I had been toying around with making April a month of favorites, (I'm aware the last time I did a theme month I landed flat on my face about halfway through, but let's try this again and see if I make it to the finish line). Therefore, starting today, and through the end of April, we're going to be taking a bit of a peak at my favorite television shows and movies through the years.
I will say at the onset that the word is "favorite" here and not the word "best." That's because there's a major difference-I can argue for days about the technical merits of a particular film or television program, and yet certain movies because of personal history, the way they speak to you, or simply the joy they provide move up your personal canon. So I won't say that all of these films/TV shows will necessarily be Sight and Sound worthy, or that they'll all even sweep their respective OVP years, but I will say that I love them all.
For the television shows, so that we're going to end on time, we're going to do a Top 15, and start with the ten best episodes of Girls, with a little bit of a recap for each of them. This isn't a perfect science (I haven't re-watched every episode to grade them, as then I wouldn't finish this until November), but the comments are there to tell me when I missed an episode or your personal fave.
10. "Boys" (#2.6)
A lot of what made the second season of the show great was the deteriorating relationship between Marnie and Hannah, and no episode quite lent itself to that story in such a subtle way as "Boys." Girls is almost always at its best with the jaw-drop right before the credits, and I loved the way that both girls, after having truly awful days (Hannah with her eBook, Marnie with her crumbling relationship with Booth), lied to each other on the phone, showing that they no longer felt comfortable sharing the worst of themselves with each other. Bonus points to the writers for pairing up Adam and Ray in a hilarious trip to Staten Island (hence the title of the episode).
9. "Together" (#2.10)
Girls sure knows how to pull together a finale, and Season 2, which some people called rocky (I didn't agree, though I would say it wasn't as succinct and planned as the first one), still tied up enough loose ends to be complete. Hannah's breakdown took a further dark turn, but the things to love about this particular episode are all of the little touches that Lena Dunham inserted into the script that ever-so-gently taught us about the characters. I love the way that Adam, for example, was more than aware of Hannah's OCD or how Hannah had to end her conversation with Jessa (who has gone missing) with an "I love you," since it was both true and habit, even though she probably hated Jessa in that moment. Throw in Shosh berating Ray for not liking pillows, and you've got a great installment with our four women.
One of the weirdest but somehow completely sensical decisions of season three was pairing Ray, the candid and wholly unsuccessful, with Marnie, the show's most self-obsessed and delusional character. Their conversation about Africa showed both of their limited world views, even though neither really wanted to admit it. I also loved the way that Hannah would think that a legitimate, excellent job was worth quitting because she's an artist, even though most people would kill for a writing gig at GQ. Throw in Shosh deciding mid-sex that she wants to dump a guy, and you've got one of the show's funniest episodes.
7. "She Did" (#1.10)
You have to hand it to a show like Girls-just when you feel like the groove is there for the series, they pull all the rugs out from under you. The relationship between Adam and Hannah, one of the driving forces of the first season? Gone. Jessa, our independent woman of the world? Married to Thomas John. Shosh, our naive and sexually-naive underdog? Lost her virginity, to Ray of all people. And Marnie, the world's worst decision-maker? She sabotages things once again with Charlie, the world's nicest guy, and fools around with Bobby Moynihan. Lena Dunham defies expectations, and here "She Did" just that.
6. "All Adventurous Women Do" (#1.3)
The best parts of this episode were certainly Hannah meeting Elijah (I love that Andrews Rannells in what seems like a one-off sort of role, ended up being a series semi-regular), and the back-and-forth between Hannah and her gay former boyfriend, and of course Shosh, the series' Charlotte York (Season 1 Shosh was utter joy every time she opened her mouth), talking swiftly about her favorite game show Baggage. The end, with Hannah tweeting the ambiguous "All Adventurous Women Do" about her recent HPV diagnosis put a capper on the episode, but also cemented my love for the show. Three episodes in, it started to find its groove. And don't we all just want to dance to Robyn?
