Why So Blu?

Girls: The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray Review)

Girls, Girls Girls.  You hear a lot about this show, whether it be good, bad or “controversial”.  Having watched the show…I really don’t understand how this show is controversial at all.  Just because Lena Dunham doesn’t have a supermodel figure and gets naked?  Lame.  There are some moments push limits, but its HBO.  I think Game Of Thrones is more edgy with its sex and stuff, personally.  I haven’t been with the show from the beginning.  I watched an episode during its first season and was completely turned off.  But then last January I sucked it up and got completely caught up.  Once you get on the show’s wavelength and totally understand what it is and how to watch it (Its not for everyone I get that), its quite an enjoyable time.  Part of the fun is facepalming yourself at these 20 something girls and guys making dumb decisions and choices like people during that time in their lives do.  Hannah Horvath may be one of the most toxic and frustrating characters on TV, but getting pissed at her is part of the fun of watching this little dramedy show.

Season 

The third season of the critically acclaimed and award winning series finds the characters all at certain crossroads in their lives.  It seems the focus is on every one of them tackling a new career/life opportunity and how much they are growing apart.  Hannah and company are growing apart from some of their previously closer connections but then moving more intimate with different characters.  Some of the characters are taking more normal routes in life, while others take a bit more artistic or chancy ones.  As always some deal with their new roles/positions better than others, while some are too focused on what the others have that they don’t.

Season 3 of Girls was a big time improvement over the aimless and sort of “running in place” second season of the show.  Its first season came out swinging hard and then, unfortunately, Season 2 hit the sophomore slump most shows tend to snag on.  But, this season was more focuses, bold and unafraid to get its hands dirty.  Part of the fun of watching Girls is the discomfort the characters’ decisions and reactions to conflicts bring to the table.  I think something that helped me out personally with Season 3 is that it seemingly had less Jessa.  Considering I can’t stand that character (Makes me want to pull my hair out), that’s a BIG BIG plus!

There are a lot of threads that have been waiting to be yanked for the past two years, and things really come to a head in what might be my favorite episode of all time “Beach House”.  It features the girls trying to get back on track and heal their relationships.  Without spoiling it, it starts a little bit nice, but then SHIT-HITS-THE-FAN…and its absolutely outstanding!  I won’t go into it, but its one of the most no-holds-barred character fighting I’ve ever seen on television before.  While you’re laughing and “Holy Shit” giggling, you also feel incredibly uncomfortable during it and feel completely dirty after watching.  That’s part of the genius of this show.

Who was the season’s MVP?  Shoshanna is my all time favorite, but I’m gonna go with Adam.  They threw in the addition of his crazy ass sister, and it added an extra dynamic to things and helped further Hannah’s dedication to him.  He seemingly was one of the people with his stuff together.  And I think his character also seemed to make Hannah much more tolerable and more of a human being.  While I love Ray and he really had some of the best moments of the season, he sort of felt a little distant from the others.  Marnie makes a case for an entertaining trainwreck, but I’m going with Adam.

Girls is back on the tracks and hopefully can continue on this path now that it seem’s Dunham has figured out how to structure her season and balance all the characters.  I’m really curious to see how much involvement Adam Driver has in the upcoming season due to his attachment to The Force Awakens and the rest of the Star Wars films.  Its coming back really soon, and this show is a breeze to binge watch, so you’ll be able to catch up pretty quick.

Episodes

Each episode comes with the option of checking out the “recap” that was paired with the episode when it aired.  Access to the “Inside The Episode” featurette is available here as well.

Females Only

Truth Or Dare

She Said Okay

Dead Inside

Only Child

Free Snacks

Beach House

Incidentals

Flo

Role-Play

I Saw You

Two Plane Rides

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Clarity/Detail:  Girls looks every bit as good on Blu-ray as when it airs and then some.  This transfer features a realistic approach when it comes to color timing and sharpness.  Fabrics, surfaces and such all contain plenty of detail throughout the series.  Impressively, each environment looks nice, smooth and natural.

