The third season of Girls kicked off Sunday night with a double episode premiere. Watching Girls live while on campus is a bit of a struggle due to our less than premium student cable package. If you're lucky enough to have an HBO go account, than it's easy to watch the episodes after they air. HBO has recently developed some sort of social conscious as well, posting full episodes on their youtube channel 10 hours after they've aired live. Finally, anyone with internet access can watch hours of sex and drug ridden violent television no matter their socioeconomic background!
Link for youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgJtd6hBeRc
Despite my cynical comments, I couldn't be more pleased that Girls is back, and easier to watch than ever. The third season picks up a few weeks or months after the point where the second season left us. If you forgot how the second season ended, here is a recap.
Recap link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBfsichGfVs
In the first few minutes of the episode, we discover that Charlie has dumped Marnie, Hannah has gotten her life and budding career back together after a brief mental breakdown, Shosh has entered a carefree, single-girl phase, and Jessa is in rehab. Marnie's character underwent a mini-revolution last season when she lost her job at the art gallery, and mistakenly believed she was the girlfriend of men she was casually sleeping with twice. Watching Marnie struggle is always a bit pleasing, perhaps because she's so pretty, or because she's so selfish, or ever because she reminds us of someone we know. Her struggle continues on in season three, and for whatever reason, it's great fun to watch. Though she isn't super present in either episode, we do find out that she and Charlie broke up. The episodes might have been a little more enjoyable with a little more Marnie, but hopefully we'll get our fill next week.
The first episode did not have nearly enough Shoshanna. She provides much of the show's comic relief, and she was barely present in episode one. Episode two had Hannah, Shosh and Adam going on a road trip to “rescue” Jessa from rehab. Their car ride brimmed with great dialogue between Adam and Shoshanna. Shosh seems to be more confident now that her virginity, and relationship virginity is lost. She's had sex and a long term boyfriend, and now she's going through her self proclaimed slutty phase. She's still the naïve, privileged, Jewish, college girl we love, but placed in new situations and new cirumstances. Adam offers her a lot of advice, begrudgingly given, and their incredibly disparate characters vibe off each other well, with Hannah eating food and being gross and scantily clad in the background as the straight man.
Jessa in rehab is pretty great. Season three left her lost and struggling with daddy issues. The daddy issues are still present, as we see her interact with a father figure in rehab. As soon as we see the old British man enter the episode, we fear the vulgar sex scene we will soon have to watch. However, Girls never fails to surprise. The writing keeps from going stale in episode three when Jessa obviously does engage in vulgar rehab sex, but with a surprising partner. For the most part, we see Jessa coming back, still wounded from her visit to her father, but fighting her way out of a depression in the form of hilarious verbal attacks on her fellow rehab inmates.
Hannah plays the straight man, or straight woman I should say, in the first two episodes of season three. She's back with Adam, and they're grosser, and weirder than ever. She's still selfish, constantly hungry, and even more constantly naked.
The first two episodes were fresh and funny. We saw Jessa and Marnie at new personal low points, and an older, more mature Shoshanna. We'll have to wait to next Sunday to watch Marnie pull herself out of the post Charlie break-up hole, and Jessa continuing to discover who she is after rehab. Personally, I can't wait to see a little more single Shosh.
