HBO's Girls is an important show. It brings about as intense discourse among its haters as it does among its champions. A friend introduced me to it. It has been a while now so to paraphrase what she said: "Give it a go. Its not for everybody." That would suffice to describe the show any day. I did find the nudity and general brash, honest tone of the show unforgiving for a while. But soon you do not notice it anymore. Hannah and Marnie dancing to Robyn's 'Dancing on my Own' was one of the happiest moments of my life. In them I found a way to not just acknowledge but celebrate the mess and madness in me. I finished the first season in one sitting and came away wiser, albeit a little color-blind. It was quite an experience. I was embarrassed for them, cringed by them, galled by their twisted marriage of self-deplorability and self-worth. But what stood out the most was the quiet birth, growth and subsequent crash of a love story. The guy who I had barely noticed in the first two episodes, Adam, turned out to be the only character on the show without even a shadow of self-involvement. His love for Hannah was baffling and entirely believable. The eventual fall-out between the two in the season finale was the best confrontation I have seen on television in years. It was brutal to see two people so perfectly in love a while ago hit a blunt dead-end. Adam was too serious about the relationship for Hannah. She, in turn, was too insecure and insensitive for him.
The reunion in the second season always felt a little forced to me. Adam could have used his time away from Hannah to reflect on what did not work between them instead of sloppily trying to get over her. He is capable of it. Hannah leaning on him again only after learning that he had sort of moved on with his life did not ring of sincerity and true love. Still, the finale scene worked for me because I wanted them to be together. Anything less than that dramatic rescue scene would have worked for me too. Adam Driver and Lena Dunham have too much chemistry between them to let it all go to waste. When they are together on screen, they exist in a common shared space. As Hannah Horvath and Adam Sackler, they bring to life one of the most solid TV couples of recent times. As the audience, we do not ask if they are still in love or what draws them to each other. They are very safely in the mysterious territory of 'Love' and we like it that way. They need not get along all the time and will obviously go through the rough patches every relationship is prone to. But they will always find their way back to each other. That is what looks right and we do not know why.
The third season has so far dealt with their personal aspects and how it informs their relationship. Hannah and Adam are not cut out of the same fabric. That was a part of the spark between them to start with. That, however was also at the core of the ugly, disastrous fight between them which ended with Adam temporarily moving out. It was difficult to watch, with me wanting to root for and chide both characters at different moments. Adam's commitment to the play is a reflection of who he is. I would not expect any less than total immersion on his part. This is the guy who teared up at Jessa's sham wedding. But his disregard for Hannah was difficult to swallow. Earlier, he had zoomed to another city to check on his less than banged up girlfriend. To not bother enough to even call her when she does not turn up all night is a bit of a stretch after that. Her alarm at his attitude is justified. How she goes about trying to fix it is embarrassingly funny, but cut the girl some slack. Adam had sent her a creepy playlist of songs with a deranged performance to go with it after their ugly break up. He crashed into her house and and informed her calmly of his decision to keep pursuing her no matter what. He is in a better place now but that does not necessarily bode well for their relationship. Adam had stepped back into Hannah's life at her very worst phase. He brought her back and her acceptance of their relationship was, in my opinion, shaped by this. The sincerity Adam has for their relationship had scared her so much that she had neatly washed her hands off of the whole thing the first time round. This turnaround in her attitude towards them has been fueled by how he saw her through a period of illness as well as loneliness.
That is why I feel Adam was too harsh on Hannah. He means more to her now than he did when they had started out. He is a huge part of this new found stability in Hannah which we see in every episode this season. This might be a narcissistic girl, with a less than developed understanding of social courtesy. This might be a girl whose has taken detachment to a whole new level of, well, detachment. But this is definitely not a girl falling to pieces and losing control. We may not like what she is doing and how she is doing it, but Hannah is completely in charge.
Adam has now had the opportunity to watch Hannah function in her natural environment. And he does not like what he sees. Her lack of empathy for David's death and the preoccupation with the fate of her book weigh on him. This could be one of the reasons why he exploded on her the way he did. He is beginning to see a shallow and plastic side to her that runs opposite to what he is and believes in. But he, of all people, should know that there is more to Hannah Horvath than meets the eye, or ever will.
Some time away from each other does seem like a good idea for them. They started with a convenient arrangement that did not present much of an opportunity for them to know each other as individuals. Their follow-up relationship was short-lived, to say the least. The break-up unraveled both of them. And only they could have sewed each other up right, which they did. A committed, live-in relationship is no small step and they jumped headlong into it.
So a little rift between them is welcome. They need it, we could live without it but we get it. But they should eventually find each other again. They are the only couple on television whose love and eventual fate bear no shadow of doubt to me. No matter where the road takes them, Narcissist Hannah and Brooding Adam look right only with each other.