Black Levels: Blacks are nice and inky and enhance the image’s outlining and definition.

Color Reproduction: Colors are kept very natural.  They are bold and rich but not overly vibrant unless it’s an article of clothing that just can’t help itself anyway.

Flesh Tones: Flesh tones are natural with just a hint of cool to them.  You can see every detail both titillating and grotesque from moles to rolls.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, French DTS Digital Surround 5.1, Spanish DTS Digital Surround 2.0

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish

Dynamics:   Girls isn’t a show that demands a lot from its audio track, but this accurately replicates and displays every interior and exterior a scene takes place in.  This season delves plenty into music and the instrumentation and vocals is pretty rich and acoustic that sounds nice and good at replicating the live aspect.

Low Frequency Extension:  There’s nice a whole lot of wam-bam moments needed in girls, but what the subwoofer adds is kinda understated.  Engine hums, doors slamming, thumps and thuds all get a nice boost from your point one.

Surround Sound Presentation:  Voice to screen placement is completely accurate and movement is well documented in the track.  The rear is mainly for ambiance, but really does some good work in creating a feel and lived in experience for all environments.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Crisp, loud and clear.  Volume and pitches are displayed with perfection.

Extras 

Girls: The Complete Third Season comes with UltraViolet Digital Copies of every Season 3 episode.

Disc 1

Audio Commentary

• Episode 2 With Creator/Executive Producer/Director, Lena Dunham (Hannah) & Executive Producer, Jenni Konner

Deleted & Extended Scenes

• Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 6 (HD, 43:15)

Inside The Episodes (HD, 18:02) – As seen on HBO, HBO Go and HBO OnDemand, Lena Dunham sits and goes over her perspective on the episodes and character motivations along with her writing and filmmaking process.

Lutheran Healthcare Honors Lena (HD, 4:47) – Highlights Lena Dunham’s contribution to mental health in Brooklyn, also features a joking short that features her acting like an evil pompous prick during production of the show.

Disc 2

Audio Commentary

• Episode 7 With Zosia Mamet (Shoshanna), Jemima Kirke (Jessa) & Andrew Rannells (Elijah)
• Episode 9 With Director Richard Shepard & Writer Bruce Kaplan
• Episode 10 With Creator/Executive Producer Lena Dunham (Hannah) & Executive Producer Judd Apatow
• Epsiode 11 With Writer Paul Simms & Alex Karpovsky (Ray)
• Episode 12 With Creator/Executive Producer/Director Lena Dunham (Hannah)

Deleted & Extended Scenes

• Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12 (HD, 18:44)

Gag Reel Part 1 (HD, 7:46)

Gag Reel Part 2 (HD, 6:35)

Inside The Episodes (HD, 18:46)

The Making Of Girls (HD, 18:36) – Led by Lena Dunham’s same interview session (not content) as the “Inside The Episodes” clips, we are taken on the journey of the story of Season 3.  Features behind the scenes footage and interviews from the cast on their perspective of Season 3 and their characters.

Marnie Michaels “What I Am” (HD, 2:40) – The full cut of the embarrassing music video that fans will appreciate having on here.  Its pretty damn funny.

Marni & Desi “Bet On Me” (HD, 2:28) – Basically the scene where Marnie & Desi play it at the open mic.

Lol Freckles “Dancin’ On The D” (HD, 1:47) – A nice little raunchy rap.

Summary 

HBO delivers yet another great release of one of its shows on Blu-ray.  Girls looks and sounds great.  It also features plenty of enjoyable and insightful bonus materials that feel complete and feel like there are goodies for fans too.  This third season is a much needed and comforting step back in the right direction while still maintaining everything you like about the show.  I’m eager for it to get back for the fourth season and start getting irritated and frustrated at these people again.  No, not torturing myself, its part of the enjoyment of the show!