The Show:

In its fourth season, the HBO dramatic comedy Girls explores its petulantly arrested characters in both familiar and surprising new ways. By starting the season with ostensible main character Hannah Horvath (show creator Lena Dunham) leaving her friends in New York to enter a writing program in Iowa, the show's writers take the focus off the titular foursome (which also includes Allison Williams as struggling singer Marnie, Jemima Kirke as recovering addict Jessa, and Zosia Mamet as uptight college graduate Shoshanna) in their original friend group dynamic and instead they allow all sorts of tangential threads to develop. Much like the similarly titled New Girl, the show has become a true ensemble showcase where the storylines focused on side characters are quite often more compelling than what's happening with our stars.

Hannah goes off to school with such hope... and it comes crashing down pretty much immediately. Her writers' group is far from enamored with her navel-gazing, pseudo-edgy prose, and she mostly feels lonely in the giant, empty apartment she is able to rent for much less than her Manhattan digs. Fortunately for her -- and for us -- Hannah's gay ex-boyfriend Elijah, played by the scene-stealing Andrew Rannells, decides to make a surprise drop-in and inspires Hannah to start raising hell. Rannells's hilarious social butterfly run amok is a welcome presence in these first few episodes of the season because, even though we get a new batch of people for Hannah to unintentionally insult and alienate (like Appropriate Behavior's Desiree Akhavan and SNL short-timer Brooks Wheelan), this trip to Iowa kind of derails the momentum created by the third season and feels like the writers treading water while they wrap up some story threads and try to figure out which direction they are going to send the characters toward next.

The show quickly finds its footing the moment that Hannah returns to New York, only to discover that her boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver) has put all of her stuff into storage and is now dating a seemingly more grounded artist named Mimi-Rose (Gillian Jacobs, from Community and Netflix's great new show Love). After Hannah's initial freakout over this, in which she closes herself up in her old room and refuses to come out for a day, the show smartly allows us to glimpse how Adam and Mimi-Rose's relationship continues in the next episode . This is not treated as a rote rebound, and the show doesn't frame the couple's shared scenes around how these interactions would impact Hannah: in this episode, it is fully about these two characters figuring out if they have a shot at being together.

Driver and Jacobs become the MVPs of this season largely because of their intensely emotional storyline, and the unexpected ways that their characters react and change. Jacobs is particularly good here at not reprising a performance we've seen her do before or relying on full-of-shit-artist cliches; there's a baseline of pretentiousness to Mimi-Rose and her work, but there's also genuine caring (and some confusion) at her core as well. Jacobs balances these all with surprising deftness. Driver was a major highlight of last season, and it's satisfying to see him continue to bring new colors to the unmediated ball of emotion that is his character.

On the other end of the couples spectrum, the musical-sexual relationship between Marnie and fake-hippie Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) has become tiresome and annoying. Desi is clearly a controlling, womanizing moron -- something Marnie herself acknowledges several times throughout this season -- and yet Marnie allows them to stay together (for the music? for the sex?). At this point, it isn't tragic that Marnie has this fatal flaw about accepting Desi: it's dumb and soapy.

The guest star roster for this season is formidable as always. Zachary Quinto is creepily funny as Mimi-Rose's ex, who starts dating Jessa to get back at Mimi-Rose. Jason Ritter is perfectly cast as the head of an upstart ramen company who asks Shoshanna for a date after she unsuccessfully interviews with him for a job. Marc Maron is a community council member whose misanthropic grouchiness (what else is new?) inspires Ray (the similarly sour Alex Karpovsky) to run against him in the upcoming election. Maude Apatow is wonderfully natural as a high school kid whom Hannah ill-advisedly befriends, making a case that Judd Apatow's daughters deserve to act in things that he didn't direct (see also: Iris Apatow in Love). Anthony Edwards and Ana Gasteyer make a brief but memorable appearance as Shoshanna's overbearing, divorced parents, both named Mel. Gaby Hoffmann and Jon Glaser return as Adam's unhinged sister, now pregnant, and her beta-male baby daddy.

Peter Scolari and Becky Ann Baker also get a juicy arc to dig into this season, as long-held secrets about both of Hannah's parents (whom they play) are bluntly uncovered, leaving pain, anger, and confusion in their wake.

The fourth season of Girls finishes much stronger than it begins, but even during the throat-clearing and re-calibrating of this batch's early episodes, the show never falters in its dedication to truthfully awkward moments, heartfelt drama, and uncomfortable comedy. If you've followed the show this far, it's certainly worth sticking around.

The Blu-ray
The fourth season of Girls is presented on 2 BDs, packaged on opposing hubs with a Digital HD code that works with Ultraviolet or iTunes.

The Video:
Once again, Girls translates perfectly to home video in these AVC-encoded 1080p 1.78:1 presentations. Vivid color, excellent clarity, and no distinct compression issues. Exactly what you want from a new show.

The Audio:
Once again the main English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround is crisp and defect-free, with the surrounds mostly being used for subtle atmosphere and big music cues. There are two dub options: French DTS 5.1 surround and Spanish DTS 2.0 stereo. On the subtitles front, the disc offers: English SDH, French, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles.

Special Features:
Apart from the commentaries, all of these bonuses feature options for English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles.

• Audio commentaries on 7 episodes - Another entertaining, informative batch of commentaries that each feature a different line-up of cast members, producers, and writers. Lena Dunham appears on most, though not all, of them. As always, it sounds like they have a great time making this show.


• Deleted and Extended Scenes (HD, Blu-ray exclusive, 26:34 total) - Less extensive than last season, but this is still a very funny and interesting batch of trims, including an extra scene of Anthony Edwards and Ana Gasteyer as Shoshanna's parents and tons of great riffs from Andrew Rannells.


• Inside the Episodes (HD, 33:34 total) - Another batch of Dunham's recaps of the episodes which typically after the initial broadcasts. This batch feels a little less redundant than usual, with Dunham actually offering some interesting reads of the characters and changing relationships of the show.


• Music Performances (HD, Blu-ray exclusive, 5:29 total) - The two musical performance scenes from the season -- Marnie & Desi performing "Breathless" and Marnie performing "Riverside" -- re-edited so that the songs can be heard in full without cutaways.


• The Making of Girls Season 4 (HD, Blu-ray exclusive, 20:15) - A solid EPK, with a mix of talking heads (some grabbed from the "Inside the Episodes"), behind-the-scenes footage, outtakes, and funny clips from the season.


• Gag Reels (HD, Blu-ray exclusive, 12:38 total) - Once again, we are treated to not one but two different collections of on-camera goofs and goofing around. Ah, making TV is fun, guys.

Final Thoughts:
After a slow start, the fourth season of Girls enjoyably expands and deepens the relationships of its characters, while adding some welcome new faces to the mix (especially Gillian Jacobs). With the show reportedly heading into its last two seasons now, this batch of episodes feels (for better and worse) transitional. But even in its weaker moments, season 4 of Girls is still painfully funny and unexpectedly touching, and it comes Highly Recommended.

Justin Remer is a frequent wearer of beards. His new album of experimental ambient music, Joyce, is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple, and wherever else fine music is enjoyed. He directed a folk-rock documentary called Making Lovers & Dollars, which is now streaming. He also can found be found online reading short stories and rambling about pop music.