So even though Hannah Horvath is completely lacking in perspective, Lena Dunham isn\u2019t. Dunham\u2019s portrayal reminds me of how Louis CK described his character on \u201cLouie.\u201d He said something along the lines of \u201cLouie is me, but amplified and with worse luck.\u201d CK is purposely portraying a version of himself, but with less professional success and less self-awareness. Dunham is the same way, playing a woman with a similar background but with professional turmoil and a severe lack of perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cGirls\u201d is, in part, an exercise in empathy, testing the audience\u2019s patience to see how much we\u2019ll put up with. The characters of \u201cGirls\u201d are almost all seriously unlikable, and that\u2019s not because Dunham realizes how terrible the characters are. Do you really think Dunham is trying to convince us these characters are always good, funny, likable people? Do you think Dunham could really portray characters this hilariously unlikable if she was a terrible person herself?<\/p>\n Good people tend to be the ones that know how to depict bad people. It reminds me of a comment on the AV Club about the new Netflix series \u201cLove,\u201d featuring Paul Rust as the terrible fake \u2018nice guy\u2019 Gus. One commenter said something along the lines of, \u201cPeople think Paul Rust is writing this show as his wish fulfillment, trying to convince people he\u2019s a nice guy. But Rust realizes that Gus is just a \u2018nice guy,\u2019 not a genuine nice person.\u201d Both Rust\u2019s acting and his writing of Gus require the eye of an actor\/writer who understands that the character is a unique brand of terrible.<\/p>\n Similarly, the cast and writers of \u201cGirls\u201d are able to succinctly establish the unique brands of terrible that each character inhabits. This is especially true in the show\u2019s current fifth season. There\u2019s one particularly brilliant, short scene in \u201cJapan,\u201d when Hannah Skypes with Marnie (Allison Williams), who hasn\u2019t been seen since her wedding two episodes ago. Through one simple gesture\u2014Marnie\u2019s guttural, quasi-cultured pronunciation of \u2018Ecuador\u2019\u2014Williams instantly reminds the viewer of all of Marnie\u2019s worst qualities. It\u2019s amazing how such a short clip can epitomize Marnie\u2019s pretentious, self-congratulatory nature, while simultaneously doing the same for Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Marnie\u2019s insufferable husband. Desi showers completely nude in the outdoor shower in the background, and somehow you can just tell how fucking cool he thinks he is. As Amber Dowling from Indiewire said, Marnie and Desi are \u201ctwo privileged people pretending to be struggling artists,\u201d and this scene is the perfect short, sweet scene to remind us of how hilariously awful they are.<\/p>\n Really, the only wholly self-aware characters on the show are Ray (Alex Karpovsky), Elijah (Andrew Rannells), and, increasingly, Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet). And even those three are fucked up in their own ways. Still, their existence shows that Dunham does have the outside perspective of the other characters\u2019 faults. Just look at Shosh\u2019s hilarious, unbelievably cathartic drunken monologue in \u201cBeach House\u201d as she, one by one, tears Hannah, Marnie, and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) to pieces. Co-written with Jenni Konner and Judd Apatow, that episode should be yet another conclusive reminder that the writers are completely conscious of these characters\u2019 worst qualities and what makes them that way.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that \u201cGirls\u201d is flawless, or that the characters are all perfectly written. Sure, there should probably be more actors of color in the show for its diverse New York City setting (although Hannah and her friends are the types of people who probably would have mostly white friends). Jessa, despite being played by one of the most engaging performers on the show, has been a very inconsistent character, flitting between a stereotypical hippie free spirit and an incredibly cruel, borderline sadistic woman throughout the show\u2019s entirety. Last season in particular, Jessa acted so viciously to Hannah, and there was no real reason to explain it.<\/p>\n This season has sought to rehab Jessa\u2019s character a little, though. We see her actually trying to be a good person by putting Hannah\u2019s desires above her own when she finds herself developing feelings for Hannah\u2019s ex-boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver). This finally reached a head in the latest episode, \u201cOld Loves,\u201d in which Jessa finally gives up trying to be kind and pushes Hannah away so that she won\u2019t feel as bad about sleeping with Adam. Jessa acts cruelly here, bluntly agreeing when Hannah half-jokingly suggests they stop being friends, but at least the motivations behind Jessa\u2019s behavior make sense this time. It\u2019s unclear if these same motivations could partially explain the way Jessa acted last season, when she was first becoming friends with Adam, but regardless, this season is thankfully allowing Jessa to grow up a little.<\/p>\n All the characters are growing up, step by step. Marnie is sure to finally get it through her head how awful Desi is this season, and as joyful as it is to watch their trainwreck of a marriage, you have to feel a little bad for her\u2014she really doesn\u2019t realize how terrible this guy is. Hannah, too, may behave inappropriately by deleting the nudes of Fran\u2019s exes off his phone without asking him (and by confronting him in the middle of school with one of her students watching), but she\u2019s generally sympathetic because her insecurities and issues are relatable and justified. And Shosh\u2019s journey this season is the most pleasantly surprising\u2014her decision to remain in Japan instead of running back to New York (\u00e0 la Hannah post-Iowa) shows that the writers aren\u2019t afraid to let their characters learn from past mistakes and actually grow into newer, happier, healthier people.<\/p>\n Maybe this new willingness to allow the show\u2019s characters to progress comes as a result of the recent announcement that this will be the second to last season. Much of \u201cGirls\u201d has seemed a little too meandering and unfocused for my tastes, and a big part of that is the 30-minute runtime; the show\u2019s quick pace makes it easy and fun to digest, but it\u2019s difficult to accomplish much character development with those constraints, especially with seven main characters (the girls + Adam, Ray, and Elijah). As each of the characters move into new positions this season, though, it seems like the show is finally building towards a logical endpoint.<\/p>\n Bringing it back to Lena Dunham herself, there\u2019s one more big reason the show sticks with me, one more reason why I find Hannah a relatable character, one more reason why I\u2019m convinced Dunham knows what she\u2019s doing. Many of the criticisms of the show seem to take issue with Dunham\u2019s view of New York City; it\u2019s an overused setting that\u2019s often romanticized by young writers and artists, and people view the characters of \u201cGirls\u201d as those hopelessly romantic young people who think New York will be this life-changing place that will act as a catalyst for their professional and romantic growth.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.buzzfeed.com\/buzzfeed-static\/static\/enhanced\/webdr02\/2013\/3\/4\/18\/anigif_enhanced-buzz-31704-1362438022-1.gif?no-auto\")
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