Television Discussion Thread

Sorry for the semi-spoiler. HBO Go streams them way ahead of broadcast time.

i was surprised at how weak the writing was in S02E03. they really didn't put an interesting spin on any of the "take drugs cause drama" cliche. the "bad friend" dialogue was really really bad.

i loved that art weeny though and watching Marnie plummet all the way down the self-respect totem pole is pretty shocking and interesting.

Just popped up in my Facebook feed:

I don’t need you to say sorry, Marnie. That’s not why I came. That’s boring. Okay? What I actually need, is for you to recognize, that maybe, I’m not the bad friend, and you’re not the good friend. Okay? So you know what, Marnie? I don’t need to play by your rules anymore. Okay? I don’t want to walk with you to the far away Rite Aid, to pick up your Cipro prescription. And I’m sorry I don’t want to go to Serendipity, and drink Frrrozen Hot Chocolates, with your uncle’s girlfriend, who is a stewardess, named Elodie. And I definitely, definitely don’t care about putting on appropriate pants, cause one can really go through their whole life wearing shorty-shorts and offend almost nobody. That’s not what makes somebody a good or a bad friend. What makes you a good friend is not doing something that you know will intentionally really hurt another person. And you did that, and you looked me in the eyes, again and again, and you lied to me, with your eyes, and you said to me, by not saying anything, that you’d done nothing. So guess who’s the bad friend? It’s you. So why don’t you just say who’s a good friend, and who’s a bad friend? I think we know.

Okay, fine! I’m not a good friend.

Thank you! I don’t even care. We can keep being friends just so long as you know you’re a bad one…

I don't just like this show. I "like" this show.

haha, i "like" this show too

ray & shoshanna scene in episode 4 was the best writing of this entire program so far

monotony wrote:haha, i "like" this show too

ray & shoshanna scene in episode 4 was the best writing of this entire program so far

trying to suspend my disbelief that ray would even be able to tolerate shoshanna but otherwise yeah

also it sucks to see elijah presumably gone but the end of the jessa and her dipshit husband subplot is A++

I pretty much called exactly how Jessa's marriage was going to end the minute the episode opened with them, but it was still satisfying to see it play out.

Shit, episode four. Best of the series, I think. Love the shit out of that restaurant scene.

This is the "show about nothing" that television and this nation in general needs right now. As Seinfeld was during the '90s.

Kinda got super bored after the 3rd or 4th episode of Girls season 1.

Not really interested in this sort of thing.

After the show was blasted for being too white, I think it's hilarious how they found the whitest hip black actor, made him a republican, and booted him inside of two episodes. You happy now? Back to fags & artists fucking white girls!

Also, looking forward to the inevitable return of Adam. Hard to believe Hannah hasn't checked on him in jail yet.

Aww shit, Yvonne Ruperti is on America's Test Kitchen on Create. Probably my #1 TV crush, although the few web photos do her no justice.

This is the only good one, and the makeup lady's hoof is in the way. Perfect eyebrows.

Wasn't thrilled with the new The Walking Dead last night. If they would just air the entire season rather than splitting it up it probably wouldn't have seemed that disappointing. Just with the wait and the hype I was hoping for more.

woah @ the new girls

Good episode of Downton Abbey. Show is at it's best when stuffy British people encounter things.

monotony wrote:woah @ the new girls

I think it was one of my favorite episodes in either season, having just watched it. Unsure how I'll feel tomorrow.

I'm torn between digging it on an artistic level vs. complaining about how Hannah is my least favorite character and that at this point I'm kind of sick of looking at her naked body.

Her being a disgusting, naked chick is why I don't watch that show anymore paves bro.

Paves wrote:I'm torn between digging it on an artistic level vs. complaining about how Hannah is my least favorite character and that at this point I'm kind of sick of looking at her naked body.

check out my twitter exchange with @augetsthegold on this topic.

I've really been seriously divorcing my own personal approval or sympathy for individual characters from my judgment of a piece of art.

This episode was like a Woody Allen movie.

See, that's what I thought about the last episode and really enjoyed it as a sort of film-like "ensemble comedy" as opposed to a TV episode that cuts between various things happening to multiple characters.

#5 reminded me of the time I watched the movie Somewhere, which also includes a scene where people are playing ping pong. And it made me wonder just where this show is gonna be taken since they've already gotten to the point where the latest episode is aesthetically more like a short film than any of the other ones.

Mostly just made me think about the potential of future episodes rather than sucking me in, like a lot of the more gripping Louie episodes have managed to do.

Personally, though, I feel like Lena Dunham taking shit a little too seriously is gonna be the downfall on this show. In the Red Eye they asked her who she would kill off if forced to choose and she gave a really lame answer, basically saying, "Not Hannah because the show is about her! So I guess Shoshanna." Which is not the answer that I want to hear and indicates that we are not on the same page at all.

Paves wrote:Mostly just made me think about the potential of future episodes rather than sucking me in, like a lot of the more gripping Louie episodes have managed to do.

Personally, though, I feel like Lena Dunham taking shit a little too seriously is gonna be the downfall on this show. In the Red Eye they asked her who she would kill off if forced to choose and she gave a really lame answer, basically saying, "Not Hannah because the show is about her! So I guess Shoshanna." Which is not the answer that I want to hear and indicates that we are not on the same page at all.

otfm man. the more i read about Lena the more i think that she is buying in to the "voice of a generation" and the fact that the show is called Girls and therefore the idea that it is supposed to be true to real life to a fault. she's pivoting from mocking her characters to saying "wait a minute, i can move past the sarcasm and make my show really self-important and leave my mark". so now everything is going for the emotionally profound.

had a conversation with my mom where she basically said this episode was a rehash of one of the plot lines of Tiny Furniture that hits at the core of what being an artist is really all about. me and her sort of think that beyond the stuff Lena pretends to try and say about millennial or comedy or whatever that the show is really about what its like to be an artist and an artist finding her voice.

jasperness wrote:the show is really about what its like to be an artist and an artist finding her voice.

Yeah, this is a big reason why I got into it in the first place. Which is interesting considering that so much of the show involves her just fucking around putting off actually doing anything.

Probably my favorite moment in the season so far is in episode three when the Marnie/Booth Jonathan plotline allows you to get a glimpse of what a successful working artist's environment/life actually looks like...and it's all clearly intended to come across as nothing more than the most ridiculous bullshit. Really enjoyable bit of satire there.

I'd be curious to hear how you and/or your mom would consider episode five to have anything to do with "what being an artist is really all about." Do you just mean that artists are addicted to seeking out "inspiration" (or stories or whatever) at the expense of living more seemingly stable, "happy" lives? I'm feeling like this show is just leading to an episode where Hannah pitches an idea for the exact show that we've been watching...just like in the fourth season of Seinfeld!

Paves wrote:I'd be curious to hear how you and/or your mom would consider episode five to have anything to do with "what being an artist is really all about." Do you just mean that artists are addicted to seeking out "inspiration" (or stories or whatever) at the expense of living more seemingly stable, "happy" lives?

exactly. this is what all the episodes where Hannah just runs away at the end are about. and why she always manufactures conflict between her friends. in her mind she is "sacrificing for her art" when actually she is being vile and miserable towards other people for her own selfish reasons. it's what makes the whole Marnie "NO YOU'RE THE BAD FRIEND" arc such great satire.

Okay.

EDIT: