I enjoy Girls and have seen every episode. The show still seems to be as polarizing as it was when it premiered. I find it well-written, entertaining and semi-relatable but I can also see how it is not for everyone.

While still enjoyable, I haven’t been as into the last couple of episodes of this season. Two of the previous three focused solely on one or two characters for the entire episode, which I found to be a little boring. I admire the creative structure and I understand that these were necessary for character development but I like the show better when it jumps around and includes the full ensemble.

Sunday’s episode was entitled “It’s Back” – which is appropriate because that’s exactly how I felt about the show at the episode’s conclusion. It did what I think the show does best, keeping a steady pace by using a lot of different characters and introducing new storylines. The “It’s Back” title actually referenced the return of Hannah’s OCD, which is one of the new conflicts that will be one of the focuses of the final two episodes of this season.

Marnie and Shoshana also had new developments that were entertaining to watch and fit their characters well. I’m always in for any excuse to hear Allison Williams sing and hopefully Dunham goes back to that well often. As for Shoshana, she was originally supposed to be a very minor character but Zosia Mamet’s acting has fortunately allowed for her character to get more screen time. Ray’s take on college parties and his helping Marnie along with Adam’s blind date were all entertaining as well.

Overall, the dialogue was great as usual and the busy episode balanced all of the different storylines well. A common fear of having too many plot points in one episode is that there isn’t enough time to give each their due. I could have watched more of any of the different stories but I don’t think that any narrative got shortchanged. “It’s Back” was a very enjoyable episode and it reminded me how good the show can be.

Rick Reilly is a great writer. I’ve been enjoying his columns since I started reading Sports Illustrated ten years ago. The back page was often my first stop. Recently though, his TV duties at ESPN have caused his columns to lack the tone and emotion that made him such an enjoyable read.

Reilly was offered a boatload of money ($17 million over 5 years) to leave SI for ESPN so you would have done the same, even if you had written at SI for 20 years. Unfortunately at ESPN, he’s transitioning from a top columnist to a self-promoting sell out. His now infamous  twitter scoop fiasco is still an entertaining watch. But every once and a while, Reilly publishes a column that reminds you why you liked him so much in the first place.

This week’s column about a high school basketball player’s generous act is the perfect example. It’s a great story that I would probably never have heard unless he wrote about it. These are the types of the columns that earned him all of those sportswriter of the year awards and made him a weekly must-read. Reilly has proven that he is capable of a good story every week… I just hope they come at the pace they used to and I’m willing to sacrifice seeing him on TV to accomplish that.