
A cultural and political blogger I read whoās based in San Francisco has written a couple of times about how he finds the myth of the American small town vaguely repugnant. When, at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin quoted Westbrook Pegler by saying, āWe grow good people in our small towns,ā he went on a real tear about how the nationās small towns are increasingly filled with people who hold the rest of the nation back with their beliefs. He also insisted that if you wanted to live in a place that had actual culture and interesting things to do, a city was the place to be. (He phrased it a lot more nicely than Iām boiling it down to, Iām afraid.) In that respect, certainly, it was hard to disagree with him. Thereās lots more to do in Los Angeles or New York or San Francisco or Chicago than there is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Why then, he asked, would anyone ever want to live anywhere other than a cultural mecca, particularly if you were of a politically liberal persuasion?
Tonightās episode of Girls gets at that push-and-pull between the ties of a sleepy, Midwestern, small-town life and the more exciting life in the big city, a more exciting life that very well might be doomed to failure and disappointment. The city is a fun place, full of fun experiences and people that are different from anyone else you might meet. The city tends to attract people who have giant-sized dreams, and thatās fun to hang around for a while, particularly in your 20s or 30s. But thereās something to be said for the sleepy quiet of a little town, too, and the scenes where Hannah slots uneasily back into her old life are among my favorites of the series. Sheās clearly ill at ease, but thereās also a part of her that feels as if it still belongs here in East Lansing (presumably).
She outlines this in that scene where she is sitting in the car with Eric, after heās taken her to the benefit for Carrie, a girl who apparently disappeared under mysterious circumstances on a vacation. Theyāve left, and sheās started tearing down the dance her friend did in Carrieās honorāthe one major false note in an otherwise perfect episodeābut Eric is mystified by what sheās saying. It was a little cheesy, he says, but he doesnāt seem nearly as gung ho about this opinion as she does. The conversation turns to what she does in New York, and she admits sheās a writer, with no money coming in. And for an instant, you can sense this alternate Hannah snapping into place, the one who does move back to Michigan and does get a job as a teacher and does have a relationship with Eric. The temptation flits across her peripheral vision for just a second, and then itās gone.
The episode never comes out and states any of this. It focuses almost entirely on Hannahās adventures in and around her childhood hometown. We donāt go back to New York unless sheās talking to someone there. We donāt have her give a big speech about how she doesnāt know what sheās doing. Indeed, the only time we really spend without her is spent with her parents, who celebrate their anniversary without the daughter theyāve flown out to celebrate with them by having a nice dinner, then having sex in the shower. (The showās casualness about how healthy the Horvarthsā marriage is works very well.) But even this is allowed to be a kind of alternate Hannah world, one where she, too, settles down in the Midwest somewhere and has a daughter who causes her constant worry. Her parents are worried, but theyāre also not. They remember what it was like to be 25, and they know Hannah will get through it like they did, even if she doesnāt end up a famous writer on the other side.
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This is the first episode directed by Lena Dunham since the third episode (and also the first she has not written solely on her own; she shares a script credit with Judd Apatow), and outside of some curious choices in the scoringānamely that the music is often overbearingāitās a really lovely piece of television. Dunham excels at giving her characters private moments, even when theyāre in conversation with someone else, and sheās great at just watching, say, Becky Ann Bakerās eyes crinkle up in a half-smile as she says that her daughter knows how to have fun, and maybe thatās enough for now. Sheās also got a great sense for the way that the parent-child relationship starts to shift the second the kidās out of college. Hannah has to run and get her motherās prescription now, but her motherās still annoyed with her for sleeping until 11. There are remnants of their traditional parent-child relationship still intact, but the shift is already happening. When Hannah and her mother talk in the hallway near the episodeās end, itās as two adults, relating to each other on the same level. Considering how poorly Hannahās treated them throughoutāwhich is completely realisticāitās nice to see that thereās plenty of affection there on both ends.
What this episode nails that the blogger I read misses is the way that a small town can start to feel like home, particularly if youāve lived there for any length of time whatsoever. Dunham captures the way that Hannah both relates to her old friends and feels oddly distant from them perfectly, and the scenes where she attempts to make everybody realize that Heatherās plan to move to Los Angeles to become a dancer is completely insane suggest the ways sheās wiser about certain aspects of the world than her friends are without harping too much on that point. It would be easy to make this episode something about how Hannah is triumphant because sheās from the big city, and she knows things nobody else does, but the episode is far more muted than that. There are good and bad things about living anywhere, and Hannahās at once out of her depth and attracted by her old life. Thereās nothing saying that moving back would be the āwrongā choice any more than getting on the plane to head back to New York is the ārightā one. Lives donāt work like that.
The episode ends with Hannah talking to Adamāwhoās finally started to actively give a shitāwhile standing on the front lawn of her childhood home. Itās dark out, and she has a flight to catch in the morning, but for the first time, thereās a real sense that flight will bear her back to her real life, not the old one she could so easily be re-ensnared by. Sleeping in your childhood bedroom and having your parents take care of you is always a nice fantasy when youāre in your 20s, but at some point, that fantasy has to end, and you have to get back to the process of playing at being a grown-up. Not everything will fit, and maybe someday you go back to the life you once led. But you have to try. You have to give it that shot. This episode so richly evokes that feelingāone that Iāve had so, so many timesāthat it would have had to have been a lot sloppier to fail. Fortunately, itās just about perfect.
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Stray observations:
- Well, we can all officially say that weāve seen Peter Scolariās penis now. I donāt know that any of us would have thought weād end this day being able to say that, but we all can now. Good for us.
- I mentioned above that I donāt think the dance scene worked, and I think it was the one place where the episode was just a touch condescending toward any of the characters. Iām not sure the Heather character āworks,ā beyond the general sense we get that Hannah always needs to have a tall, pretty friend to be the back-up to.
- Any Michiganders want to say if that episode was filmed on location in the state? It seemed like it to me, but Iāve never been to East Lansing, so what do I know?
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