If there’s one takeaway from April, it’s that there’s not enough time in the world for television. Whether you’re tuning into cable networks like FX, HBO, and AMC or streaming the goods on Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix, there is arguably something good at your fingertips at any given minute, and yes, those minutes start piling up.
In addition to must-see carryovers from last month — stuff like Girls, The Americans, Crashing, and Riverdale — April saw the hotly anticipated returns of Better Call Saul, Fargo, Rick and Morty, Veep, and Silicon Valley alongside the premieres of newer fare like 13 Reasons Why, The Handmaid’s Tale, and American Gods.
Basically, we said goodbye to the outside world…
This may be a tad hyperbolic, but whatever, here we go: It’s almost as if a trip to the couch these days is work in itself. Clearing the DVR or the queues has never been more difficult, and while watching television is hardly an arduous task, it still requires heaps of time. And as most of you know, time is a very lucrative thing.
The good news is that May looks to add even more madness to the chaos, what with Master of None, Sense8, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Casual, House of Cards, and, yes, even Twin Peaks set to return. But as Special Agent Dale Cooper once told Sheriff Harry S. Truman, “every day, once a day, give yourself a present.”
Just know that “present” might take up your entire night … every night.
–Michael Roffman
Editor-in-Chief
Girls
“What Will We Do This Time About Adam?”
It’ll be a great relief in a few years when Girls is just Girls, with all its imperfections and moments of brilliance and memorable performances and butts and boobs and many, many run-on sentences. When we’ve left its lightning-rod era behind and can look back on the final season with fresh eyes, it’s likely “The Bounce”, “Hostage Situation”, or “American Bitch” that will get the most love. For this writer’s money, however, the loveliest of the bunch is the Judd Apatow and Lena Dunham-penned “What Will We Do This Time About Adam?”, a reunion between the two halves of the romantic relationship that most defined the series. The answer to the titular question is a simple one: say goodbye, for good.
It’s a hell of a trick, made possible by the fact that these two people are so often irrational. Adam (Adam Driver) finds Hannah (Dunham) with her head all the way inside a convenience store freezer, a good way to both get the maximum number of popsicles home in a timely fashion and to cool off (a busted AC unit means Hannah and Elijah’s place is basically a furnace—not a great situation for a pregnant woman.) On the spot, he tells her he wants to be with her and to help raise her kid, and after a quick “I’m, like, so confused right now,” they’re having tender make-up pregnancy sex and Adam’s talking to her belly.
Seem ludicrous and overly convenient? Yes, it does. It also ignores all the ugliness of their history and directs the pair to a completely pat and lazy ending. That’s why “What Will We Do” doesn’t actually do that. In one of Dunham’s best moments of the series—it’s a long list, but this would be near the top—Hannah watches this fantasy, that they’ll find a new place and he’ll build furniture and they’ll join a food co-op—run out of steam. A lovely idea, and a bad one. Her face crumples, his grin fades, and without a word, they let it die. She’ll go home and try to write. He’ll go grocery shopping. Maybe they’ll never see each other again.
It’s Girls in miniature—funny, foolish, and sad. May it rest in peace. –Allison Shoemaker
