Season five of Girls is frustratingly endearing
The Emmy award-winning television series Girls, created by and starring Lena Dunham, returns to HBO for its fifth and penultimate season premiering on Feb. 21.. Dunham’s character, Hannah, rejoins her group of millennial friends from Brooklyn at Marnie’s (Allison Williams) wedding. The show continued its general format with humor that is hidden under multiple layers of irony and symbolism. It is no easy watch and can even be maddening at some points. Dunham and her team’s sharp writing points fingers at current fads in society like the Bohemian-chic fashion trend and young adults’ obsessions with flower crowns. Most of the humor in Girls is relayed through inventive dialogue satirizing modern culture with general themes of relationships, friendships and what it means to be a woman of the 21st century.
These themes are explored through the impossibly charming, and at the same time, somehow terribly awful lives of Hannah and her friends Marnie, Jessa (Jemima Kirke), Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) and Elijah (Andrew Rannells). Episode one of this season made fun of modern wedding themes. Marnie and her make-up artist decided on a theme that was “Selena Gomez meets Jesus” for her big day. Returning guest star Rita Wilson, who plays Marnie’s mother, is the voice of reason in this episode as she mocks the absurdity of the current trends in weddings. The satire continues throughout conversations of drug abuse and even controlling relationships. Dunham’s dark humor perfectly conveys society as the mess it truly is. These darker moments are met with touching dialogue between Hannah’s new boyfriend Fran and her lifelong friend Ray (Alex Karpovsky) that touches on modern relationships and narcissism of the 21st century. The first episode has a beautiful message of support and friendship and reminds the viewers why they continue coming back to watch this sometimes infuriating show. The characters are so relatable, yet continue to make painfully poor decisions every episode. The fact that viewers are able to sympathize with these characters proves just how brilliant the writing and perfectly subtle humor is.
Set primarily at the wedding, the season five opener contains many well-scripted discussions regarding true love and the hesitation present before commitment. The rare message that everything works out in the end is conveyed and begins the season on a hopeful note. Amongst all of this seemingly lighthearted conversation, however, lies the wedding drama that was bound to ensue. From weather problems to cold feet, Marnie’s big day is far from perfect. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be a Girls episode if Lena Dunham’s character didn’t bare it all for an awkward sex scene cramped in a small vehicle. Though critics may not still use “bravery” to describe this full-frontal nudity after five seasons, the general principle remains true. Dunham is truly heroic in showing that self-love is finally acceptable on screen, regardless of what body type is being featured. Her shameless writing and acting is an inspiration to all. She may just be the bravest feminist in the industry. Her playfully inappropriate humor is met with beautiful asides about individualism, love and trust.
The whimsical and slightly dark world that Dunham has created is adored by the young millennials who seem to relate to the problems conveyed in the series, however grotesque they may be. These problems are brought to life by the most frustrating group of characters on television today. Their ignorance provides some maddening confrontations, sex scenes and outright awkward drama. This season, Lena Dunham seems to be poking fun at her quirks, and the script even contains some meta jabs at herself through the characters in the show.
The expectations of the second-to-last season of Girls have so far been met by the sharp writing, beautiful cinematography and unique direction. Though the opener is ever-so-predictable, wedding episodes of any television series usually are. The most intriguing moments in this episode seem to be the more intimate moments, rather than the usual dark comedy. Ray shares one of the best moments of the show by saying that “love is about sacrifice and destiny and making a sacrifice for the one you love that allows them to find their destiny.” There are very few shows that can balance humor and heart-wrenching asides so well, thus proving yet again that Dunham is truly a genius. She has captured the staunch realism and painfully awkward nature of living as a young adult in today’s world, and this season is no exception.