Favorite Characters: Elijah Krantz (Girls)

*A few Elijah-related spoilers.*

No new Andrew Rannells in Girls5Eva this week, so I’m pulling in a Book of Rannells non-review post today. I know it’s probably weird that I watched Girls specifically for one of the guys, but while I find the show amusing enough, I love Elijah.  Even acknowledging my admitted bias, my enjoyment of Girls is often directly proportional to how often Elijah is on my screen, and I greatly appreciate his increasing presence over the course of the series.

Initially introduced as an ex-boyfriend of Hannah’s, we first see Elijah in the context of an awkward conversation (very much par for the course for that show.)  Hannah has gotten back in touch with him to discuss STDs, but he, mistakenly assuming she’s already heard rumors about him, “confirms” that he’s now dating a man.  Hannah is of course blindsided, and the cordial get-together quickly devolves into arguments and sniping.  Their paths cross a bit more over the course of the first season, and somehow, by the end of season 1, it makes a weird sort of sense when in-need-of-a-roommate Hannah suggests he move in with her.  After the first look we get at them, it doesn’t seem like they’d make good friends, but their own particular brands of awful are surprisingly compatible together.

Because, truly, Elijah is awful.  I know that’s an odd thing to say in a Favorite Characters post, but it’s undeniable.  He’s vain and selfish, frequently unreliable, and mostly aimless (when he tries to get back into acting, his initial plan is just to “fuck [his] way up to the middle.”)  While he doesn’t shy away from telling his friends hard truths that they avoid about themselves, he definitely takes satisfaction in feeling superior to them, even when his own ducks aren’t in any sort of row.  That said, even though I’d likely want to avoid an Elijah in real life, on TV, he is a riot to watch.  He gets most of the best lines and delivers them with an infectious sort of relish that makes it hard to dislike him no matter how self-absorbed, petty, or bitchy he gets.

As the person who pretty much emerges as Hannah’s best friend, Elijah occasionally functions as her Magical Gay Advisor—again with the hard truths, pointing out the problems she refuses to deal with.  Just as often, however, he’s the devil on her shoulder, and together, they indulge in irresponsible impulses, affirm one another’s delusions, and encourage one another’s worst tendencies.  I like that Elijah is so often a complete mess who simply carries himself as if he has it all together (it’s not even that he’s trying to fake it; it’s that he can be so utterly self-assured despite being a mess.)  He’s a little hedonistic, has some definite arrested development going on, and is hugely self-impressed, and it’s just endlessly entertaining.

I also like that, while so much of Elijah’s character is just fun, he also has some depth to him.  He displays an unexpected level of vulnerability that bubbles to the surface at crucial scenes, mostly related to his romantic entanglements.  For a character who’s such a hilarious one-liner machine, I’m never prepared for those moments when he suddenly feels so young and so exposed.  There are a number of good ones (explaining his sugar-daddy situation with George to Marnie, trying to take things to the next level with Dill,) but the scene that gets to me the most is when, at Hannah’s urging, he addresses the way Pal frequently belittles him.  With his start-and-stop dialogue, it’s immediately evident how scared he is to do anything that might jeopardize his relationship with this guy he really likes, even if he’s bothered by how Pal treats him.  And then, the second Pal shrugs off his concerns with a dismissive remark about why Elijah would ever take advice from Hannah, you watch him silently crumble, only just managing to pull it together because he’s still so desperate to make it work.  For a character that usually walks around with such a high opinion of himself and sees most everybody else as utter disasters, it’s so important to get scenes like this with him.

The Book of Rannells: Girls: Season 6, Episode 9 – “Goodbye Tour” (2017)

Although this isn’t technically the series finale of Girls, the actual series finale feels more like a coda, a next-chapter sort of episode featuring just a few of the characters.  This, the penultimate episode, is the one that feels like more of a send-off for the show, the story, and the cast.  For most of the actors, including Andrew Rannells, this is their final episode on the show (premise spoilers.)

Hannah contemplates a new career opportunity that would begin the next phase of her life in a big way, but it would necessitate moving out of the city.  With 24 hours to make her decision, she roams Brooklyn and tries to connect with her friends – either to say goodbye or to find a reason to stay.

I really enjoy Hannah’s wander through the city as she considers the pros and cons of leaving New York.  On sidewalks, in boutiques, and on subways, we’re treated to a lot of what’s wonderful about New York as well as what’s (literally) crappy about it.  I’ve loved New York every time I’ve visited it, although I’ve never lived there, but I feel like it’s the sort of city in which both coming to and leaving it is a tough question.

It wouldn’t be Girls without a friendship scene that descends into arguments and accusations, and this last hurrah for the core four is a doozy.  Everything culminates in a crucial scene at Shoshanna’s apartment in which tensions run high, and Marnie calls for a “group meeting” to hash all their issues out.  As with Hannah’s journey through Brooklyn, we see both good and bad sides to these characters and their friendships.