I threw your shit into a bag and threw it down the stairs, I crashed my car into a bridge...I don't care...whatever writer decided that Icona Pop's techno ballad of indifference was a perfect fit for Girls deserves a raise and a gold medal. The song became instantly associated with the show after a coked-out Hannah and Elijah danced to it in a club, and the lyrics perfectly summed up the quartet's attitude toward life and in a way, each other, during the second season. Hannah's quest to find cocaine throughout the episode was hilarious, and this is the episode where Marnie gets locked in an art project and then proceeds to have kinky sex with the guy who trapped her. Poor, terrible Marnie.
4. "Beach House" (#3.7)
Picking a favorite moment in "Beach House" is impossible. After a season where we hadn't seen the girls all four together, this episode showed that they could be friends (via Instagram). Hannah's self-involvement hit a fever pitch (how could she think inviting Elijah over to the girls' weekend would be a good idea?), Marnie's Barefoot Contessa-style party reads like something she found on Goop.com and decided that she, too, could be Gwyneth Paltrow, and the fight was just epic (the best line was Jessa trying to defend Shosh by saying she read the newspaper once on her phone). At the end of the episode, they all sort of forgive each other by doing a silent dance by the ocean, and we're left feeling like this check-in with each other was completely worth the wait.
Where do we go from here? In what is probably the halfway point of the series (Lena Dunham has hinted she'd like the show to be six seasons long), we got to see Hannah, after so many missed opportunities, take her career and life into her own hands. She was accepted to the legendary Iowa Writers Workshop, and thankfully her parents pushed her to actually pursue this opportunity (after screwing up her e-Book and the GQ internship, I was going to break my glass of merlot while I was watching if Hannah threw yet another opportunity out the window). Of course, this is Girls, so Hannah, in a rare move of naivety that isn't informed by deceit, tries to tell Adam before his Broadway debut, only to have him blow up at her and dump her. The rest of the episode was brilliantly dark, however: Marnie once again sabotages herself by kissing Desi (her actual chance at some career success gone away with her trademark lack of awareness), Shosh realizes she's not graduating and is rejected by Ray (even after a season where Shosh become extremely unlikable, this was really tough for me to watch), and Jessa finally went too far (helping her boss attempt suicide, with the boss deciding she wants to live after it may be too late). All-in-all, it's a finale that leaves you wanting more without too much of a cliffhanger.
2. "One Man's Trash" (#2.5)
In the world of Girls, there is no more divisive moment than this random, side dream episode with Hannah having an affair with a man she randomly meets at a coffee shop. The episode caused some of the most sexist controversy I've ever seen (forget the naked ping pong-we all know the controversy was because the less traditionally-attractive Lena Dunham was the object-of-desire of the conventionally handsome Patrick Wilson). The episode delves deep into Hannah's psyche, and gives us what is a complete, whole episode of Girls. We've all had moments like this if we had a complicated enough twenties, and I loved that Dunham's confidence was enough that she could take the series in a complete tangent for one episode. A home run, in this viewer's opinion.
During a television series' run, there are episodes that aren't necessarily essential that somehow become iconic. This episode most certainly was just that. You have Jessa proving how fabulous she is by dumping her boss, who uncomfortably realizes that his youth is gone and he can no longer be what Jessa is or could be. You have Marnie having one of several moments to come where she realizes the universe doesn't revolve around her as she deduces that Charlie can function without her. You have Hannah getting the words every woman/gay guy in their twenties yearns to here from the complicated guy in their life, "do you want me to be your boyfriend?" (the final scene with her suppressing a smile=heaven). And then you have Shosh, tripping on crack, discussing kick-boxing and offering to massage Ray, proving that Zosia Mamet is the funniest person on television. All-in-all, a home run of an episode, and my favorite so far.
There you have it-the first in our series of John's favorites. What about you? What are your thoughts on Girls? Do you have a favorite character? Where would your personal favorite episodes rank? Share in the comments!
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