S06.E01: All I Ever Wanted

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

Trying Not To Catch A Wave On Girls

Sent to ride the surf, Hannah instead ends up riding a surfer.

[Cool Breeze]

7 hours ago, Mikrili said:

But isn't that part of the point? Nudity can be very boring, it's not always sexual or attractive. That is one of the points they are constantly trying to prove in the show. They don't use nudity in the show only to provoke, but to partly be funny and partly to be realistic. People are naked while having sex. People are sometimes naked in their homes when they are not having sex. Frankly,  I have always found it very strange that people are so provoked by the nudity of the show. I think the show runners would be happy with you finding the nakedness boring. 

True, but that's what makes Marnie's (AW's) concealing herself during sex more glaring and ridiculous.  There are other ways to shoot a scene like that to preserve the actress' modesty.  Her chest-clutching just looks silly.

And for all the acceptance of everyday nudity, I have to wonder whether the response would be the same if AW were as regularly and spectacularly nude as LD.

[SoothingDave]

On 2/13/2017 at 8:26 AM, qtpye said:

 A little disappointed in this episode.  I loved seeing Riz Ahmed smile and have fun, after the depressing slog that was The Night of.  However, I knew he would be gone in one episode, as people of color never last long on this program.

I really love the way all the ladies' in the surf school were perfect looking and athletic trophy wife types, but the cute surf instructor still liked Hannah.  I like the way Hannah revels in her body and does not hate herself for not living up to ideals (something a lot of twenty year olds are obsessed with, including myself at that age).

Where she loses me is with her personality.  Hannah, you are getting paid to "experience surf school".  This is a pretty sweet deal.  Her first impulse is to hide in her room?  I am sure she will still write an brilliant article and she really did look so happy when she was singing on the beach.  Hannah is on her way to being a more successful journalist then Rory Gilmore.

I do not think Lena Durham will have a successful career as an actor, since she can just play an exaggerated version of herself and little else.  However, I do see her being an influential writer...maybe she is going to be the voice of her generation (lol).

The surfer  dude knew that she was there to write an article.  She even used her expense account to buy him drinks.  I think he was just making sure she had a good experience to write about.  

The thing I find unimaginable is that someone like Hannah would actually have any writing talent.  She's too self-absorbed and emotionally stunted.  

Give me Ray and Shosh.  

[chocolatine]

22 minutes ago, Cool Breeze said:

True, but that's what makes Marnie's (AW's) concealing herself during sex more glaring and ridiculous.  There are other ways to shoot a scene like that to preserve the actress' modesty.  Her chest-clutching just looks silly.

It's like when Carrie/Sarah Jessica Parker was the only SATC character to wear a bra during sex.

[sugarbaker design]

21 minutes ago, SoothingDave said:

The thing I find unimaginable is that someone like Hannah would actually have any writing talent.  She's too self-absorbed and emotionally stunted.

Hemingway, anyone?

[luna1122]

17 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

Hemingway, anyone?

Yeah, I kind of thought self absorbed and emotionally stunted were, like, prerequisites for a writer. (i'm a writer, at least, in my mind).  Now whether she'd be a GOOD writer is maybe another thing.

[Lemons]

On February 13, 2017 at 7:43 PM, RedDelicious said:

 

Girls is supposed to be outrageous and that is why it is entertaining.  Although I do find some of her characterizations to be a bit trite, but that's okay.  I mean various outlets published articles about women having lesbian affairs in the Hamptons ages ago.  It's not new.  But I digress.  

I think Hanna made one lesbian joke but the article wasn't about affairs. It was going to be about rich suburban women ruining surfing just by getting into it.

i felt bad for Hanna thinking the relationship might actually go somewhere instead of being the usual "vacation" fling. 

[scrb]

8 hours ago, Cool Breeze said:

True, but that's what makes Marnie's (AW's) concealing herself during sex more glaring and ridiculous.  There are other ways to shoot a scene like that to preserve the actress' modesty.  Her chest-clutching just looks silly.

And for all the acceptance of everyday nudity, I have to wonder whether the response would be the same if AW were as regularly and spectacularly nude as LD.

Yeah but it's because the actress won't do nude scenes.

She will probably go for it when she's over 40, on some indie film which is about the only role she could get at that point.

[RedDelicious]

3 hours ago, Lemons said:

I think Hanna made one lesbian joke but the article wasn't about affairs. It was going to be about rich suburban women ruining surfing just by getting into it.

i felt bad for Hanna thinking the relationship might actually go somewhere instead of being the usual "vacation" fling. 

