Lori Fradkin: So, here we are again ... week two ...
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: I thought this episode showed much more promise and ambition than the first.
Lori L., thoughts?
Lori Leibovich: I was definitely more impressed this week and felt like I understood the hype a bit more. Shoshanna became less of a caricature for one thing.
Lori Fradkin: I was just going to ask what you thought of her now!
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: I think she becomes a real character here, but I agree with you, Lori L., that she should have been from the beginning. It was over the top last week. I wish she had started like this.
Lori Leibovich: Me too.
Lori Fradkin: I liked that Jessa wanted to make a dream board too but not a shared one.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: Making the two of them roommates was rather inspired
But can we start at the beginning? More bad sex! Before the credits even rolled.
Lori Fradkin: Really bad.
Lori Leibovich: Yeah. This is where I started to feel like Frank Bruni had a point
Lori Leibovich: It made me wonder, haven't we progressed further than this in the bedroom?
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: But she admitted this time how bad it was (when she got home).
Lori Fradkin: I'm finding Adam and Hannah's relationship really interesting -- the contrast between what we see in the bedroom and what she talks to her friends about.
Lori Fradkin: What do you mean, Lori L., when you say we've come further than this?
Lori Leibovich: Shouldn't Hannah, someone who ostensibly knows a ton about sex, be having sex that's more, well, sexy? And satisfying?
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: When she said "I almost came," did we think that was expressing disappointment? Or not quite?
Lori Fradkin: I thought she was disappointed, but also still trying to reassure him that she enjoyed it. Like she did last week -- when clearly she did not.
Lori Leibovich: That was my read too. But it didn't seem like he really cared if she came or not.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: Nope.
Lori Fradkin: And then she tells her friends that he's so present when they're together. No, he's not. But he gives her just enough to go on -- like when he does that "stop trying to kiss me" thing when she's leaving.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: I thought it was interesting that she said he was present when she was talking to Jessa and Shoshanna, but she told Marnie the truth.
Lori Fradkin: And said it was hard to feel bad for Marnie for having a boyfriend who loves her too much, which I'm sure is true.
Lori Fradkin: Also, I have to say -- I like Marnie, but she really was rude to Charlie. I get her issue, but the poor guy is just trying to be nice to his girlfriend.
Lori Leibovich: I agree. Poor Charlie. They should break up.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: She's trying to provoke him (read: trying to change him) instead of letting it go.
Lori Fradkin: So, the job interview.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: I forgot the job interview. Wes, the job interview.
Lori Fradkin: First of all, I love Mike Birbiglia! I was so happy to see him on the show.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: He was great. But what was the purpose of that scene? Just to show that how hapless and self-sabotaging Hannah is?
Lori Fradkin: I think it would have worked better if it hadn't been a job interview -- I feel like there's no way she could have thought that was okay.
Lori Leibovich: I remember going on interviews in my early 20s where in an attempt to seem cool and funny I said totally ridiculous/inappropriate things.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: Really? You?
Lori Leibovich: I remember one particularly painful example. Not sure I can share....publicly.
Lori Fradkin: We'll be in your office in five minutes =).
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: Okay, can we get to the abortion?
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: I thought it was pretty bold to put that in the second episode.
Lori Leibovich: I disagree. It's HBO! It's Judd Apatow!
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: I guess I meant to say that it wouldn't, couldn't happen on network TV, and that means there are aspects of women's lives still considered unpalatable to the average viewer, and I'm glad 'Girls' went there, even if it is cable.
Lori Fradkin: Even before the clinic, I thought it was realistic how Hannah tells Adam about it in a straightforward way but then worries she sounds too flippant.
Lori Leibovich: Yes. And how they both scramble to make sure they are appropriately serious about it.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: The whole episode seemed to be reflecting on how these characters don't know how to deal with situations they – and we -- are supposed to think of as serious the job interview, the abortion.
Lori Leibovich: Which seems to be the point of the whole show.
Lori Leibovich: I thought the scene at the end when she's being examined was amazing. Her utter cluelessness and selfishness and naïveté all came together.
Lori Fradkin: I know. I've heard the "they're not paying me anything" line a million times now -- and it hasn't gotten old.
Lori Leibovich: And this older woman calling her on it-- just like her mom did in the previous episode.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: For me it was the last line -- it's painful "but only in the way it's supposed to be."
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: Sort of sums up your 20s.
Lori Fradkin: I liked that line, too.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: A lot of this is about knowing the script you're supposed to be following and thinking that sucks while resigning yourself to it and wanting to do it right.
Lori Fradkin: Should we discuss Shoshannah's confession of her virginity?
Lori Fradkin: Even when she was talking to Marnie and Hannah in the waiting room, she was nodding along to be a part of the conversation, like, "yep, that's what happens" -- which must be so hard for her because she hasn't experienced these situations and feels like she should have.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: I found that and Jessa's situation most sympathetic in this episode. Shoshanna has just admitted that she's left out in this major way, that she actually can't relate to the women around her about it, whereas Jessa is going through this thing, and everyone is going out of their way to be accepting and supportive when she hasn't come to terms with it herself.
Lori Leibovich: Why don't I care about Shosanna?
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: Because she was a non-human in the last episode, but I think the desire to belong that she expresses here is relatable.
Lori Fradkin: I think she's still a bit much -- would she really stop for candy on the way there? -- but that being said, I feel like the sex concerns are real.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: I noticed that they also managed to slip fertility fears into this episode. Marnie freaks out about the fact that she's never had a pregnancy scare and what that might mean about her ability to get pregnant, and Jessa told Hannah earlier that morning on that playground that she (Jessa) is going to be a great mom.
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: So by this point the show has covered millennial entitlement, the SATC legacy, bad sex, too-nice boyfriends, body image, unpaid internships and employment cluelessness, abortion, virginity and fertility fears. What's left?
Lori Leibovich: Was this the episode with Marnie and the guy from the gallery?
Margaret Wheeler Johnson: No, that's next week.
Lori Fradkin: Shhhh.