There’s no doubting the ambition behind ‘One Man’s Trash’, an episode of Girls that sidesteps everything going on in the season to pause and examine a short fling between Hannah and a sad doctor named Joshua. A half hour that takes place in an almost dream-like state, ‘One Man’s Trash’ isn’t perfect television, but it’s certainly compelling, an episode that moves beyond its personal or generation-Y material, and explores some existential questions in a way only Hannah could.
For a hot doctor, Patrick Wilson’s Joshua (NOT Josh) is a sad, sad man: he lives in a neighborhood with people half his age, and when the opportunity presents itself to have someone around the house to talk to, he clings onto it desperately, a notion Hannah’s way too self-involved with to notice. As Hannah points out herself, she’s so concerned with having experiences and living things that it becomes a exercise in futility, a string of random moments that don’t provide any clarity about oneself… or more importantly, leave anyone feeling happy in their life.
Her breakdown in Joshua’s bedroom is so predictably Hannah: she’s so blind to what Joshua might be feeling or thinking, that she doesn’t realize opening up is really what pushed him away. As always, she’s got to be the center of attention, brushing off Joshua’s admission that he let another boy touch him when he was a kid as “well, you let him do it”, and generally dismissing his internal pain and suffering as the cost of doing business as a hot, rich doctor. The pain she’s feeling is important – but what’s even more interesting to see is how blinded she is by her own enlightenment. All she wants to do is be happy, and when she realizes she’s not, she throws away the possibility by obsessing over it. She might realize she’s not happy, but she’s not quite aware that her selfishness might play a big part in this.
People who don’t like Girls will be all over this episode: whether it’s the belief that Joshua would be attracted her, or the amount of time she spends naked in the episode, hate watchers are going to go to town on that kind of material. However, I think it works fairly well in both cases: Joshua and his apartment are like a completely different, almost dream like world in this episode (Hannah: “I didn’t even know places like this existed in my neighborhood), and Hannah’s nudity is a pretty simple visual representation of her putting all her quirks and flaws out in the open (although its one that feels quite self indulgent at times, like Dunham just wants to throw the middle finger at all her detractors with her nipples).
By the close of ‘One Man’s Trash’, we know that Hannah and Joshua will never have a relationship: they’re both too unsatisfied with themselves to find solace in another person. And so the dream ends, Hannah walking down the street alone, thinking about her experience as one might remember an affecting dream: a blurry of sensations with one dominating feeling at the center of it. In ‘One Man’s Trash’, that feeling is loneliness, the feeling Hannah’s always felt doomed to.
Grade: A-
Other thoughts/observations:
– Hannah’s age is 24, and Joshua’s is 42: Hannah jokes they’re like twins, but she’s really not: emotionally, they are kind of like twins (hence, the numbers mirror each other). My favorite little touch of the episode.
– Do I believe this episode is believable? I do – its supposed to feel like a dream sequence, an out of character moment for Hannah, that’s why the doctor is such a stud. He even says he’s like a ghost!
– The topless ping pong scene felt a little unnecessary, but it was hilarious to hear Hannah blabbering like an idiot: “I don’t play much sports, but when I do…”
– “I want all the things!”
– Terrific opening scene with Ray, whose frustrations of living in his car come unhinged as he rips into Joshua for screaming and yelling about garbage bags.
– Hannah’s without a job… again.
– “It’s like a Nancy Myers movie”; compliment or insult?
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