No, Living the RomCom hasn't become a 24/7 Girls zone, but I can't help taking note of Sunday night's finale, a typically controversial Lena Dunham special, in that it once again reversed expectations... in perhaps one of the last conceivably shocking ways.
After all the dark and disturbing character turns, the archly meta cultural commentary, and the perversely reality-based tweaking of romantic comedy fantasies, in the end [spoilers!] Dunham and her crew chose to honor that mother of all rom-com clichés by having anti-hero-turned-white-knight Adam run, literally run to the rescue of damsel-in-distress Hannah, kicking down her door and sweeping her up in his manly arms.
I suspect that Dunham, Apatow and staff may have availed themselves of Pixar's Rules of Storytelling #9 ("...Make a list of what wouldn't happen next...") to arrive at this unexpected conclusion to their scary roller-coaster of a Season 2, but it was true to the determinedly irony-laden spirit of the show.
Adam you may remember as the ugly sexual abuser of his current girlfriend, so not so much attired in shining armor (he was buff-ly shirtless), and Hannah wasn't so much about to get on a plane to Paris as she was about to disappear down her bedcovers rabbit-hole prior, perhaps, to a stint at Bellevue. But the effect and the execution was about the same: there was even pounding emo-rock on the soundtrack (hey, nice synch between the drums and Adam's footfalls on the stairs, sound editor person!), courtesy of the writer/director's paramour.
Did your heart swell, nonetheless? Mine did, though I was simultaneously laughing, both at the bald absurd logic of the conceit, and its incidental execution: the detail of Adam barking at Hannah on his iPhone as he ran was about as perfect a 2013 rom-com update as one could wish for. And it is heartening, I gotta admit, to see a trope as old as... well, romance still delivering the goods, at this late date. Be as po-mo proto-feminist as you like, Dunham's resolution suggests, but you'll still swoon for an archetypal clinch.
Proof that we do live in a time that's a little different from medieval can be found in this excellent link, wherein some savvy Brooklynites have managed to specifically locate and time Adam's rom-com run down to the second, suggesting that while we may still fall for the same old shtick, we've gotten a lot more efficient at annotating it.
When I watched this scene, I imediately thought "love dash" and hoped you would write about it. Thanks for teacing me some context ahead of time--make the scene even better. :)
Posted by: jamy | March 23, 2013 at 08:42 PM
Jamy: I like "love dash," and will steal it for future use, thank you!
Posted by: mernitman | March 25, 2013 at 11:53 AM
I finally watched the episode today and yeah, I was in the car. The fact we wouldn't expect Adam to do a love dash - lol. It was great. And boy, Hannah needs some love. Her OCD subplot *almost* jumped the shark for me, but I'm still in the car. However, the door is unlocked... TBD Season 3.
Posted by: Christina | March 25, 2013 at 10:20 PM
Christina: I hear that. I was just glad we didn't end up in a mental ward or on suicide watch. Comedy!
Posted by: mernitman | March 27, 2013 at 08:50 AM
I totally loved their rom com run. I think in part for the reason you mentioned, that it was totally unexpected. "I can't believe it! A rom com run!"
But also because it was more in character than it is in most movies. This guy is so hyper and weird he WOULD do a rom com run... AND beat your door down. It was just, oddly, in character.
Posted by: londonmabel | April 03, 2013 at 11:10 PM
LondonMabel: True! And therefore very probable - according to the characters of both he and Hannah - that the happily won't be very ever after...
Posted by: mernitman | April 04, 2013 at 08:28 AM
Wait, wait, didn't you invent the phrase "love dash"? If not, then I am awesome! Please use and make popular. :)
Posted by: jamy | April 18, 2013 at 02:55 PM