is somewhat more varied, which probably results from the new
places where the stories took the show, some of which involved actual locations and some of
which had to be created on soundstages. As with previous seasons of Girls, I watched Season
Three 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 Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
As with previous seasons, the lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 delivers a nice sense of ambiance,
especially in a distinctive environment like the Long Island beach near the house in episode 7
where the group goes for a weekend (although the commentary informs us that all of the sound
had to be re-recorded in post-production because of the windy conditions). In venues with more
enveloping sound, like the club where Marnie finally makes another attempt to sing in public or
the Broadway theater where the group attends a play, the surround presence is more immersive,
but Girls continues not to offer obvious occasions for discrete rear effects or pans. The dialogue
remains clear, and Michael Penn continues to provide delicately nuanced underscoring that
comments so subtly on the action that it seems like a natural part of the scene. Listen closely to
Penn's song for the credits of the season finale; then ask yourself whether it's a happy ending or
a sad one.
Girls: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Commentaries: All of the commentaries are worth hearing, but the most consistently
informative are those with Dunham, Konner and Apatow, because of their producing
responsibilities.
- Episode 2, with Creator/Executive Producer/Director Lena Dunham (Hannah)
and Executive Producer Jenni Konner.
- Episode 7, with Zosia Mamet (Shoshanna), Jemima Kirke (Jessa) and Andrew
Rannells (Elijah).
- Episode 9, with Director Richard Shepard and Writer Bruce Eric Kaplan.
- Episode 10, with Creator/Executive Producer Lena Dunham (Hannah) and
Executive Producer Judd Apatow.
- Episode 11, with Writer Paul Simms and Alex Karpovsky (Ray).
- Episode 12, with Creator/Executive Producer/Director Lena Dunham (Hannah).
- Deleted and Extended Scenes: As one learns from the commentaries, much excess
footage is shot for each episode, and alternate versions are cut for many scenes to provide
options for the directors and producers. If not for time constraints, one can easily imagine many of these deleted
scenes being included. The alternate versions make for
interesting contrasts with the episodes as broadcast.
- Disc 1 (1080p; 1.78:1; 43:15)
- Episode 1
- Alternate Intro
- Sex & Shower
- Soul Cycle
- Females Only
- The Patients Watch TV
- Alternate Dinner Party
- Clothed Ending
- Episode 2
- Car Rental
- Jessa Kills Time
- Marnie's New Apartment
- Road Trip
- Hotel Walk-Through
- Shosh & Todd
- Jessamine
- Marnie Sets Up Her Apartment
- Episode 3
- Soul Cycle
- Ray's
- Marnie & Jessa
- Marnie & Hannah
- Photobooth
- Hannah & Caroline
- Hannah Opens Presents
- Marnie & Loreen
- Episode 4
- Shosh Cycle
- Silent Dancer
- Crunch
- Episode 5
- My Book Is Dead
- Wake-Up Call
- Sweet Emma
- Ray & Marnie
- Episode 6
- Disc 2 (1080p; 1.78:1; 18:44)
- Episode 7
- Hannah Calls Adam
- Hannah Calls Adam Again
- Celebrity
- Episode 8
- Episode 9
- Episode 10
- The Morning After
- Red Cardinal
- Make Yourself at Home
- Episode 11
- AA
- Marnie Googles Desi
- Strenova
- Bathroom Talk
- Episode 12
- Hannah & Elijah Shop
- Jessa Calls Her Dealer
- Marnie Runs For It
- 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 (1080p; 1.78:1; 18:02)
- Disc 2 (1080p; 1.78:1; 18:46)
- Lutheran Healthcare Honors Lena (Disc 1) (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:47): Lutheran Healthcare
is a major hospital in Brooklyn, and it really did honor Dunham for her assistance in
raising funds for their Mental Health Emergency Department, but this "tribute" quickly
turns into a self-parody portraying Dunham's (fictitious) megalomania on the set of Girls,
with various members of the cast confessing their traumatized state. Adam Driver is
particularly memorable, as he breaks down in tears.
- Gag Reel (Disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1): The running theme is that the cast of Girls, both
regular, recurring and guest stars, routinely crack up during takes.
- Part 1 (7:46)
- Part 2 (6:35)
- The Making of Girls (Disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1; 18:36): This season overview includes
rehearsals, table reads, a few additional deleted scenes and location footage from various
episodes throughout the season.
- Marnie Michaels, "What I Am" (Disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:40): An original music
video.
- Marnie & Desi, "Bet on Me" (Disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:28): A music video based on
the performance in episode 11.
- L'il Freckles, "Dancin' on the D" (Disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:47): The full version of the
performance seen in episode 11.
Girls: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
In its twisted, comedic fashion, Girls is a series of ongoing coming-of-age stories, and one of the
show's unique qualities is that it has a creator and show runner who is exactly the same age as
most of its main characters. Obviously, Girls isn't Lena Dunham's autobiography, although she
admits to using many details from her life as raw material, and Dunham isn't Hannah, any more
than Allison Williams is Marnie, or any other actor is the character they play. Still, most coming-of-age tales are told when the creators are older and
remembering an earlier time. It's rare to have
such stories created by people who are still living their own version, which I suspect is why Girls
feels nowhere near its peak. Its creative engine is still engaged in the very process of discovery
that the series' characters find so frustrating. Dunham may have become a polished speaker in
her public appearances, but no one writes dysfunction as effectively as she does without personal
experience. Unlike Hannah, though, Dunham actually sits down and writes—and keeps writing.
Highly recommended.