‘Girls’ season 3, episode 1 review: Adam Driver shines; the journey of Jessa

“Girls” season 3 returned Sunday night with two all-new episodes, and in watching the first one, the immediate thought that entered our brain was whether or not we still liked all of these characters following this first episode.

Going into the premiere, we felt like Adam was the most interesting person on the show, and we continue to stand by that. On one side, you have a guy so awful that he is torn into by Natalia at Ray’s coffee shop, and harassed for abandoning whatever relationship that they had. Then, you have a guy offering up some really kind words to Marnie despite him really not being interested in either her or anything that she has to say. He’s unpredictable enough that you want to keep watching him, no matter what he is really up to. Adam Driver’s continual off-kilter performance is another reason why this show is so great.

Then in turn, Jessa is similar to Adam in that she is unpredictable, and there is some sort of good in there. She is just such a self-serving puppetmaster that she rarely allows anyone to start to see that side of her. She said some truly nasty things during this premiere, and yet also at the end found herself giving a woman her first lesbian experience after Jessa accused her of being gay during a group session. There is a method to the madness with her sometimes, and we found ourselves liking Jessa much more, ironically, around other people than when she is around Hannah.

Now, we turn to the two major problems with this premiere that keep it from hovering into “great” territory:

1. Given some of the sexual acts that Adam was doing to Natalia, wouldn’t she be grateful that this guy never called her again? It seems like she’d be better off without him if she wasn’t into it.

2. What would possess Hannah to want to pick Jessa up after what happened to her last season? That is a very forgiving friend. Perhaps too forgiving.

Also, we still cannot stand the Shoshanna character and that doesn’t change no matter how hard we try. And the “scrunchie” comment from Jessa was ripped right out of “Sex and the City” and we hate when this show goes down that path. You are not “Sex and the City” and having your main character also be a writer in New York with a best friend that worked at a gallery and another good friend that’s sexually free will never make you “Sex and the City” so just find your own footing and move away from this. Grade: B.