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Sunday night on HBO marked the return of Hannah (Lena Dunham), Marnie (Allison Williams), Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet)  and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) as they navigate the slings and arrows of living in New York City in the season two premiere of GIRLS. In the episode “It’s About Time”, Elijah (Andrew Rannells) throws a party with his new roommate Hannah, who meanwhile has all but officially broken up with Adam (Adam Driver). Marnie deals with her own dose of bad news and her mother (Rita Wilson) while Shoshanna deals with Ray (Alex Karpovsky) at the party while Jessa returns from her honeymoon.  So does GIRLS retains the sincerity and unique voice of creator Lena Dunham while also maintain the quality from season one?

Ultimately that is a real interesting question.

I remember that GIRLS for me, was a refreshing series, told exclusively from the girls point of view, and it didn’t go for always cheap laughs. It was intense, it was poignant, and above all else it felt real.  But when I popped GIRLS on my DVR Sunday evening, if you had to ask me in particular barely anything that happened in season one outside of Hannah being cut off from her parents and doing drugs, and pining over Adam,  and maybe Marnie and Charlie (Christopher Abbott) breaking up while Jessa surprised married Thomas-John (Chris O'Dowd), I have no real sense of how season one ended. 

For such a critically lauded series, one that even I, myself, critically acclaimed… why could I not remember anything that happened in the series? Why didn’t I necessarily care? For a series that was so on the nose and truly opened the insight into the life of women, I couldn’t remember anything truly of significance from the season one finale, and then again, did I really care? For a series that had it’s hooks in me, nothing of any significance stuck with me as a viewer besides basic moments. It wasn’t like Bored to Death or Game of Thrones, or The Newsroom; all series on HBO that had/have me captivated even during it’s off-seasons.

Let’s be clear: “It’s About Time” is a good episode, and it gets us right back into things with a fun and racy scene with Hannah and new boy toy Sandy (Donald Glover), and showcasing Marnie getting fired from her job. It just was upsetting for a series with such praise, my care factor was not that high. And it further questions the series beyond that, on a primitive level: is GIRLS, at least for me, as a man, more of an insight into the female mind and is interesting but on a dramatic level thatkeeps me ‘coming back to the well’ it instead comes up short? As GIRLS is not a series that screams reruns or DVD-viewing to me, but then again, that is my general feeling towards the show. 

To me, sometimes the best television series are shows that have moments or episodes that are worth re-watching. Maybe not constant rewatchability, one that you could watch over and over and over again, but shows that have a sincere replayability. These types of shows range from 30 minute to 60 minute shows. Futurama is a show that is easily rewatchable at all times. L0ST, despite my love for the show, or even Treme, is a show that is like Schindler’s List as a film: it is amazing but my want to rewatch it isn’t always 100% present. Give me a year or two, and I’d be game for re-watching the series again. The love of the show is there but the want to re-watch ebbs and flows. But GIRLS doesn’t really fall into either one of those categories to me. And for me, that is what my critique is. As a series, it is a great show… when you’re watching it. Outside of that, within a few months, GIRLS is a blip on my radar. And it’s sad because when I’m watching it, I am 100% engrossed in what’s going on. Once the credits roll, I’m somewhat back to wondering when Game of Thrones or even Go On or Community is coming back on television.