Girls: Tad & Loreen & Avi & Shanaz
March 11, 2015 7:44 AM - Season 4, Episode 8 - Subscribe
Tad and Loreen (Hannah's parents) are in the forefront of this episode as Tad shares some news on the eve of his Loreen's tenure party (Avi and Shanaz are the party hosts). Hannah corrupts a minor (Maude Apatow).
Shoshanna wants to talk about the future of Scott's cock.
Desi spends the band's advance on guitar pedals, which leads to a fight with Marnie, and then a make-up from the fight with Marnie.
Shoshanna wants to talk about the future of Scott's cock.
Desi spends the band's advance on guitar pedals, which leads to a fight with Marnie, and then a make-up from the fight with Marnie.
This is basically further confirmation that Hannah's mother is the worst person. Just the very worst person.
posted by koeselitz at 11:43 PM on March 11, 2015
posted by koeselitz at 11:43 PM on March 11, 2015
Really? Of all the people on this show, she's the worst one?
posted by aabbbiee at 8:38 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by aabbbiee at 8:38 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
oh god this was amazing
A good metric for how much I like an episode of this show is how much it makes my partner cringe
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:59 PM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
A good metric for how much I like an episode of this show is how much it makes my partner cringe
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:59 PM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also it seems like shoshanna's date turned out okay, improbably.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:02 PM on March 12, 2015
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:02 PM on March 12, 2015
aabbbiee: “Really? Of all the people on this show, she's the worst one?”
Heh. Well, I have a hard time with Marnie – quite often I really and truly dislike her on a deep level, particularly her music taste, but lately it just seems like she's totally misguided and cruising to get really hurt. Very unfortunate that she fell for the ol' marriage proposal trick. That is so clearly not going to end well...
But Hannah's mother has been someone I've disliked for a long time, largely because of how she treats her husband, and they really ratcheted it up this episode. Discovering that she's had an affair doesn't help, but that's not really the thing that bugged me most. I just could not and cannot stand the way her reaction to stressors is to lay into him royally – reacting to his confession that he's gay by basically telling him he's an idiot for five minutes, that he's confused, that he didn't do it the right way, etc. I tried to put myself in her shoes, and I have to say, that would be a really tough thing to face, finding out your partner is gay, having them tell you like that. But the way she handles it is basically the way she's always handled her relationship with him – stomping him down, cutting him off, and taking the low road all the way. And then, at the end, she feels the need to announce to him that their mutual friend – "he's in love with me," she says, with a half-drunk smile plastered across her face. She just seems so deeply vindictive toward him, and that's hard for me to take.
Especially since he's trying so hard to do this with grace! He gave what I thought was actually a very nice and thoughtful toast, and she laughed spitefully all through it – as though a person who's gay can't possible have a straight partner, or be proud of them, or support them, or want them to do well. Or I guess she's not even thinking yet that he's gay; she's thinking, he's just trying to hurt me. Maybe that's why it's bitterly ironic to her. Either way – oof. That stuff was hard to watch.
But – of all the people on the show? I'm not sure. I will tell you one thing: I don't trust Mimi-Rose as far as I can throw my television set. That girl has some weird, underhanded stuff going on. And if I was reading those scenes right, she was really expertly manipulating Hannah, appealing to her fear of failure, appealing to her desire to succeed legitimately. The bit where she offered to back off and let Hannah date Adam again was what gave that away, I thought; no sane self-possessed person says that honestly, only a person who is so fragile and prone to imposter syndrome that they can't even have confidence in their own relationships. That was the role Mimi-Rose played to Hannah, but I don't think it's who she is at all. And given how she's acted with Adam, I don't think she'd give him back to Hannah so easily like that – even if that were a realistic sort of offer that one person could make to another.
