What’s the Best Episode of ‘Girls’?

Need an escape? Still Watching is in a nostalgic mood, and taking a trip down memory lane to a simpler time when Lena Dunham’s seminal hit Girls was first riveting us on HBO. In a two-part series, Hillary Busis, Richard Lawson, and Chris Murphy unpack the show’s impact and timelessness, and debate their favorite three episodes.

Created by Dunham when she was in her early 20s, Girls premiered on April 15, 2012, at the dawn of Obama’s second term. It followed Dunham’s narcissistic but well-intentioned aspiring writer Hannah Horvath as she navigated Brooklyn in the early 2010s and tried to become the person she was always meant to be. She was joined by her friends, the type A Marnie (Allison Williams), free spirit Jessa (Jemima Kirke), and neurotic Shoshana (Zosia Mamet), each of whom were on their own journey from girlhood to womanhood. While it aired between 2012 and 2017, Girls was a lightning rod for controversy and discourse, spawning think pieces and criticism—on topics ranging from its frank use of sex and nudity to the fact that its core cast was full of nepo babies. Still, it was a commercial success and a critical darling, winning two Emmys over the course of its run.

When reassessing Girls, the Still Watching hosts were struck by its quality—something that was often overlooked during its run. “I kind of took that show for granted back in the day,” Lawson admitted. “The quality of the filmmaking and of the acting is so strong. I think we didn’t quite notice it because back then a lot of TV was good.” Busis agreed, and Murphy went so far as to say that after recently completing a rewatch, Dunham’s Girls—imperfect though it may be—might just be his favorite show of all time.

Ah, but what is the single best episode of Girls? The hosts had differing opinions. Murphy threw his support behind season three, episode seven, “Beach House,” which originally aired on February 16, 2014, and was written by Dunham, Jenni Konner, and Judd Apatow, and directed by Jesse Peretz. The episode found the four girls getting out of the city and spending a beach weekend in the North Fork of Long Island, drinking, dancing, and by the end of the episode, tearing one another to shreds. With a hilarious supporting turn by Girls regular Andrew Rannells as Elijah, Hannah’s gay ex-boyfriend, and a devastating, drunken turn by Mamet’s Shoshana to cap off the episode, the hosts agreed that “Beach House” might be the single funniest episode of the series.

The most cinematic in scope, however, was Lawson’s pick. He went with the sixth episode of season five, “The Panic in Central Park,” which originally aired on March 27, 2016. Written by Dunham, Max Brockman, and Yassir Lester, and directed by Richard Shepard, it’s basically a stand-alone two-hander that follows one wild day in the life of Marnie Michaels as she reconnects with her ex-boyfriend, Charlie, played by Poor Things star Christopher Abbott, who had departed the series after reported creative conflict with Dunham. Abbott’s unexpected return, the fever dream of a night Marnie and Charlie spend with each other, and character growth for the often lost Marnie, gave the episode a filmic quality that was undeniably appealing and artistically trenchant.

Busis advocated for another stand-alone two-hander: season six, episode three, “American Bitch,” which originally aired on HBO February 26, 2017. Another episode written by Dunham and directed by Shepard, “American Bitch” follows Hannah’s trip to the apartment of writer Chuck Palmer, played by Matthew Rhys, to discuss an article she wrote that calls him out for having nonconsensual sex on his book tour. Busis notes that this episode came out around eight months before Harvey Weinstein fell from his throne and the #MeToo movement began in earnest in October 2017, giving it a prescient quality that can only fully be appreciated in hindsight. Hannah and Chuck’s dissection of consent, the internet, predatory men, and the relationship between fans and their heroes make “American Bitch” perhaps the most important episode of the series.

How would you rank those three episodes of Girls? And what’s your favorite episode of Girls? Email [email protected] to make your case, then stick around for part two of Still Watching’s Girls series, in which the hosts chat with one of the girls themselves.