HBO
Unlike a certain someone (cough, Christopher Abbott, cough), Andrew Rannells is all for appearing on HBO’s Girls for as long as he can. According to Deadline, Rannells will return as Elijah Krantz, Hannah’s (Lena Dunham) gay ex-boyfriend, for the third season of Girls and will become a series regular if the comedy is picked up for a fourth season… and let’s be real, it totally will be.
Rannells was previously limited to the amount of Girls episodes he could take on because of scheduling issues that conflicted with his role on NBC’s The New Normal. Since the latter show was canceled, Rannells has more time on his hands to devote to his role as Elijah. But the question is, do we really need more Elijah?
Sure, Elijah adds a lot of color to the show. From being Hannah’s boyfriend for two years, to aiding her mission to snort coke for the purposes of an article, to trying (and failing) to have sex with Marnie (Allison Williams), Elijah is chock-full of awe-factor. However, some of his plotlines add to the show, while others take away from it. The revelation that Hannah dated a gay man only added to Hannah’s character; Elijah and Marnie’s attempt to have sex added shades to Marnie’s character. But the cocaine episode (“Bad Friend”) took us outside of the day-to-day reality of Girls, which can only happen every now and then. Yes, “Bad Friend,” which featured a whole lot of Elijah, was fun and out of the ordinary (and a good addition to the show), but having too much of a good thing can be bad.
The problem is that Elijah has the potential to take away too much attention from the four starring women, especially if he signs on as a series regular. His character is full of sitcom-esque singers, honest to a fault, acerbic, and in-your-face 100 percent of the time, which might be ideal for an occasional character, but not for a series regular. It’s not supposed to be a show about four girls and Elijah; it’s supposed to be about four girls. Because let’s be real, we can’t have a “the type of night where it’s like 5 AM and one of us has definitely punched someone who’s been on a Disney Channel show” every episode. We just can’t handle that.
The third season of Girls will premiere on Jan. 12, 2014.
