TV: Girls (S2) (4/10)

Why did I watch it?

I quite enjoyed the first season of Lena Dunham's Girls, through its quirky adult humour and carefree attitude it was a breath of fresh air and season two followed hot on its heels in the UK.

What's it all about?

Following on from the events of its debut season, Girls returns to find the four twenty-somethings, Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna still dealing with unglamorous modern day adult life in the Big Apple. Hannah finally gets a book deal, Marnie loses her job, Jessa's honeymoon period ends and Shoshanna begins a relationship with Ray.

Should you watch it?

The season's tagline is 'Almost getting it kind of together', which must be the biggest in-joke in the TV industry. This season saw both all of the characters and the show itself fall apart spectacularly. Only in the final episode does the outlook of the main characters begin to show signs of improvement, but by then it is too late, the previous nine episodes charting the odd and downright bizarre unravelling of the girls' lives being too much to bear. Why is everyone and everything in Lena Dunham's imagination so cringe-worthy and weird? Is anyone normal in the state of New York? Parents, friends, employers, all complete stereotype eccentrics.

Coke fuelled night out (for book research) wearing a
yellow string vest and no bra?
Why not, its Girls.

Second time around I found several of the characters more annoying than amusing, none more so than Dunham's Hannah. Her whining, self-obsessed nature became unbelievably grating and frankly it's no wonder she finds herself abandoned in her time of need. This was a shame, as the final episodes reveal an underlying health problem of Hannah's has returned that genuinely made me sympathise with her during a few sombre scenes, but it was too late for me and my relationship with her character.

The narrative jumps around all over the place from episode to episode, and we spend more time with a few of the other characters, like Adam and Ray, usually resulting in most of the funnier moments. It would be unfair to say that the script became unfunny this time around, 'I may be deflowered but I am not devalued' or 'I'm a miracle. I'm a unicorn. I'm a needle in a haystack...and you are munching my hay', but with the oddities, annoying characters, gratuitous nudity, awkward sex and somewhat depressing nature, the season was nowhere near the success of the first. In fact, my wife declared that she wants nothing to do with any further seasons!