Girls Review: “Free Snacks” (Season 3, Episode 6)

The one major plot thread carried over from last week’s episode is the budding romance–if that’s even the right word for it–between Ray and Marnie. If ever a relationship was eligible for the Least Likely to Work award, it would be this one. The two are openly hostile to each other, with Ray being condescending about Marnie’s level of intelligence and Marnie calling Ray out for being substantially more pretentious than his status as a coffee shop manager warrants.

And yet, for some reason the two of them both seem either resigned or determined to make this most unlikely of relationships into something more than two acquaintances who can barely stand each other’s existence. Not since Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat have two bigger opposites attracted, but loneliness and desperation can drive people to do strange things (like getting romantically involved with a cartoon feline).

Elsewhere, Ray’s former fling Shoshanna is perhaps slightly regretting dumping him for his lack of motivation now that he’s running a coffee shop with his name on it. Rather than going for a double-dip in that well, though, she is trying her hand at a relationship with another guy, albeit one whom she considers to be perhaps the stupidest person she has ever met. And for Shoshanna to think that about someone… well, he must be awfully stupid. He seems like a nice guy, though, despite Shoshanna being pretty terrible to him.

Shoshanna’s romantic subplot is substantially less interesting than Ray and Marnie’s, and that’s a real problem for the show. More than any other character this season, Girls could really just drop Shoshanna altogether and be none the worse for wear. Jessa was at least interesting for one episode before slipping into a backup spot where she has only gotten the briefest of screen time. Hopefully the writers will figure out how to better utilize both characters, because it is a real weak spot at the moment.

Overall, “Free Snacks” continues the trend set by last week’s episode of downshifting into a lower gear than we saw from the first handful of episodes this season. It’s a mellower, more subdued Girls, with an emphasis on slowly building and perhaps tearing apart relationships rather than rapid-fire change for Hannah and friends. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. As long as the show’s underlying unpredictability remains in tact, it doesn’t yet run the risk of becoming rote. Still, it would be nice if they could figure out what to do with Shoshanna and Jessa.

Random Quotes:

• “It’s a cappuccino, Dean; it’s not a ‘cup of chino.'”
• “I’m using semantic convention to sound accessible.”
• “I feel like that wasn’t as retweeted as it should have been, so I appreciate the support.”
• “I love Africa!” “That’s a f–king weird thing to say.”