There are a lot of strange show pairings on cable, and HBO’s sunday night lineup usually features the weirdest ones, say… “Boardwalk Empire” with “Eastbound and Down” or “Game of Thrones” with “Veep.” The “strangest bedfellows” award might be pairing up “True Detective” with “Girls.” The two shows have literally nothing in common: “True Detective” is a super-intense, genre bending police procedural where a nihilistic detective tracks a serial killer over 15 years and might even be committing murders in the present. It also has a star studded cast and the production values of a David Fincher movie.
“Girls” is a vanity vehicle for a nobody and the last thing anybody is raving about is the camerawork. It stands (or grates) on its dialogue, whereas “TD” could use some help in that department (so far). “TD” makes good use of the Louisiana swamps and backwater towns, while “Girls” is usually playing a game of very-inside baseball with Brooklyn hipsters. The closest thing the two shows have to a similarity is that “TD” investigates a man killing girls.
Girls…The first episode of tonight’s two-part season 3 opener was horrid. It bowed down to the criticism that season 2 didn’t have the girls spending enough time with each other (they spend more time with each other in these episodes than in all of season 2 combined) and that immediately feels more like kowtowing to crowds than where these characters would really be headed. It was brave to have them drift off in different directions—-the way you actually do with young friends—-and this feels like regression, as does the return of Jessa, who’s finding ways to make a bad-behavior, got-kicked-out-rehab storyline feel stale and tired. [We’ve seen all this on a dozen “lesser” shows Dunham, and the whole thing feels like a B-plot on Californication.] All of that just reminded me of how much better “Enlightened” was since its Luke-Wilson-in-rehab storyline was genuinely heartfelt, beautiful, and open.
“Girls” has a real problem with Jessa, the vapid monster that everyone keeps pretending is really wise. This is a character that never really gets called out for blatant phoniness, hypocrisy (she pretends to be more of a dark side devil than she really is…and turns prude whenever a guy she’s been hitting on actually wants to act on it), and pretentiousness. I wasn’t exactly thrilled when the second episode promised that Jessa wasn’t going anywhere, nor was I thrilled with the show’s latest disgusting representation of black people (this episode featured a stereotypical black lesbian that Jessa calls “fat, gay Dorie who I fucked as a charity case”). The show’s continued refusal to think outside the lines with minority characters is only further proof that it isn’t really as open as it pretends to be. Dunham knows these specific characters really well because they’re her friends, but let’s not pretend that’s indicative of a larger Generation Y (the way boomer-aged critics are so quick to do). Grade for first episode: D…Grade for second episode: C
“True Detective”…An anthology show that seems more intriguing than it really is, and yet I’m excited to see where the next 7 episodes go. [There will be only 8, and a new cast/setting/plotline next year.] The parts are a lot more interesting than the sum so far, but with Matthew McConaughey playing against type (he’s not the laid-back, good old boy, but instead introverted, moody, and clinically depressed), amazing atmosphere, and cinema-style technical prowess, I think there’s more than enough to keep watching. Grade: B