Sadé Green reviews the fourth episode of Girls season 3…
After last week’s hilariously cringe worthy episode, ‘Dead Inside’ explored the extreme self-involved tendencies of the Girls and blimey… they are unbelievable!
It has always been evident that Hannah, Jessa and Marnie (somehow Shoshanna doesn’t seem as bad compared to these three) have really been lacking in Vitamin D on account of being shoved so far up their own backsides. But this week was a new low as Hannah and Jessa could not muster up a single ounce of empathy towards their respective situations.
Poor, ‘woe-is-me’ Hannah (Lena Dunham) has to deal with the death of her editor David (John Cameron Mitchell), her ‘champion’, but all Hannah can think about is the future of her e-book. Completely aghast with Miss Self-involved’s behaviour, Adam (Adam Driver) struggles to comprehend how his girlfriend can be so heartless when an acquaintance has just met his untimely end. In the meantime, having heard about the death of David, Jessa (Jemima Kirke) decides to visit the grave of her childhood buddy Susan (Melonie Diaz), only to find out that she faked her own death. When Jessa arrives to confront Susan, she is confronted herself, with a few hurtful truths regarding her own behaviour. Of course, having seen the wonderful life Susan now has with her super-cool husband, Princess Jessa sarcastically retorts, “This won’t last, you know.”
As Hannah continues her reign as Miss Self-involved, Adam’s sister Caroline (Gaby Hoffmann) and Hannah’s weird neighbour Laird (Jon Glaser), take her on a gallivant around the local cemetery (a bizarre but fitting scene) where Hannah begins to realise she must show some feelings towards others if she is to keep a firm hold of Adam.
In an angering episode, it is truly hard to believe that ‘Dead Inside’ is actually a really enjoyable experience. Seeing Adam’s route to becoming the sanest character on the show has been refreshing – his firm hold on reality has ensured he is becoming the man Hannah needs in her life (he is trying his best to keep her friends grounded too) rather than the complete douche bag we despised during Season 1 and 2. Meanwhile, it is hard to hide your glee about Marnie’s internal suffering. Her treatment of Charlie (Christopher Abbott) in the last two seasons, means she was due some karmic retribution.
An episode of Girls doesn’t have to be all fun and games to be entertaining. If you come away angry and irritated by this weeks exploits, you will soon realise the true talent of the writing team: Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow. To make the audience resent 90% of your characters as well as making you want to tune in again for the following episode is quite a skill.
‘Dead Inside’ is definitely worth a watch.
Sadé Green
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Originally published February 11, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