I was talking about the scene with the one Hamptonite in the platform sandals when Hannah first arrived. She was pitching a huge fit about the female surf instructor 'Tamra' not being there for the season. I thought that characterization was a bit trite.

Edited February 15, 2017 by RedDelicious

[Lemons]

1 hour ago, RedDelicious said:

I was talking about the scene with the one Hamptonite in the platform sandals when Hannah first arrived. She was pitching a huge fit about the female surf instructor 'Tamra' not being there for the season. I thought that characterization was a bit trite.

Yeah, that was kind of random. 

[kitkat343]

Quote

I don't agree with this at all. I don't even like Marnie, but she seemed completely delighted about Hannah's column. She was beaming. Sometimes people just read while they're peeing, yo. It's not a sign of disrespect. If anything, Shosh and Ray and Jessa seemed more disrespectful to me (tho funny), what with the 'not very ladylike' and the red penning and the not even reading it (or so it appeared).

I don't like Marnie either, and at first I was surprised and impressed that she seemed genuinely happy about Hannah's success.  This would actually show a lot of growth for her.  But then I remembered she is really more of Jessa's frenemy than friend, and wanted to throw her out of the friend group during the first season.  So I wonder if what was making her happy was seeing Jessa trashed in the sunday NYT (I'm assuming Hannah's article doesn't reflect all that well on her despite the gift basket last season)?  She definitely appeared happy while reading the article, but I'm not entirely certain why (and would be very glad and impressed if it was to support Hannah).    

Edited February 15, 2017 by kitkat343

[SoothingDave]

18 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Hemingway, anyone?

Yeah, Hannah isn't Hemingway.  

[sugarbaker design]

1 hour ago, SoothingDave said:

19 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Hemingway, anyone?

Yeah, Hannah isn't Hemingway.  

Considering Hannah is fictional and Hemingway isn't, I do not disagree.  I wasn't implying Hannah was a good writer, I don't know if Hannah is a good writer.  I was responding to the post (that I highlighted, but you left out) that Hannah couldn't be a good writer because she was 'too self-absorbed and emotionally stunted'.

Edited February 15, 2017 by sugarbaker design

[TattleTeeny]

Quote

And of course Hannah thinks she can just move into his life.  Her sense of entitlement covers all spheres. 

It would be different if she'd suggested that after he told her he had a GF, but I don't find it particularly entitled to bring up the possibility of sticking around to get to know a person you've just spent a pretty intense weekend with, especially considering they talked about ditching the negative trappings of Hannah's current living situation. Why would someone not assume that the other person might want the same?  

[Cool Breeze]

3 hours ago, TattleTeeny said:

It would be different if she'd suggested that after he told her he had a GF, but I don't find it particularly entitled to bring up the possibility of sticking around to get to know a person you've just spent a pretty intense weekend with, especially considering they talked about ditching the negative trappings of Hannah's current living situation. Why would someone not assume that the other person might want the same?  

Maturity.

They had fun.  That's it.  If it meant more, she can express her feelings which, in contrast to her legion of less-than-charming traits, is actually one of Hannah's admirable strengths.  But for her to assume he feels the same way is indicative of Hannah's outsize self-absorbtion and general inability to grow and learn from both her and others' life experiences.

[TattleTeeny]

While I agree that Hannah herself is severely immature, this incident doesn't illustrate that; it's the opposite of immature to come out and ask questions for which you'd like answers. Like tons of other shit in this world, you may never know until you ask. My BF of eight years is the result of what easily could have been a one-night stand if we'd both assumed the other must not really be interested, or neither of us had said anything (I also would not have scored a close-to-new refrigerator in my condo had I not asked the former owner if he really needed to take it).

Edited February 15, 2017 by TattleTeeny

[kieyra]

On 2/13/2017 at 6:55 AM, cardigirl said:

I first became aware of Rhiz Ahmed when I watched HBO's The Night Of.  He was awesome in that.  I would guess that casting him was a huge get for the show. 

Not to nitpick, but Girls is a very well-known, long-running HBO show, and The Night Of got somewhat mixed reviews. Aside from that, the HBO actors tend to jump around to other HBO shows a lot. 

I agree he's a good actor, but we've seen plenty of high-caliber guest actors on Girls. I have a feeling they get a kick out of it.

(Tangental soapbox not aimed at original post--and of course a running theme is "so and so would never be with someone who looks like LD in real life"--we've seen this with other attractive male guest stars who slept with Hannah. But no one bats an eye when some dumpy guy has a super-hot wife on the typical sitcom. I will continue to appreciate Girls for flipping the script on that one.)

