Who Had A Worse Week: Marnie Or Brian Williams?

The Williams family's got it rough this week. Actually, more specifically, the fictional character one of them plays and the real-life person the other is are both having a tough go of it. Over on Girls Marnie had to deal with friends whose vacation agendas didn't quite match up with her own (girl we've all been there), and in the real(ish) world of broadcast journalism Marnie portrayer Allison Williams' father Brian Williams left Arsenio Hall out of a story about the current landscape of late night television. So who had the worst, most emotionally crushing week? We "investigate."

The Case For Brian Williams

• Made a gaffe by leaving comedian and Arsenio Hall Show host Arsenio Hall out of a feature showcasing The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon which included a big batch of other late night hosts.
• Was called out for the snub by Hall on his show. Hall said "If you're doing a story about late-night, all I ask is that you mention me. You don't even have to use a photo. I know how journalism is these days. Use Samuel Jackson — it doesn't even have to be my photo. Use Laurence Fishbourne, just mention me."
• The fact that Hall is one of the only (if not the) only black man in late night right now came up.
• Suge Knight commented that he should either "change it or resign."
• This all seems vaguely ill-timed what with this cut-and-paste video of Williams rapping aired on The Tonight Show tonight:

The Case For Marnie Michaels

• Marnie labored ("labored") to set up the perfect weekend for all of her friends in the gazillion dollar beach house her mother's friend lent out to them. Everyone (especially best friend Hannah) was generally resistant to every plan.
• Had said beach house taken over by four men she did not invite, including Gilmore Girls/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Mad Men standout and Mockingjay screenwriter Danny Strong, who does not treat Andrew Rannells as he deserves to be treated.
• Labors ("labors") over a beautiful dinner for four which she and her (invited) friends can savor while hashing out their emotional issues with each other in a calm and civilized manner. Instead the dinner goes to twice as many people than planned, and everyone makes snide comments about the cooking quality/quantity.
• The emotional issues instead come to a head through a screaming and exceedingly cruel fight in which everyone points out everyone else's worst qualities.
• Everything is in general extremely emotionally exhausting.

Conclusion

Brian Williams has got the edge here in that he is a real, corporeal person — which means that all the drama surrounding him is a thing that's actually following around an existing human. He did, however, make a public apology that seemed sincere and self-deprecating, and Hall publicly forgave him ("That was a cool way to do."), so this whole thing might be a wash, naught but a small blemish on a beautiful broadcast journalist face.

Marnie may be fictional, but her struggles this week had absolutely no closure, emotionally or narratively. So we're kind of choosing between corporeal reality or ongoing fictional emotional stress. This one might be a wash.