At the end of Girls‘ fourth season, Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) gave Laird (Jon Glaser) and Caroline’s (Gaby Hoffmann) new baby, Jessa-Hannah Bluebell Poem (A Baby), some succinct advice about life: “I can’t guarantee perfection, but I can guarantee intrigue.” Some might say the same about Girls itself — though Dunham’s own baby has seen many a misstep over the years, the show’s been consistently intriguing and idiosyncratic, wholly itself at all times and rarely predictable.
When we last left Hannah and the gang, they were all in the midst of major life transitions: Hannah had turned down Adam (Adam Driver) for her co-worker Fran (Jake Lacy, who’s officially The Nice Guy In Everything In 2015); Jessa (Jemima Kirke) had decided to become a therapist; Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) announced she was moving to Japan for a new job; Marnie (Allison Williams) was deserted by her singing partner/fiance Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and forced to hit the stage and sing a non-terrible song on her own; and Hannah’s dad (Peter Scolari) was embarking on his new, gayer life. Essentially, everyone was growing the hell up and, as Colin Quinn’s Hermie put it, leaning in — at least for the moment, pressing pause on being utterly ridiculous twentysomethings (or fiftysomethings, as it were).
The first trailer for season five dropped today, and it would appear that everything — and nothing — has changed for Dunham’s merry band of misfits. Hannah’s still lacking any sense of physical boundaries with her gay roommate Elijah (Andrew Rannells), arguing in public with Jessa, and “being really inappropriate, like, all day,” but she’s also calmly talking Marnie down from a crisis (albeit while wearing a swath of pink spandex as a shirt?). Marnie’s still making rash, awful decisions — this time by getting married to “someone she barely knows” (Desi? It’s unclear) — but she seems to have a new layer of self-awareness. Shosh has indeed moved to Japan, and girl is working those Hello Kitty headphones, but she’s still holding onto her uniquely strange delusions about life. (“I moved away from my problems and it worked, so people are so wrong.”) And Jessa? Jessa’s still being an asshole.
Settle in, son, and just let the nightmare wash over you on February 21, when Girls premieres on HBO.
