Donald Glover will be a part of Girls directly addressing all the complaints about Girls

By Sean O'Neal | January 4, 2013 | 5:31pm

Aux Features TV

We've known for nearly a year now that Donald Glover would be a part of Girls' second season, though we were never sure of what exactly he would be doing—besides helping to deflect criticism that Girls has far too many white people with his affable, thoroughly Donald Glover-esque ability to make discussion of race seem all lighthearted and postmodern, that is. But judging by this early season two review in The Hollywood Reporter, it seems as though he and the show will be addressing that oft-lobbed sneer even more directly than we might have assumed: Glover's character, Sandy, is described as "a handsome black Republican" who's dating Lena Dunham's Hannah and who, at one point, calls her out on her "knowledge of race and its ramifications." This reportedly inspires Dunham to respond with a "self-righteous, defensive rant" that also includes a Missy Elliott lyric. ("Give you some-some-some of this Cinnabon"?)

And if such self-deprecating acknowledgment of one of the show's most frequently heard complaints is not enough to appease detractors, reportedly the second season also "does a fantastic job of skewering hipsters and frauds"—who are the people that Girls has been accused of celebrating and fostering—while also including "attacks on fixie bikes, rich white girls dating black men, gay iPad-using DJs, what constitutes a 'pretty person’s job,' and the smug cynicism of youthful people who haven’t earned the right to it." So essentially, it sounds like Girls' second season will do everything short of having Lena Dunham's character create a TV show-within-the-show about her own life—then watch as the entire Internet tears her apart over it—to try to defuse her critics' gripes. Presumably that's season three.