We were promised a some-what lighter third season for Girls and it’s lead character Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) and for the most part, Dunham gave us what was promised, but true to form, Girls never dances too long in the light and breezy by showing us that when things start to look up, there’s something to drag you down lurking right around the corner.

I still dislike Hannah and no matter how hard I try to see things from her perspective, I still end up heading to that small place in my mind that wants to throttle the self-centredness right out of her.  I know I’m not alone here.  It’s funny to think that Girls, while incredibly well acted and highly intriguing, is literally about the life of a 25 year old woman who is so deplorable and loathsome that the other people in her world (Jessa the junkie or Elijah the enabler for instance) begin to look like shining beacons of light.

It’s clear Dunham has created Hannah to be particularly unlikeable to the point she’s practically shoving more things for us to hate about her down our throats.

*Hannah’s book editor David dies and at his funeral and proceeds too ask his widow for a contact for another editor.

*Adam’s eccentric and (probably) unstable sister Caroline (great casting of Gaby Hoffman) arrives and asks to stay.  Ignoring Adam’s CRYSTAL CLEAR instructions to not allow it, Hannah moves Caroline right on in.

*Hannah thrives doing advertorial work for GQ, in fact, she shows everyone else up with her quick thinking ability, but proceeds to self sabotage in order to be fired as she feels like, as a writer, she’s selling out.

*Marnie invites the girls over to her mother’s friends beach house where in town, Hannah bumps into Elijah and against Marnie’s wishes, invites Elijah and his friends to join them in order to avoid having to spend any actual time with her friends.

Are we really surprised?  This is Hannah after all.

Out of all the characters this season, Shoshanna grew on me the most.  Yes, I thought her decision to end things with Ray was a silly idea, but that, in itself, brought out a sexually empowered and vocally aggressive Shoshanna.  It didn’t hurt either when Shosh got to say not only what every viewer has wanted to say to Hannah, but also, the line of the entire show to date:

“You’re a fucking narcissist. Seriously, I’ve never met anyone else who thinks their own life is so fascinating. I wanted to fall asleep in my own vomit all day listening to you speak about how you bruise more easily than other people … [I don’t want to be like] you, like mentally ill and miserable.”

Yes! Thank you, Shoshana.

Even Adam, who I’ve never liked, actually began to grow on me.  I think it was around the time his sister arrived that I actually said to myself ‘things are bad when Adam is the sanest character in this show’.

So now, we’ve come to an end for season three.  Adam is flourishing on Broadway which meant he had zero time and zero patience for Hannah.  Shoshanna’s year of sex and debauchery leaves her flunking out of college and a failed attempt to win Ray back.  Jessa agreed to help wheelchair bound artist Beadie commit suicide (by actually hand feeding her pills) only for Beadie to freak out and scream for 911.  Marnie’s professional life is getting back on track, working as a gallery assistant and making some rather nice music with Desi, but of course, Marnie has always been one to blur the line between professional and romantic….and Hannah…well, with Adam pushing her aside for Broadway, it opens the door for her to take up the offer to attend the exclusive Iowa Writers Workshop (when did she apply for that by the way?)

What did you think of this third season of Girls?