“I haven’t made my mark on this city yet,” Hannah Horvath (played by Lena Dunham) gripes, in a line that almost sounds like a Horvathian algorithm had written it.
“You made so many wonderful friendships,” Elijah (Andrew Rannells) — Hannah’s venomously sweet frenemy replies — in a way that makes you think back through all of the years of the miserably dysfunctional friendships Hannah’s cultivated/perpetuated.
And so we get our first glimpse at the final season of Girls, which, in a recontextualized America, bears the same gaggle of narcissistic/privileged characters who suddenly seem even more out of touch with contemporary reality. And, depending on how you look at the intent of the show (as in, whether you see it as satirical or earnest; though I’d say it’s a sometimes spot-on — as with its surprisingly good fifth season — but sometimes woefully uneven combination of the two), its demographic satire could feel all the more pointed, or the show itself could feel just that much more out of touch.
The series returns for the last time (until Netflix hypothetically decides, a decade down the line, that it’s been long enough for a nostalgic resuscitation) on February 12.
Watch the teaser: