SPOILER ALERT: this blog is published after the US transmission; the UK broadcasts the episodes a week later.  • Read Rebecca Nicholson's episode five blog  If anyone was wondering where all of Girls' trademark awkward sex has gone, well, here's your answer: it's in episode six. Marnie and Ray, Shoshanna and her pretty, dumb boyfriend: if you could watch either of those scenes without your shoulders moving up over your ears, then you are made of stronger stuff than me. I found these disastrous pairings far more interesting than Hannah's continuing existential angst, however, and I'm still not sure what we're building towards as the season comes close to an end.  Initially, much of the appeal of Girls was, for me, down to its universality. This may sound perverse given that one of the main attacks levelled at the show is its nicheness, but I'm not talking about being able to identify with living in Brooklyn or being a hyper-articulate writer or a self-involved nightmare. I don't mean the details. To a large extent, the experience of being in your 20s, of searching for an identity, of trying out terrible relationships and friendships, could be extended to a wider audience regardless of context. This week I felt like there was a narrowing of focus. Hannah's main concern here is how to negotiate the conflict between art and commerce. Can she be creative and earn a living wage? Can she still be a "writer" if she's turning out advertorials for cash? As an audience, do we care? This seemed like a self-indulgent way of working out these particular issues and it took me out of the drama. Surprisingly, Hannah aces the copywriting gig, then in a moment of horror provoked by the fact that her colleagues are poets or New Yorker or n+1 writers, she resigns, then un-resigns. The episode ends, not entirely inappropriately, with her falling asleep.  Shoshanna's journey begins to double back on itself as she decides she needs a serious relationship to get her back on track. Now that Time Out has endorsed Ray's coffee shop, she has a brief moment of nostalgia and reassessment, but ultimately decides to give it a go with the pretty boy "so stupid I worry our children wouldn't get into pre-school". As they have sex, she lists their new weekly schedule: board games, curating playlists... It's funny, but desperately bleak, too.  Marnie and Ray are a volatile pairing, though only in one respect. They seem not to like each other much (though Ray didn't seem to like Shoshanna, either), nor do they have anything in common: Marnie wants to "help Africa" while Ray has theories on the futility of development and international aid. Both admit that they're only eating together because they have nobody else to eat with. They're easing each other's loneliness, and yet the sex was quiet and awkward. Again, it was pretty grim.  Jessa pushes a too-small black christening gown on a customer by implying that the woman does not understand fashion. That's all.  J Crew's Jenna Lyons appeared as Hannah's boss in what must be her first acting job.  Barely any music this week, bar the exit song, which was Millions by Hannah Georgas.  • Adam continues to communicate via grunt. This week we heard "gnnngh nghgnngng ghghgngn", which, translated, means: "Welcome home, I've missed you, how was your day?"  • Hannah was picked up by GQ's ad team after an essay of hers was spotted online. In non-TV media land, it seems as if right now you have to have spent 20 years working for an NGO while maintaining a successful YouTube channel and a 50k+ Twitter following, just to get an internship. Must have been the kidney stone handjob.  • "Let's not let this affect our friendship." "We're not friends." Marnie and Ray enjoy a modern romance.  • Is Beverly Hills the best Real Housewives? Discuss.  • "I'm just very je ne regret rienn-y": wise words from Shoshanna, by which we should all live.
Rebecca Nicholson's episode recap: Hannah wonders whether a copywriting gig will compromise her art, while Marnie, Shoshanna and their respective squeezes are indulging in Girls' trademark awkward sex