HBO's Girls

So I was right in post #98. No more Ray or Adam. It surprises me a bit that the rest is just Marnie and Hannah, but it's been heavy in terms of time with those two the whole season.

 

Just looked at the cast list of Girls in IMDB... I never registered that all four girls have first and last names that start with the same letter: Hannah Horvath, Marnie Michaels, Jessa Johansson, Shoshanna Shapiro. I'm not sure I ever knew Jessa's last name.

 

Even though they all had some closure I thought there might at least be quick looks at them at the end, in a montage or something.

 

Yeah, me, too. Oh well, the show has always been a vehicle for Lena Dunham first and foremost, so I guess it's fitting it's all about her at the end.

 

Marnie is easily the most unlikeable character, but it's been pretty well established that she and Hannah are closely connected, so we'll have to suffer through the two of them in the last episode.
I've only gotten into this show very recently, mainly out of boredom, but I have grown to like it, and I can certainly appreciate how well-written it is. But the characters are so loathsome that once it goes I probably won't revisit it. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like problematic characters (hello "You're The Worst"), but these people are the pits. The only saving grace is Andrew Rannells-he's snarky as all get out and so funny.

 

Well, I'll admit I was wrong. My heart sank as they skipped five months ahead to after the childbirth, which is exactly what I was afraid they would do. But the finale was absolutely hilarious and it was because of, not in spite of, the baby. Or, you know, Hannah not dealing with the baby. I did think we'd get to see her being fired on her first day on the job but maybe keeping a tight focus was the wiser course.

 

I, too, cringed a bit when I saw the "5 months later". But it turned out being better than okay.

I think Hannah's character is an all time great. It looks like she hasn't grown or learned...anything in the 6 years this show has been on. But she has. Even if she is the last to realize it.

Hannah's mother was great (in the entire run of this show) in tonight's episode. Hers was the one voice that Hannah truly listened to. And as it turned out the only voice Hannah needed.

Marnie seemed to take a turn for the more likeable. Until I realized Marnie wasn't trying to help Hannah for Hannah's sake, but for her own lost sense of purpose.

This series ender was remarkably clean. We got all of our answers. No loose ends. That's not always how I like my series to end. But I'm okay with this one.

Hannah moves forward. Still filled with anxiety. And yet a weird confidence. But I'm rooting for what happens to her next. I don't have full faith she'll be great at it. I'd love to see what's up with her and her child 5 years from now to find out.

 

I've watched this show from the beginning and have never decided whether I enjoy or loath it. The ending hasn't changed that.

 

Not sure how I felt about the ending. If pressed, I didn't like it that much.

 

This was a pretty confounding series and the finale was no different. On the surface it would appear that motherhood is the saving grace of all women, no matter how reprehensible, and the final shot of Hannah as her baby finally latches on seems like a "Oh wow it's not all about me!" moment. I think however you could look at the show as a journey for all of the characters, a journey towards some kind of understanding of the world and their place in it. For some, the world revolves around them-others can't seem to fit into the world at all. From a strictly dramatic framing standpoint, it is ironic that the series starts out with the parents cutting Hannah off, and then ends with a lost Loreen trying to find some salvation by being there for Hannah at the end. And if this ending just doesn't do it for you, you could always look at the previous episode as the series finale (as Lena has said it was), and just forget this episode ever happened. It's what I try to do with Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother.

 

So if the pentiultimate episode was meant to be the last one why didn't they just go with that? Was there some kind of contract that stipulated ten episodes? The last episode seemed rather superfluous.

 

You're right. I read that the second to last episode was the real last episode. But then Judd Apatow convinced them to make the episode they wanted to make. Not the one they had to make. Personally I could've done without it.