Thursday, August 16, 2018

The Book of Rannells: Girls: Season 2, Episode 3 – “Bad Friend” (2013)


Man, do I love this episode, or rather, the Hannah-and-Elijah-on-an-adventure portion of the episode.  Tons of fun, but it also moves the plot forward.  Other stuff happens, and it’s not like it’s bad or anything, but I’m just so here for the Hannah-Elijah stuff (episode premise spoilers.)

Hannah meets with someone from an online publication who’s interested in her writing.  She’s pitched the idea of doing a bunch of cocaine and then writing an article about her experience, and naturally, this seems like a reasonable enough idea to Hannah.  She sets off on obtaining her “research,” Elijah in tow, and the two have a drug-fueled romp through Brooklyn that involves dancing, clothes-swapping, and some things that probably shouldn’t be said.  In other news, Marnie runs into a douchey artist she idolizes, and he takes her back to his studio.

I’ll repeat that I’m good with pretty much everything that happens here.  I enjoy Hannah’s weird interactions with her downstairs neighbor, who she hopes can hook her up with coke, and Marnie’s scenes with artist guy (Booth) are messed up in an interesting, entertaining way.  But let’s be real:  this is all about Elijah and Hannah doing cocaine together.  While it’s all great, my favorite scene actually takes place just on the cusp of their adventure, after they’ve taken their first lines but are still back at the apartment.  Their rapid-fire stream-of-consciousness dialogue is terrific, along with their super touchy-feeliness and Elijah’s almost-“religious” revelation that Hannah should “leave [her] fucking mark” on their apartment (along with Hannah mistakenly thinking he means with her pee.)

But yeah, it’s all fantastic.  I like the little details, like the twitchy, paranoid way they hold hands as they prepare to enter a subway station or the hilariously-old photo on the driver’s license Elijah uses to make their lines of coke.  There are lots of great lines and all sorts of fun business going on in this storyline, and the way it draws itself back into the bigger plot of this part of the season feels authentic and earned.  I like that, too, that it’s a bunch of fun craziness but it also has relevance for the characters and their stories.

I’m struck here by Andrew Rannells’s talent compared to the younger and less experienced members of the cast.  There’s a big scene between Hannah and Marnie late in the episode, and I can feel both Lena Dunham and Allison Williams acting so hard.  You can tell they’re both giving it their all, but that in itself is an issue, because we shouldn’t be able to tell that.  In contrast, Rannells’s performance just seems so effortless.  I absolutely buy whatever ludicrous thing comes out of Elijah’s mouth, and he sells me completely on whatever Elijah is feeling at any given moment:  blasé, hyped, elated, confused, freaked, annoyed, distracted, etc.  I have to stop and remind myself how little on-camera experience Rannells had at this point.  Yes, he’d been acting quite a bit longer than Dunham or Williams, and he already had a Tony nomination for Mormon under his belt, but while he’s undeniably great in that show, it operates very much in a sort of heightened-reality space, and it would’ve been entirely possible that Rannells could’ve struggled to adjust to the very different tone of TV shows in general and this one in particular.  On the contrary, though, he’s fantastic.  I can honestly say he draws my attention as soon as he appears onscreen, and once again, it’s more than just my Andrew Rannells bias behind that.

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