What television show better captures millennial angst than Girls? Lena Dunham’s semi-autobiographical HBO series featured twentysomething aspiring writer Hannah Horvath and her friends navigating life, love, and exorbitant rent prices in Brooklyn.
The series was praised for its warts-and-all portrait of millennials in the 2010s, but there were times when the show’s brilliance was overshadowed by the shockingly entitled behavior of its characters. Between this and Girls’ tendency to veer off the beaten path in terms of splitting up the characters and sending them on adventures away from their NYC home-base, the show’s tone felt inconsistent at times. This is reflected in some episodes receiving a significantly lower rating on fan aggregator entertainment site IMDb.
Tad & Loreen & Avi & Shanaz (Season 4, Episode 8) - 7.1
Get ready for a lot of Season 4 on this list. Back from her Iowa adventure and now teaching — because in Girls world, you can walk into a school and just get a teaching job by asking for it — Hannah ditches class with a student to get matching piercings. Shoshanna goes on a date with Scott. Marnie and Desi have a huge fight which ends in him proposing. Oh yeah, and Hannah’s father, Tad, comes out as gay.
Hannah’s parents are really the show’s most underrated characters, and it’s doubtful that this episode’s spotlight on them is the reason for its low rating. We’re placing the blame squarely on Hannah and Marnie’s shoulders. Hannah reaches new levels of immaturity and irresponsibility by pulling a student out of school and then flaking on one of the most painful piercing pacts ever — a frenulum piercing? Then there’s Marnie, who agrees to marry the only person in New York more narcissistic than her after he just blew two grand on guitar pedals. Grow up, Girls.
Cubbies (Season 4, Episode 4) - 7.1
Hannah Horvath has done a lot of crappy things over the course of Girls’ six-season run. But her biggest sin in the eye of the audience? Going to the Iowa writers’ workshop. In reality, it makes total sense for the character. But isolating a TV protagonist from her core circle? Viewers clearly didn’t enjoy her Iowa days, and though “Cubbies” marked Hannah at long last making the decision to go back to Brooklyn, we still had to endure the fallout of her goodbye and her classmates’ understandably frosty reaction to her “apology” letter. Reception isn’t any better at home, when Hannah learns that Adam has moved on with Mimi-Rose Howard.
The real winner in this episode is Clementine. She’s finally free of the flaky hipster from hell known as Desi. Now he’s Marnie’s problem — and the viewers’ too.
Triggering (Season 4, Episode 2) - 7.1
Hannah may have more in common with Girls viewers than they care to admit. One thing is for sure, neither Hannah nor we seem to be enjoying her time in Iowa. She doesn’t fit in with her fellow classmates in her workshop, who are dismissive of her writing. Though there’s humor to be had in the show’s skewering of grad school pretentiousness, we’d just as soon have Hannah being neurotic back in Brooklyn.
On the other hand, Elijah’s feelings are in complete opposition to ours — he’s over New York and thinks Iowa is where it’s at. Viewers could smell the plot contrivance a mile away. Elijah Krantz goes to Iowa for nobody, least of all Hannah. It was a thinly-veiled excuse to give her a familiar face to interact with. Alas, it couldn’t save the episode.
Only Child (Season 3, Episode 5) - 7.1
In this latest display of WTF behavior, Hannah finds herself a new publisher in the most embarrassing way possible, only to realize the rights to her precious e-book are tied up at the old one. Meanwhile, Adam and his sister Caroline are fighting, and Ray and Marnie sleep together.
So really, what’s not to dislike? Fans were likely turned off by Hannah attempting to network at a funeral — more on her mindblowingly selfish approach to death later. And while Caroline isn’t the worst person on the show by a long shot, by sheer force of her volatile personality, her scenes have a tendency to dominate the entire episode whether fans like it or not — this lower rating would indicate that they don’t. Finally, we loved Ray calling Marnie out on her crummy attitude — for our money, “F**king Phony” should have been the name of the episode — but this should not have been a prelude to these two disparate souls having sex. Just no.
She Said OK (Season 3, Episode 3) - 7.1
This episode revolves around Hannah’s awkward AF 25th birthday. It’s co-planned by her parents and Marnie, the latter of which commandeers the affair in an attempt to redeem herself after an embarrassing video of her singing is posted online.
If Marnie’s obnoxiousness isn’t enough, the episode features more Caroline Sackler — Gaby Hoffmann is a spectacular actor but Caroline is just an annoying waste of screen time. Ray also has to deal with Shoshanna dating someone new, and any episode that features sad Ray is no fun for the audience who loves him.
Pilot (Season 1, Episode 1) - 7.1
In Girls’ inaugural episode, we meet Hannah Horvath and her friends. “Pilot” starts with Hannah being financially cut off from her parents, getting fired from her unpaid internship, and reconnecting with her college buddy, Jessa. We are also introduced to her self-absorbed BFF and roomie, Marnie, and her non-committal friend-with-benefits, Adam.
Pilot episodes are supposed to hook viewers in; they can make or break a series. Girls aired for six successful seasons, but came out of the gate a little weak. Perhaps viewers didn’t know if they could follow a 24-year-old protagonist who steals money her parents left for the hotel cleaning staff. Thankfully, it was proven that they could.
Female Author (Season 4, Episode 3) - 6.9
Thank the stars, the last mention of Iowa on this list. While Elijah seems to be thriving in the the Midwest, Hannah has found that the joy has been sucked out of writing. This is her classmates’ fault, of course, so she rips into them at a party, one by one.
It’s a funny scene, but exasperating for the viewer. C’mon, Hannah, we’re not happy that you’re in Iowa, and if you aren’t happy either, just leave already. But she’s not the only culprit behind this episode’s low rating. “Female Author” also makes time for Marnie being extra Marnieish, and a sober Jessa still managing to be just as much of a hot mess as ever.
Dead Inside (Season 3, Episode 4) - 6.9
When Hannah’s editor unexpectedly passes away, her first thought is, naturally, “What about me?” What’s more surprising — how horrible her reaction is, or how unsurprised we are by it? Somehow this episode ends up with her taking a trip to a cemetery with Caroline and Laird.
It’s worth saying more than once, Hannah Horvath has done some terrible things. But repeatedly whining about the future of her e-book when someone has just died takes the cake. Also, the episode features more Caroline, which does nothing to help its rating.
Video Games (Season 2, Episode 7) - 6.9
This low point of Season 2 sees Hannah accompanying Jessa to upstate New York to visit Jessa’s family. The viewer is introduced to her flaky father, his spacey new wife, and their barely legal son, whom Hannah hooks up with.
While “Video Games” serves to fill in the blanks of how Jessa became the trainwreck she is, it’s still not much fun hanging out with her family. It also felt like a missed opportunity. Instead of delving deeper into her character, time is spent on another awkward sexual encounter for Hannah. Did she really have to leave Brooklyn for one of those?
Latching (Season 6, Episode 10) - 5.8
Series finales are notoriously difficult to get right. How do you sum up an entire beloved — or in this case, polarizing — show in a single episode? “Latching” finds Hannah struggling with motherhood and Marnie rethinking her commitment to help Hannah raise her son.
Overall, Season 6 was one of the show’s strongest. The episodes leading up to this are all highly rated, probably because they took the time to say goodbye to the characters who have grown into people we almost sort of like. But the problem here is that Hannah and Marnie are the only ones who are left. We miss Brooklyn. We miss Adam and Shoshanna and Ray. And how is Marnie planning on paying for law school, anyway?