Watching this episode, though, and thinking about why these characters are or aren’t fighting for their friendships, I was suddenly struck by a realization of how fragmented the storylines between the girls have been this season.  To be sure, the closeness between the group as a whole and various subsets within it have always fluctuated, but it occurred to me that I honestly don’t think there’s been a legit storyline between two or more of the girls since “Hostage Situation,” which was episode 2 of this season.  That one featured Hannah and Marnie (plus Desi) and Jessa and Shoshanna (plus Elijah.)  Since then, though?  Marnie’s mostly been with Ray and/or Desi, Jessa’s mostly been with Adam, and Shoshanna, when she’s been around, has mostly been with Ray.  Hannah has moved between a variety of characters, but while she’s had the isolated scene here and there one of the other girls, I don’t think she’s had any actual episode plotlines that she’s shared with another girl.  That puts a different spin on this episode for me.  While it’s about this friendship and what’s happened to it, it’s also very much about Hannah:  the direction her life is taking and her realization of the things/people that have drifted from it.

There’s a decent amount of Elijah here in Rannells’s final episode.  He and Hannah have a couple scenes together focused on her possible move.  Unsurprisingly, he’s hurt at the thought of her leaving, although he doesn’t do a terrific job on selling her on the idea of staying, given that he refers to New York as a “godforsaken rathole.”  For the most part, though, he’s sad rather than angry, and these scenes still have a lot of fun to them as well, such as Elijah telling Hannah, “You should have sex before you leave ‘cause I don’t know what kind of dick’s gonna be up in the boondocks.”  There’s also a cute scene of him singing her to sleep (“I’ll give you one Demi, but then it’s lights out,”) and side note, I kind of love it that Hannah and Elijah appear to have designated burrito-eating bandanas.

While a lot of Elijah’s screentime is devoted to Hannah’s decision, that’s not all he gets to do in the episode.  We circle back around to get an update on state of affairs from his A-story in “The Bounce,” and his presence at Shoshanna’s apartment in the second half means he gets to interact a bit more with the other main cast members.  Not a ton, since he’s not about to participate in Marnie’s group meeting, but we get the delightful assertion, “Shosh and I are bros,” and his parting “that’s a series wrap on Andrew Rannells” scene is hilarious in a wonderfully-Elijah way.

I started reviewing Girls for The Book of Rannells ages ago, and now, six seasons later, we’ve come to the end (just in time for the second season of Black Monday, which starts next week!)  Here are my final thoughts.

Recommend?

In General – I think so, as long as you don’t mind the explicit content.  While uneven, I feel like there’s ultimately more to like about it than not.

Andrew Rannells – Yes, yes, yes.  Rannells is so terrific in this, taking what could’ve very easily been a stock character and making him utterly memorable, funny, and watchable.

Warnings

Sexual content (including assorted kinks,) swearing (including the C-word,) drinking/smoking/drug use, occasional violence, and strong thematic elements.

The Book of Rannells: Girls: Season 6, Episode 8 – “What Will We Do This Time about Adam?” (2017)

I’ve gotten through most of this season without getting into the particulars of Hannah’s big ongoing plot, and I almost made it through.  But this one, I think, is gonna be too tricky to discuss without spoilers, so be warned.

Adam has been mulling things over ever since he heard the news that Hannah is going to be having a baby (the dad isn’t in the picture,) and he’s come to the conclusion that he needs to help Hannah raise her child.  While Jessa privately self-destructs, Hannah and Adam drift through this in-between space of the history they have with one another and what they imagine for the future.  Elsewhere, Shoshanna helps Ray with a project, and they run into her old boss Abigail (with the return of Aidy Bryant.)

Making this sort of grand declaration/commitment feels like a very Adam thing to do.  It’s interesting to watch him and Hannah fall into things together, becoming intimate again (both physically and emotionally) and starting to plan this shared life with very little preamble.  I feel like it’s probably in character for Hannah as well – not so much because she’s still pining for Adam at this point, since it really does feel like she’s moved on from him, but because she’s in a place where she’s feeling scared and alone, and it makes sense that she’d take comfort in the idea of the safety of an old love taking this next step with her.  Their final scene together is especially strong.

I mostly like the plot with Ray, Shoshanna, and Abigail, although I would’ve preferred it to move forward with all three of them instead of the duo we wind up finishing the episode with.  There are some fun details here, like Shoshanna telling Ray, “Don’t air quote at me!” and Ray reminiscing about the completely-bizarre Russian cartoon he used to love as a kid, which can only be described as “so Ray.”  I also enjoy the nature of the project Ray is working on; it leads to a neat montage that gives us a nice snapshot of old Brooklyn.

