Fuck HBO for cancelling this show. 

When Togetherness debuted last year, I wasn't all that interested. The previews made it look like a grown-up rip-off of Girls (a show that I continue to love, even for all its flaws) only instead of navel-gazing Brooklynites it's a navel-gazing couple and their two slacker friends. But then I checked out a few episodes and damned if Togetherness didn't suck me right in. 

Season two has been even better than season one, kicking things up a notch as shlubby struggling actor Alex (male slacker friend) lands a movie role as a "sexy vampire," which is so off-the-wall for that character that it kind of works.....

Yes, this dude as a middle-aged Lestat in a ruffled shirt. So wrong, yet so right.

Michelle confesses her one night stand to Brett, and he responds by barfing in her lap....

Then Alex and Brett take off for a "lost weekend" in Detroit....

And there's the episode where Tina creates a distraction at the fundraiser party by bursting into an awesome rendition of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" so Michelle can snoop in that weird chick Anna's email....

I had no idea Amanda Peet was this funny. 

And UGH! Seriously, why is HBO cancelling this show?!?!?

Finally!

Damn, those are brave actresses. I hate my profile (nose-acceptance issues).

Somehow I totally missed the Girls premiere this past Sunday (I was thinking it wasn't til next week), so I made sure to catch it last night because I can't stand not knowing everything about that show. To my great relief, I loved it.

I didn't like season 3 much. I found most of it rather sitcom-y. Not typical sitcom-y, mind you, but sitcom-y compared to season 1 (which I loved) and season 2 (which I loved even more). It was mostly to do with the trajectory of Hannah and Adam's relationship. It just got....I don't know. It wasn't as interesting to me. And I hated the addition of Adam's psycho sister. I mean, Gaby Hoffmann is a good actress but holy shit, her character made me want to run screaming out of the room every time she appeared. I guess that's the intended reaction--the Caroline character is batshit bonkers--but in a way that's really hard to watch. Yuck. 

For the love of God, PLEASE kill her off. 

There were a few things I did like about season 3. For one, I really dug the "Beach House" episode and the weird dance they choreographed for no reason at all. I re-watched that one recently and can't believe I forgot that the song they danced to was "You're Breaking My Heart (Fuck You)" by Nilsson. Great tune!

"Run down to Tramps, have a dance or two...."

And then there's Shoshanna. Any scene of her losing her shit--either silently or loudly--is comedy gold, and there was plenty of that in season 3. Seriously, Zosia Mamet is hilarious. She was great on Mad Men and she's better on Girls.

And then Jessa. Love her character but her storylines have been sort of all over the place. I didn't like her rehab/relapse thing because *yawn*....BUT towards the end of season 3 she got awesome again and I adored her friendship with the Louise Lasser character. And I loved everything about her in the season 4 premiere.  

Yeah baby she's got it.

Speaking of the season 4 opener, there's that one scene, you know, the Marnie/Desi scene everyone's clutching their pearls over. Firstly, it wasn't all that shocking, and secondly, I wonder if anyone else caught the sly subtext, because it seems lost on the general public so far. My interpretation: Marnie loves having Desi's nose up her ass--figuratively AND literally--but (unlike Charlie) Desi's a duplicitous dick who treats her (and his "real" girlfriend) horribly and Marnie can't get enough of that shit. Yeah, it makes me want to slap her, but I'd really rather slap him. There were too many of those guys in my past.

Girl, don't look so smug. He sucks.

Anyway, I'm just relieved that things are looking up for season 4 so I can continue to love and defend Girls with all my previous ardor. 

Oh Lena Dunham, I love you so hard.

I have mixed feelings about the mainstream success of Lena Dunham and her brilliant TV show, "Girls." On one hand, I think it's awesome that such an edgy and authentic program with an unconventional (and occasionally unlikable) female lead character has caught on with the public. On the other hand, I worry that its popularity could cause the show's writing and storylines to take a more conventional, "safe" direction over time. It's like when you sort of "discover" and fall in love with the work of a quirky author or a singer or band completely on your own, without anyone else's endorsement or recommendation--you just find them and you're like "YES! This is what I've been looking for! THIS speaks to me!" and then six months (or six years) down the line "your" band (or singer, author, etc.) becomes HUGE and you're happy and excited, but it's also a letdown, because they're not "yours" anymore and now everyone knows about them and things are never the same.

I'd rather be happy about it, though. I'm definitely happy for Lena Dunham, because I really love her work and what she's doing with "Girls." Perhaps I am blinded by my love and (as a writer) I could be dissecting the series too much, but one of the things that delights me about "Girls" is that it's like a big metaphorical middle finger to all the cliched crap Hollywood keeps pooping out that's supposedly aimed at women. One of the things that drives me nuts about romantic comedies these days is that they'll take a beautiful size-2 actress like Katherine Heigl and give her an impossibly gigantic apartment and a high-powered career and an expensive wardrobe and then they're like--"Wait, she needs some sort of flaw so that she's 'relatable.' Let's see....Oooh, I got it! Make her clumsy! Holy shit, that's genius!" Seriously, have the Hollywood committees who crank out that kind of bullshit ever actually met any women, or any human beings for that matter?

It's bad enough that they made her act with Ashton Kutcher

Then you have Dunham's "Girls" protagonist Hannah Horvath, a disheveled, tattooed ball of not-size-2 insecure awesomeness who can't keep a job, drinks too much, says things like, "My shoes match my dress! Kind of!" and seeks solace in awkward sex with her odd, emotionally distant sort-of-boyfriend/hookup who "treats (her) heart like it's monkey meat."

And did I mention that she's a frustrated writer?

Yeah, I have no idea why this character resonates so much with me.

I can't wait for season two. I sincerely hope that "Girls" (and Dunham, since she is also the show's creator, writer, director and executive producer) stays true to Hannah and the supporting characters, resisting any pressure to sweeten them up and make them more palatable to mainstream audiences. Seriously, I've had it up to my ass with palatable heroines.

Change we can believe in.

*******OBVIOUS BOOK PLUG GOES HERE*******