[politichick]

On 2/13/2017 at 11:43 PM, feverfew said:

I agree. And I don't think Hannah was assuming anything. She suggested she might hang there longer and if not for the girlfriend he might have been down with the idea.

Oops! My I agree was in response to TattleTeeny's post, but agree with Kieyra, too, now that I've read it!

[Winston Wolfe]

Quote

(Tangental soapbox not aimed at original post--and of course a running theme is "so and so would never be with someone who looks like LD in real life"--we've seen this with other attractive male guest stars who slept with Hannah. But no one bats an eye when some dumpy guy has a super-hot wife on the typical sitcom. I will continue to appreciate Girls for flipping the script on that one.)

To me it's not merely an issue of Hannah not being "hot."  She's such an odious human being that I wouldn't sleep with her if she were a cross between Salma Hayek and Halle Berry.  With a splash of Kate Upton thrown in just for shits and giggles.  It's not all about looks. 

[kitkat343]

Quote

(Tangental soapbox not aimed at original post--and of course a running theme is "so and so would never be with someone who looks like LD in real life"--we've seen this with other attractive male guest stars who slept with Hannah. But no one bats an eye when some dumpy guy has a super-hot wife on the typical sitcom. I will continue to appreciate Girls for flipping the script on that one.)

To me it's not merely an issue of Hannah not being "hot."  She's such an odious human being that I wouldn't sleep with her if she were a cross between Salma Hayek and Halle Berry.  With a splash of Kate Upton thrown in just for shits and giggles.  It's not all about looks. 

This particular scenario seems possible to me - the surf instructor sees attractive, entitled, bored women who are alone on vacation constantly in his work, and seems to sleep with them a lot.  Hannah is different from anyone in his usual circle, and he decided to spend time with her for a little while.  The second she seemed to want to make this a long-term situation, he immediately shut her down by discussing his girlfriend.    I can understand men choosing to make Hannah an option for a little while, but it seems strange that they would choose her in the long term.

Fran seemed less realistic - Hannah is not a particularly good person, and he was willing to stay with her in that relationship even after she spent their first date trying to make her ex-boyfriend jealous and flashed their principal.  

Edited February 16, 2017 by kitkat343

[luna1122]

6 hours ago, kieyra said:

Not to nitpick, but Girls is a very well-known, long-running HBO show, and The Night Of got somewhat mixed reviews. Aside from that, the HBO actors tend to jump around to other HBO shows a lot. 

I agree he's a good actor, but we've seen plenty of high-caliber guest actors on Girls. I have a feeling they get a kick out of it.

(Tangental soapbox not aimed at original post--and of course a running theme is "so and so would never be with someone who looks like LD in real life"--we've seen this with other attractive male guest stars who slept with Hannah. But no one bats an eye when some dumpy guy has a super-hot wife on the typical sitcom. I will continue to appreciate Girls for flipping the script on that one.)

I appreciate them flipping the script as well. And I definitely bat an eye at the likes of Kevin James being cast opposite the goddess that is Salma Hayek. Girls of all sizes and levels of attractiveness manage to attract men, and Lena Dunham is cute and smart and funny, so I have no doubt she attracts plenty of men. However, Hannah, as has been pointed out, is not only not a terribly nice or appealing person, she is very often just plain gross.  Surfer guy saw her at her absolute grossest but for some reason still wanted to sleep with her. That's pretty baffling to me. It's not about her being not being as beautiful as jessa or as thin as Marnie. It's about being a blue tongued, vomity, whiny, lying, booze covered, probably smelly weird mess. Yeah, even if she looked like Salma Hayek but behaved the way Hannah does, I'd be baffled as to what he'd seen in her. 

[cardigirl]

17 hours ago, kieyra said:

Not to nitpick, but Girls is a very well-known, long-running HBO show, and The Night Of got somewhat mixed reviews. Aside from that, the HBO actors tend to jump around to other HBO shows a lot. 

I agree he's a good actor, but we've seen plenty of high-caliber guest actors on Girls. I have a feeling they get a kick out of it.

(Tangental soapbox not aimed at original post--and of course a running theme is "so and so would never be with someone who looks like LD in real life"--we've seen this with other attractive male guest stars who slept with Hannah. But no one bats an eye when some dumpy guy has a super-hot wife on the typical sitcom. I will continue to appreciate Girls for flipping the script on that one.)