Well, after having his sole front-and-center episode last time, we only get one Elijah scene in this episode.  As usual, though, even when Elijah is used sparingly, he’s used well.  It’s the middle of a heat wave and the AC in the apartment is broken, so both Hannah and Elijah are languishing in their underwear.  Elijah variously defends his unsuccessful attempts to fix the AC (using “an actual screwdriver!”), laments that they’re going to die of heatstroke “like those old people from Queens,” and has zero qualms about hogging the fans from his pregnant roommate.  Really funny, and he displays his excellent talent for making Hannah’s problems about himself – classic Elijah.

The Book of Rannells: Girls: Season 6, Episode 7 – “The Bounce” (2017)

If season 5 is the only one to feature an ongoing centric arc for Elijah, “The Bounce” is the only episode in which Elijah takes the A-plot.  This is an Elijah episode all the way, and it is glorious, absolutely hilarious with nice dramatic flourishes here and there.  It’s an episode that proves there’s no reason a character like Elijah couldn’t be a protagonist instead of a supporting character (a few Elijah-related spoilers, including one from last season.)

Elijah is getting more serious about acting, and his anxious preparations for an open call (for a workshop of White Men Can’t Jump:  The Musical, natch) are thrown for a loop when Dill shows up unexpectedly at Elijah and Hannah’s apartment.  Elijah hasn’t seen Dill since the tail-end of last season, and Dill now comes seeking a hideout in the middle of a PR scandal.  With Hannah back at the apartment “watching” Dill, Elijah heads to his audition with thoughts of his ex swirling in his head.  Meanwhile, Marnie gets a wakeup call as she tries to deal with some financial issues.

In the last episode, Marnie was still very much in “everything wrong with me is someone else’s fault” mode, and she starts out in a very similar place here, but this episode takes her through a pretty humbling experience, and refreshingly, she’s forced to reckon with the part she’s taken in her own problems.  (It also features an amusing couple of burst bubbles from Marnie’s personal mythology.)

I enjoy the scenes with Hannah and Dill at the apartment.  She at least partially does her due diligence as Elijah’s friend, showing loyalty to Elijah in her chilliness towards Dill and texting Elijah his requested updates on all Dill does there.  But this part of the plot also gets into what’s going on with both Hannah and Dill, and the two end up weirdly connecting over their respective woes.

But let’s be real:  this episode is all about Elijah.  It took over five-and-a-half seasons, but this is the big one.  Just the audition stuff alone is a goldmine.  As Andrew Rannells has explained, Lena Dunham and co. mined his own past auditioning experiences for the comic beats of this story, and it’s heavily based on his trials and tribulations auditioning for the basketball-themed Lysistrata Jones.  Elijah’s audition song is as phenomenal as it is ridiculously thirsty (does it make sense for Elijah to sing that well?  I don’t know, but I’m okay with it,) his fumbly dancing is awesome, and everything that follows the introduction of basketballs into the audition is full-on hilarious.  In the midst of all this top-shelf comedy, though, there are also a number of nice, subtle character beats, particularly in Rannells’s wordless reactions to the indifferently-distracted casting directors as Elijah sings, dances, and dribbles (well, tries to) for his life.  Even though Elijah has talked for years about wanting to “break into” Broadway, we see that this is why he hasn’t done much of anything about it until now:  because it matters so much to him, and it’s hard for him to watch it matter so little to the people who can decide his fate.

All that on its own would be an embarrassment of riches for an Elijah A-plot, but then you throw in Dill?  The undercurrent that’s been following Elijah through this season have been Dill’s words to him when they broke up, that he needed someone less “aimless,” and now, when Elijah is finally taking an active, tangible step to make something happen in his life, who shows up at his door?  It’s Elijah’s feelings about Dill’s words to him, it’s his thoughts about how they broke up, it’s his lingering feelings for Dill, and it’s his own fears of putting himself out there professionally and not being good enough – all that is what’s swirling in his head as he arrives at his audition, a personal/romantic/career crisis all rolled into one.

The stuff with Dill is the more dramatic part of Elijah’s plot here, but just as the audition story mixes in some good drama, the Dill story includes some great humor as well (I think this episode might have more genuine laugh-out-loud moments for me than any other in the series.)  I love their exchange about Elijah’s “basketball outfit” for his audition, and there’s this spectacular moment where Elijah drags Hannah out into the hallway to whisper about Dill and he’s so worked up that he just sort of flails himself against the closed door.  While I can’t say I’ve ever done that or have ever been in the particular situation that causes Elijah to do it, I can pinpoint exactly what that feeling is and what would make someone want to do that.  Rannells is unquestionably fantastic, and this is an episode that recognizes that wholeheartedly.