‘Girls’ season 2, episode 9 review: The awesomeness of Adam Driver continues
We all know that Lena Dunham is the person who reaps the vast majority of the awards-show bounty for “Girls,” and deservedly so in many ways. She’s brilliant as a writer, director, producer, and performer, and this show would not even exist without her.
However, we really have to say that in many ways Adam Driver is becoming the star of the season, and he may be giving the best performance right now of any actor on TV … regardless of whether or not we’re talking about comedies or dramas. His Adam is utterly a man without fear, but at the man same a man paralyzed by his own demons. He wants love, and at times he is so afraid of loneliness that he is willing to confirm to find it. This is what we saw for much of this episode Sunday night, as the characters stepped outside of himself for his new girlfriend Natalia. Then, the alcohol kicked in, and suddenly he went from this likable underdog on the mend to an awful person who domineers and demeans women in his creepy apartment. We’ve never loved and loathed a character so much in a single half-hour of television.
What was perhaps the finest stroke of genius here was not having Adam immediately fall by the wayside after making the decision to do the normal thing and drink; instead, it took time for the demons to come out … and boy did they ever. These scenes were yet another example of how Hannah is really the only person that understands him, but their ability to be together may be far too compromised by their past.
Perhaps our love of the Adam plot was further amplified by the ho-hum feeling we got from the night’s other stories. Save for the continuation of Hannah trying to battle her own demons with OCD, who saw Shoshanna telling a partial truth to Ray coming to assuage her guilt over cheating on him? In between this and Charlie hooking up with Marnie, this was the predictable sort of stuff “Girls” often avoids. Then again, we did at least like how Charlie and Marnie’s escapades came following what was the most awkward and terrible performance of Kanye West’s “Stronger” ever. Do we buy for a second that someone like Marnie would legitimately perform this song and think that people would like it? No, but it created such a moment that we don’t care altogether much.
As of right now, the prevailing feeling that we have towards “Girls” is really quite simple: we could not be happier that the show is going to have 12 episodes next season. Ten definitely feeling a little too short right now.
If you want to watch a clip from this episode, you can do so here; as always, we welcome all of your thoughts with a comment below!
Photo: HBO