Girls still not getting it "Together"

Article first published as Girls still not getting it "Together" on TheTVKing.

As HBO's second season of Girls comes to an end in "Together," there are some resolutions, but there is also more mess. Which is par for the course. The girls at the center of this show are very flawed, but authentic, portraits of young women these days, who may not have been as prepared for the real world as they'd hoped, and, as the title of the show suggests, still straddle the line between child and adult.

Some have criticized this series from the beginning, and some who loved the first season have turned on it in the second year. I don't fall into either of those categories. It makes me uncomfortable to watch some of the plots Girls delivers, especially those that focus on Hannah (Lean Dunham) because I just want to shake her and make her make the smart decision, but I think it has kept the specific, unique voice is started with, and is inarguably unlike anything else on television.

Hannah is mostly a train wreck by the end of this season. Her OCD is coming back in spades, she breaks a Q-tip off in her ear, she has lost at least three friends, and she isn't going to meet the deadline for her ebook, which means she will be sued for the advance payment she already spent. Her physical appearance, and I'm talking about presentation, not weight, is sloppy. She can be pretty, and not that she has to be all the time, yay for feminism, but her utter lack of pride in putting herself together, even at the times when she should, says something about her that is not pleasant. Some of these things, just the OCD, really, aren't exactly in Hannah's control. But the rest are avoidable if she would just mature.

Hannah, more than anyone else in the show, is a kid, and is really having trouble with growing up. She fights it at every turn, almost as if she thinks she has to be immature in order to hang onto something. Her parents (Peter Scolari and Becky Ann Baker) haven't helped that much, being enablers. Finally, though, by "Together," they are cutting her off and forcing her to deal with things on her own.

I do think Hannah has the ability to get her life on track. She is definitely smart and talented, even if she frequently squanders both. It's going to be so much harder for her now, since she has burned some bridges and proven herself unreliable, but she still could succeed if she wants to. However, I feel like her immaturity is kind of an addiction, and she will probably have to bottom out, which she hasn't done yet, before she can get better.

At least Hannah has Adam (Adam Driver). No matter what Adam may have said, his relationship with Natalia (Shiri Appleby, Life Unexpected) is a rebound. She does help him to grow as a person, and round off a few of the weirder edges of him that need softening. He still very much holds a torch for Hannah, though. Will his support be what she needs, or will he just be the latest to aid in her selfish ways, which will ultimately destroy her when he, too, steps back, like her parents did?

Adam's relationship with Hannah is not the same kind of enabling that her parents do. He really does focus on building her up, something the older pair seem to have forgotten, though who can blame them, after everything that Hannah has done? He loves her for who she is. The question is, will that be good for her, or reinforce the bad choices?

Jessa (Jemima Kirke), MIA in the finale, may not return to help Hannah out anytime soon. As much as Jessa dislikes her father's roaming ways, she has certainly inherited the lifestyle. When things get tough, she disappears, as unreliable as he is. It's sad, but like Hannah, Jessa is a snapshot of who her parents made her into at this point, and has yet to find her own way. I'm not saying that she will necessarily be a better person when she does, but maybe it will help somewhat, at least she will own it.

Marnie (Allison Williams) also falls right back into old habits, reconnecting with Charlie (Christopher Abbott) in "Together." Marnie has been directionless ever since their breakup, while Charlie has sold an app and gotten filthy rich. Yet, they both go right back to their old dynamic when given the chance. They like to think they have changed and are now ready for each other, but are they? Does Marnie drag Charlie down, and that's why he struggled while with her previously? Maybe the benefits of this relationship are one-sided, though I guess season three will tell us for sure.

Ray (Alex Karpovsky) actually seems to be doing the best at the end of the half hour. He may have lost Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet), but that's OK, because she is just a little bit too controlling for him. He is better when he pursues things on his own. Shoshanna is wrong that he is without purpose; Ray just has his own way of doing things. It sucks a bit he gets into his thirties without committing to a passion or career yet. However, many do, and I think Ray has a good head on his shoulders, a way to pay the bills for now, and still has time to figure himself out, which isn't helped by being around Shoshanna, who tries to do the figuring for him.

That isn't a slam on Shoshanna. There are plenty of men who would benefit from having a girl like her in their lives, and of the girls on Girls, she is the one who is soaring. She makes the smart decision, knowing Ray is just not the one for her, and also realizing that this isn't the time in her life to be tied down to someone like him. Shoshanna, surprisingly, who may seem the youngest at the series start, is the one who is also becoming older and wiser at a quicker pace than the others.

Girls sadly has been slipping in the ratings. Luckily, a third season has already been ordered. But unless people tune back in, year three could be its last. Considering the perspective it takes, which no one else does, that would be a shame.

Girls will return next year to HBO.