I think Girls may appeal to a narrower segment of the population than other HBO shows, and several people on here had expressed unfamilarity with the actor.  I was pointing out that he wasn't unknown and therefore a desirable actor to get on the show. 

[sugarbaker design]

4 hours ago, cardigirl said:

desirable actor

Desirable indeed!  Saw him presenting at the BAFTA's on BBCAmerica this past Sunday, he's even more desirable with his English accent.  And I just found out he's presenting at the Academy Awards!

Edited February 16, 2017 by sugarbaker design
eta good news!

[politichick]

5 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Desirable indeed!  Saw him presenting at the BAFTA's on BBCAmerica this past Sunday, he's even more desirable with his English accent.  And I just found out he's presenting at the Academy Awards!

Oh, my. I didn't know he's British. I think I'm in love, now!

[SlackerInc]

I chuckled when Hannah first started talking to the instructor at the bar and we subtly saw that she had a blue tongue.  But I lost it when they cut to the dance floor and she just spazzily dumped that red drink all over herself and kept dancing.

The scene with Ray and Shosh talking about Paul Krugman while Marnie yawned was funny in a vacuum, but I'm not sure I buy Shosh taking that line or even being terribly familiar with Krugman (or reading the print edition of the NYT).

Poor Hannah.

[taanja]

I loved it. I laughed out loud at some parts. My girls are back!

Oh and I love Hannah. She has always been my favorite.

Jessa and Adam are a bit hard to take as is Shosh. (<<<her voice and mannerisms are annoying as ever) but it's just minor irritation so I can deal.

[taanja]

On ‎2‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 0:00 AM, WhosThatGirl said:

Yes the apartment is Rays. Actually it was Adams and in season 3 when he moved in with Hannah, Adam gave it to Ray and then when Adam was all I need space from Hannah, he stayed there.

This show is pretty much hate watching me for now and nothing else. And that makes me terribly sad. I wanted to like at least something.

Tganjs for telling me about the Star Wars guy! Like I said I'm not cool. But again that guy probably could be doing a much better character on a better show, right?

Nope. It's Adam's apartment. From the very first season. He let Ray live there when he wasn't. Then they kind of roomed together. Now obviously Adam has it back.

[chocolatine]

20 minutes ago, taanja said:

Nope. It's Adam's apartment. From the very first season. He let Ray live there when he wasn't. Then they kind of roomed together. Now obviously Adam has it back.

Really? I remember Adam's apartment in S1 and S2 completely differently, it had a lot less light. I thought he gave up that apartment when he moved in with Hannah, and gave the furniture to Ray, who put it into the apartment he got after breaking up with Shosh.

When Adam was rehearsing for his play and needed space from Hannah, he told her he would be staying "with Ray". Wouldn't he have said "at my place" if it was his apartment? 

[guilfoyleatpp]

I thought this was a fitting premiere episode. I enjoyed it. 

Lots of cringey stuff - Hannah's antics, mostly. But Shosh and Ray having their moment while Marnie stands there realizing she's an outsider was some pretty good foreshadowing. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

[taanja]

On ‎2‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 1:50 PM, chocolatine said:

Really? I remember Adam's apartment in S1 and S2 completely differently, it had a lot less light. I thought he gave up that apartment when he moved in with Hannah, and gave the furniture to Ray, who put it into the apartment he got after breaking up with Shosh.

When Adam was rehearsing for his play and needed space from Hannah, he told her he would be staying "with Ray". Wouldn't he have said "at my place" if it was his apartment? 

When Ray moved in he cleaned it--- I remember someone saying something about that.

[archer1267]

Just when I thought I couldn't hate Marnie more, she sneered at Shosh's home-made coffee ("I have REAL coffee") and bitched about not getting more wedding gifts. Do people like Desi exist in Real Life? What an over-the-top caricature.

This episode reminded of the Seinfeld episode about "good" naked and "bad" naked.

[AmandaPanda]

If I did a shot every time someone called someone "baby" in this episode, I would have been drunk before the end of the first Ray/Marnie scene. Why? Just why?

[Rockfish]

2 hours ago, AmandaPanda said:

If I did a shot every time someone called someone "baby" in this episode, I would have been drunk before the end of the first Ray/Marnie scene. Why? Just why?

Lol. I found the whole "baby" thing cringeworthy, similar to when I hear it in regular life. When couples use that endearment, they seem as if they're trying too hard to sound in love. Of course Marni and Ray say "baby" to each other: each is pretending for different reasons.

