Season 2 of HBO’s ‘Girls’: In Review

It seems that season two of HBO’s ‘Girls’ was just as unpredictable as season one. Throughout this season, creator and director Lena Dunham took the show from upbeat comedy series to a much more serious drama, as she explored darker themes of heartbreak, mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction.

Girls continued to follow four female college graduates trying to find their way through life while living in New York.

In the first episodes of the season Hannah, Marnie, Shoshanna and Jessa continued to chase adulthood before actively experiencing the lives of older, more successful people mid-way through the series. The turning point came in episode five, when Hannah’s rendezvous with an older doctor saw her spending two days with him in his fancy Brooklyn mansion.  This experience pulled Hannah to a more mature place and helped her to discover what she really wanted. It seemed that throughout the season the characters desperately wanted to be successful adults, but when faced with real-life adult difficulties they retreated. After the demise of her marriage, Jessa took off to her drug-addicted father’s house where the viewer learned that her unreliable nature was the result of abandonment from her family. Viewers also saw Marnie chase ex-partner Charlie after she learned of his business success.

Hannah managed a book deal but when faced with the stress of a one-month deadline her OCD began to resurface. She isolated herself more and more toward the end of the season. Her symptoms were one element of the show that took it from comedy to melodrama. Viewers could clearly see that Hannah was unravelling, and that she ultimately had no-one left to support her. Hannah’s ex-boyfriend Adam was also seen to break his sobriety. The relationship between Shoshanna and Ray slowly disintegrated over a number of episodes before Shoshanna (the youngest within the friendship group) actually proved herself to be the most mature by breaking it off with Ray. Marnie and Charlie got back together, which only highlighted Hannah’s isolation from the group.

After dragging viewers through some sadness, the season did end on a high note. Hannah became so desperate that she reached out to someone unexpected, which opened a door to season three. As the final episode ended, viewers were excited to see what could unfold between Hannah and this character, and if he will finally save her from herself.

At times, I felt the season became disjointed with each episode lacking fluidity with the episodes before. The change in scenes and the absence of important details (particularly in the case of Charlie and Marnie’s relationship) left me trying to put the pieces together on my own, wondering what happened to certain characters and how previous scenes eventuated in the overall story.

Season two of Girls brilliantly demonstrated the life journey of excitement and uncertainty of young women trying to figure out what they will become. This is a series that will always have critics and many people have criticized Lena Dunham for showing off her body in a shocking, intimate and vulnerable way during season two. It appears these critics miss the nature of Lena Dunham’s goal – to accurately reflect her generation in a raw way, for all its painful truths and laughs.

I believe that Girls remains one of best programs on TV. The show seeks to document an important time using relevant and genuine characters and does so with unwavering honesty and humor. It is brave and refreshing, and reflects real themes that young woman of Gen Y are facing.

by Sarah Bowyer