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| Hannah examines Joshua on "Girls". Photo Credit: HBO |
Every summer for 13 weeks, FX lends out a half hour of its schedule to a stand-up comedian so he can basically televise his insanity. It's a half hour of whatever the hell Louis C.K. feels like telling a story about, and sometimes that's a homeless man being decapitated. But whatever it is, week in and week out, the subtext of "Louie" is its creator taking a sledgehammer to the current television landscape.
And man, if Sunday (February 10) night's episode of "Girls" wasn't the "Louie"-est episode the show's ever done.
The writing for "One Man's Trash" is credited solely to Lena Dunham, and I'm not surprised at all to see that. For as much as the specificity and emotion is what makes "Girls" what it is, this felt extremely personal on a level even this show hasn't fully explored yet. Its second cousin from the first season, "The Return," was also an episode that pulled Hannah out of whatever comfort zone she can claim as her own and shone a light on a really unhealthy relationship of hers. That time, it was the fact that she cheated on Adam and he didn't even care. Here, it's that she completely fabricates a relationship with Joshua basically because he has a nice house and some nice stuff, so she ignores the fact that she means basically nothing to him and views him as security she's never felt before. And yet, she's still Hannah Horvath. As much as you might think her having to return to reality would be devastating, she doesn't much show it. She's too used to it by now - it's not a match, and the board goes back.
"The Return" was my favourite episode from the first season, and though I have trouble thoroughly explaining why, this is my favourite episode of the series so far. Because "Girls" is as deeply personal as it is, the more that it's essentially the singular expression of Lena Dunham, the better it is. Which makes me conflicted, because while I like Jessa and Shoshanna and am finally warming up to Marnie, an episode like this just makes me want to watch "The Hannah Show". If we get to watch that show once a year, I'm okay with that, but only because the rest of the show around Hannah is so good as well. So now that we've spent a little time in Crazy Town, it's time to join Hannah in her walk back to reality.
