FASHION Magazine

My Twitter feed last Sunday was full of comments celebrating episode three as the best yet for Girls. I think that’s due to the girls teaming up with more supporting characters—seeing Marnie and Jessa in their work environs provided some new perspective. The first two episodes set up the group dynamic, and this week certainly offered a measured dose of self-discovery. Shoshanna tried to ditch her virginity baggage, Jessa realized that the easy job she took for easy money comes with two real responsibilities, Hannah decided what level of uncomfortable she’s willing to put up with and Marnie—well, Marnie got an actual table and then had the metaphorical tables turned on her.

Let’s discuss this week’s problems »

How are you feeling about the girls of Girls right now? Do you like them, or are you siding with critics who can’t keep from pointing out the show’s flaws? Have you resigned yourself to not liking the characters and just getting through this whole thing with them in a vote of female solidarity? (“If we don’t watch, the Two and a Half Mens of this world win!”) Or, maybe like me, you like them simply because they’re not trying too hard to be liked (unlike Marnie around a hot artist)?

Last week, we saw how our foursome each reacted to an abortion in their midst, experienced two distinctly awful rounds of sex, discovered there was a virgin in the pack, and saw how easily an unwanted pregnancy could disappear. This week there was no sex but lots of body image talk. From Adam playing with Hannah’s belly fat to Shoshanna telling Jessa it wasn’t a good thing that she could see her belly—it wasn’t exactly Our Bodies, Ourselves but there was masturbation and STDs. The narcissistic tunnel these ladies have us trapped in was given a light by the introduction of a few outside characters: Marnie’s tit-tape-dependant gallery director, Hannah’s now-gay ex and the NYC-version of a nuclear family Jessa is babysitting for. (Aside: was the name of the neighbour in the kid’s novel called Shamaia Grimes, like the kid did not know how to spell Shenae Grimes’s name properly? Yes/No/Maybe?)

While we loved seeing the girls run like pack animals in the last episode, it was interesting to see how they operate away from one another this ep. Marnie seems like the grown-up of her group, but in the so-called art world she’s low on the social order and just as capable of being intimidated by a guy she wants to like her. But let’s get back to the body talk.

Let’s talk about sexy ba-by »

Welcome to our weekly recap of Girls, the new show from HBO that media are touting as Sex and the City for Millennials. It’s likely journalists just like to compare things that share numbers, like New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys had five guys singing to teenage girls, because while Sex and the City and Girls both take a concerted look at the lives of four women living in New York City, that is where the similarities awkwardly pause. Girls is mostly concerned with Hannah, who is 24, works in publishing and lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn like a current-day Emily Gould. Hannah lives with her gallerist bestie Marnie. There’s also their friend Jessa, who has just arrived back in the city from some kind of spiritual quest/pearl shucking/bazaar shopping expedition and is living with her earnest, velour-tracksuit-wearing cousin Shoshanna.

Like any girl in her early twenties, post-college or no, these ladies have problems of the guy/work/family/friend variety, so let’s see how they go about solving them, or more likely, making them worse. Each week we’ll take a look at the two main problems affecting the Girls and how they go about trying to find a solution. Ten years older than the Girls, and having lived through her fair share of humiliations, your recapper will also weigh in on whether these problems are just rest stops on the road to better character or psyche damaging pile-ups that will follow them the rest of their days.

Mo’ (or less) money mo’ problems »

Word: Hi-fi

Meaning: Short for “high fidelity,” a.k.a. high-quality sound reproduction. But in ’50s conventional slang, it means a record player.

Usage: “Play it again on the hi-fi, Sam.” — Yes, I just effed with Casablanca.