[DianeDobbler]

It's not such a huge deal to be published in the NY Times as a one-off. The NY Times itself is pretty predictable.  A friend I've mentioned in another post has a sister who is a writer. Her writing is not to my taste, but one thing she does is write. She is prolific. She's earned a decent living for years. She told me one of the things she learned was when she was rejected by a minor publication, she submitted the same piece to the Times and wasn't rejected by the Times. And she knows why. She's extremely good-looking. The subject covered the sort of thing the Times loves to publish - feminist ambivalence crossed with a sexual theme that ends up showcasing that the author's feminism is weak/self-serving. I was like - dude, this never happened to you that way, you are not that girl (in real life she's not at all equivocating). But it was a skew on something that happened to her and she knew how to pitch it to the Times (and they knew what she looked like). A girl who looks like Hannah with an ex like Adam who takes up with a girl who looks like Jessa and all the issues that brings up in Hannah is right up the NY Times' alley. She could end up working that angle. At the "Moth" reading, I think the key was that, without commenting on her own appearance, she mentioned what Jessa looked like, and how that was a factor in her reaction to Jessa being with Adam. Then in the surfer piece, she is sent out to the Hamptons purely because of what she looks like. I know there is a market, at least as long as she's in her twenties and into the mid part of her thirties, for her to be an unglamorous woman moving in a glamorous environment where there are a lot of beautiful people, among them her friends, and writing about it. There's money in hate reads. If she wrote as a woman who looks like her and still fucks guys like Jean-Louis, or has the effrontery to resent her super-built, budding acting star ex hooking up with her very beautiful friend, or feels as entitled as a beautiful woman does to show her body or proposition someone or be demanding, she will be hate read all over the place (I am not endorsing this, and I think LD knows what she's doing).

In prior seasons I used to not believe Hannah got some of the guys she got. But there's also the old saying, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Hannah always takes a shot. She's always game. She's pretty much impervious to humiliation. She's selfish, which is a hook for some people because they try to win the person over or figure them out. In Jean-Louis's shoes, or flip flops, I can see why he hooked up with Hannah. No downside, he was leaving the country shortly. In his job, he is surrounded by a bunch of vain, uninteresting women who are all pretty much alike, maybe with similar lives. Hannah is different, she has no inhibitions, she speaks her mind, she's humiliation proof, she can be challenging. Not every guy, particularly Jean-Louis who has racked up some impressive numbers when it comes to sex partners, is after the best body, or at least someone conventionally attractive. If he's constantly got opportunity, he may decide to go for the adventure one weekend. Hannah would be an adventure for a weekend. Certainly a welcome change of pace.

At the start of the episode was distracted by the fact that I recognized the tunic the "Where is Tamra" woman was wearing as a Free People tunic also worn by Rebecca in Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

And I also agree with Mikrili on nudity. It's been in our culture that only if a woman is beautiful is it okay to be nude, because nudity is supposed to be provocative for the viewer, a woman is supposed to be an object, and if her body doesn't qualify as an object, then it's just her, and who wants to see it. I think Dunham is making a point here. It's a woman's body, not an object. And OMG, a woman who is not conventionally attractive enjoys being naked!

I like Shoshanna and Ray and I hope they "end up" with each other, but I felt their scene was forcing something that has always been natural between the actors. They have chemistry naturally, no reason for the scene to push it. Where Marnie is concerned, I think she was transparently using Ray as her back-up, as her property, and she didn't want her power over him diluted by Shoshanna. Nothing to do with her feelings for Ray, everything to do with his utility.

[SlovakPrincess]

On February 14, 2017 at 9:28 AM, CofCinci said:

I figured the Marnie/toilet scene was to illustrate that she really didn't care about Hannah's writing/success. All the other friends/family/ex were shown reading with intent and attention. Marnie read it because it was there while using the toilet.  She literally doesn't give a shit about Hannah's success -- especially while her music career fizzled. 

Actually I had the opposite take on this one ... as aggravating as Marnie is, she seemed genuinely psyched for Hannah -- and she's on the toilet, alone, and not "performing the role of good friend" as she normally is when she's out with the other girls and secretly jealous (but trying to say the right things).

Now, she's Marnie, so her pride in Hannah's authorship is more about the status of publication in the NYT rather than whether the column is any good.  But I still thought she was genuinely happy for Hannah.  

 

Whereas Adam and Jessa only cared about how they were portrayed and Shosh seemed to actually dislike it.  

I did like all the reactions to it: Hannah's mom seething at Adam, her dad being overcome with pride .... and Ray appreciating it, but still finding an error ("sloppy!" -- hee!).

Edited September 9, 2017 by SlovakPrincess