I kind of like Ray the politician. That is an interesting development. I think he'll be good at it, actually.
posted by koeselitz at 6:59 PM on March 12, 2015
Heh. Well, I have a hard time with Marnie – quite often I really and truly dislike her on a deep level, particularly her music taste, but lately it just seems like she's totally misguided and cruising to get really hurt. Very unfortunate that she fell for the ol' marriage proposal trick. That is so clearly not going to end well...
But Hannah's mother has been someone I've disliked for a long time, largely because of how she treats her husband, and they really ratcheted it up this episode. Discovering that she's had an affair doesn't help, but that's not really the thing that bugged me most. I just could not and cannot stand the way her reaction to stressors is to lay into him royally – reacting to his confession that he's gay by basically telling him he's an idiot for five minutes, that he's confused, that he didn't do it the right way, etc. I tried to put myself in her shoes, and I have to say, that would be a really tough thing to face, finding out your partner is gay, having them tell you like that. But the way she handles it is basically the way she's always handled her relationship with him – stomping him down, cutting him off, and taking the low road all the way. And then, at the end, she feels the need to announce to him that their mutual friend – "he's in love with me," she says, with a half-drunk smile plastered across her face. She just seems so deeply vindictive toward him, and that's hard for me to take.
Especially since he's trying so hard to do this with grace! He gave what I thought was actually a very nice and thoughtful toast, and she laughed spitefully all through it – as though a person who's gay can't possible have a straight partner, or be proud of them, or support them, or want them to do well. Or I guess she's not even thinking yet that he's gay; she's thinking, he's just trying to hurt me. Maybe that's why it's bitterly ironic to her. Either way – oof. That stuff was hard to watch.
But – of all the people on the show? I'm not sure. I will tell you one thing: I don't trust Mimi-Rose as far as I can throw my television set. That girl has some weird, underhanded stuff going on. And if I was reading those scenes right, she was really expertly manipulating Hannah, appealing to her fear of failure, appealing to her desire to succeed legitimately. The bit where she offered to back off and let Hannah date Adam again was what gave that away, I thought; no sane self-possessed person says that honestly, only a person who is so fragile and prone to imposter syndrome that they can't even have confidence in their own relationships. That was the role Mimi-Rose played to Hannah, but I don't think it's who she is at all. And given how she's acted with Adam, I don't think she'd give him back to Hannah so easily like that – even if that were a realistic sort of offer that one person could make to another.
I kind of like Ray the politician. That is an interesting development. I think he'll be good at it, actually.
posted by koeselitz at 6:59 PM on March 12, 2015
But the AV club recap reminds me – Hannah is pretty awful, too! Heh. Which I like in this show, honestly; I like that Dunham can put herself in that place. She was terrible to that poor guy Fran, just all-round crazy.
posted by koeselitz at 7:03 PM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by koeselitz at 7:03 PM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
(AND THE PIERCING THING IS ABSOLUTELY INSANE.)
posted by koeselitz at 7:04 PM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by koeselitz at 7:04 PM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
koeselitz has eloquently explained all of the reasons Loreen moved up a few notches in my unofficial ranking of terribleness of characters on this show. I thought it was a great way to demonstrate that the Hannah apple falls much closer to the tree than we thought.
I hope Marnie and Desi go through with the wedding, for maximum train wreck value.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:02 AM on March 14, 2015
I hope Marnie and Desi go through with the wedding, for maximum train wreck value.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:02 AM on March 14, 2015
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The AV Club recap (linked in the sidebar) pointed out that it's nice that the show included the fact that Loreen had had an affair (with Sy Ableman!), so Tad's coming-out can't be painted as a crime against a faultless Loreen.
Not to mention the scene with Cleo in the piercing parlor. I cannot believe Hannah basically forced Cleo to go through with it and then chickened out herself. Cleo cannot possibly be old enough to get that piercing, so I assume this will lead to Hannah's firing from the school job. Right? And Cleo likes Shia LeBeouf, who lives in her building. "I think I can help him."
posted by aabbbiee at 8:03 AM on March 11, 2015