Well, it finally happened. Girls has just premiered on HBO and we are all the better for it. Why? Because Girls is perhaps the most painfully sincere, funny and heartbreaking show to grace the airwaves. Lena Dunham took her film debut Tiny Furniture and molded it into a cohesive narrative with producer Judd Apatow. That narrative is essentially, "Hey, 20somethings, we're going to put your life on TV and actually do it right."
The show flawlessly sets up our main girls- Hannah, the somewhat spoiled, delusional, and smart protagonist, Marmie the beautiful and somewhat uptight best friend, Jessa the spontaneous and relaxed world traveller and her cousin Shoshanna, so desperate for a "real" New York life that she's seen in Sex and the City. Refreshingly, this is not Sex and the City. These characters actually have real problems and aren't insufferably rich for no reason nor needlessly concerned over crap like post-it notes. We're introduced to the girls' boys as well: refreshingly their just as idiotic as boys are in their 20s, never dashing or as charming as you actually want them to be. I guess the same goes for girls too and this show does illustrate that as well.
It's weird because even though there are parts of the show that can be downright disturbing they're so blissfully realistic that its comforting. For example, most of the twenty something girls I know can relate to the awkward sex scene in the pilot episode- not that we (yes, I'm including myself) have done that exactly but the feeling of strange desperation is there. In order to feel temporarily wanted we resort to putting ourselves in degrading and compromising positions. Maybe it's not the feeling of being wanted, maybe it's because its what we think we should do, or maybe it's a temporary feeling of pushing all the bullshit aside and just letting ourselves go. Either way, it's part of growing up when you're already an "adult."
It's not even the realistic portrayal of sex/relationships. It's about the whole shebang of post-graduation in an economy, yearning for some kind of romantic future in the arts and hoping that New York won't repeatedly f*ck us. And despite that it does f*ck us, there is something so funny about it, especially the part where you work for free and watch your college debt pile up. It sounds more depressing than it really is...unless you stop for a moment and think about it.
So yeah, we could talk about feminism and being young and confused and all of those things, but you're not stupid and you can have that conversation amongst your friends. You don't need me to tell you that there's something special happening here. That something special? OUR LIVES (sorry, couldn't resist).
SumOlogy: It's like, the best.
What did you think of the show? Talk about it with us here.
And check out my interview with Lena Dunham here.
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