What Is It About?
Four girls in their early 20’s live in New York City as recent college graduates. Think of it as the anti Sex and The City. These girls are broke, not nearly as hot or fashionable as Carrie and company (or so they would like us to believe) and our lead Hannah has been living on her parent’s money for the last two years. When they decide to cut her off, she inadvertently quits her unpaid internship by requesting to get paid and thus being let go. She seeks out advice and comfort from her friends. She needs a job fast.
When It’s On
Sunday’s at 10:30 on HBO.
What Works
I feel like I literally have had every single conversation in this show. Girls is ridiculously on point with the pulse of what it means to be a college graduate in today’s work world as something artistic, especially in New York City (and I imagine mostly anywhere). Is there anything worse than having a hipster yell at you on the street to smile? It’s really good to have a show like this. When Hannah wonders why the former intern Jodi was hired, her boss responds, “Because Jodi knows photoshop.” This is simple, yet brilliant.
The opening scene of Hannah having dinner with her parents is weirdly a conversation we’ve all had. We’ve been to that point where our parents just feel the need to cut us off. It’s quick, witty and a very accurate.
What Doesn’t Work
The characters are too indulgent for their own good. Yes, we want the show to be realistic, but there’s no way I’m ever going to root for a group of girls who sulk around miserably (and often quite stupidly) and refuse to get a job. The character Shoshanna (really?) is laughable. Nobody is that stupid.
Hannah’s friend with benefits refuses to work because he doesn’t want to be “anyone’s slave.” Where is the line between a show about defiance and the struggles of young 20 something women, and blatant full out combat against the mainstream? I’m not sure, but Girls certainly needs to figure it out.
It’s also a bit too MTV for my taste. I appreciate what Girls is trying to do, and with more episodes around the corner, I’ll be very curious to see if it can build any sort of character development with the supporting cast. Because for now, they are all there just to fill a role. And truthfully, they are all quite boring. This is NYC. They didn’t think to throw a black girl in the mix? The cast is bland.
Should You Watch?
It’s definitely worth watching. It would be a shame to not give a chance to a show with so much potential.
Bottom Line
I understand these are some serious struggles, being broke is an awful thing, but these girls seriously need to cheer up. I wanted to love Girls. I want this show to be the voice of a generation (much like Hannah) but unfortunately what we’re left with after the premiere is our annoying lead (Lena Dunham) who really can’t carry a show from what I’ve seen so far. Frankly, these four girls are horribly miscast and I’m not sure any of them can draw me in for an entire series. Please prove me wrong.
There’s a difference between realistic and just plain maudlin. Girls is self pity. It feels like more of a therapy session for Lena Dunham than it does an actual TV show. The concept of flawed characters is one thing, but when Hannah visits her parent’s hotel and literally falls on the floor as an act in order to get money from them, it was alarming. That’s not funny. That’s not pathetic in a funny way. That’s just pathetic, and sort of gross. I get that it was supposed to be pathetic, but is this not a bit too far?
Girls was certainly an admirable attempt at giving us something we really need right now. I’m not counting this show out yet, because I would love more than anything for this show to go on to a massive level of fame and seriously be that depiction of post grad life I’ve so desperately wanted on TV. Let’s not forget, Sex and The City’s first season was pretty awful also. Here’s hoping this show only gets better.
B-
Hannah fell on the floor because she was high on the opium she drank at the dinner party. That was also why she had worked up the guts to talk to her parents in the first place. Did you not understand?
The characters on the show aren’t necessarily supposed to be likeable. They are the product of parents and a society that tells them they are perfect and can do whatever they want to. Problem is they don’t want to do much. Hannah may not be the voice of a generation, but Lena Dunham has nailed the youth culture’s sense of entitlement perfectly.
I understand WHY she went to the hotel. I still found it ridiculous. The characters most certainly are supposed to be likable in my opinion. Nobody writes a TV show for their characters to be disliked. There’s a difference between pathetic and flawed. If Don Draper and Walter White can appear sympathetic, so can Hannah. I think it will happen and I think I would have liked this more if I was able to see more than one episode. I’m only judging this first episode as a stand alone. I really do believe it will pick up, for me at least.
I understood the show completely and I agree she nailed the sense of entitlement. I liked the show, was just hoping for a little less obvious and a little more character.
Nobody writes a show with intentionally unlikeable characters? You’re familiar with a little show called The Sopranos, right? Every single person, from the men who murdered for a living to their wives who looked the other way, was unlikeable.
Characters don’t have to be likeable. They have to be interesting or complex.
Of course. But I would even argue that those men were slightly likable to an extent. Maybe not on first impression, but as a viewer, you liked watching them. I didn’t particularly like watching Hannah or her friends. I’m sure I will. But like I said, as a stand alone singular episode, I was a little underwhelmed. I’m fully expecting my opinion to change upon season’s end, hopefully.
Agree with the writer. The show does very much capture the sense of entitlement with this generation. However, there’s a line one needs to walk when creating characters this way, and it seem like Girls hasn’t found a way to walk that line yet. They’re all on one side, which makes people not be able to like or root for them. And as far as the flawed complex characters versus likable characters. It’s sort of all the same, which I think is what the writer is saying. You can’t really like a character or root for them if they are all one way. These girls are only one thing, which makes them extremely boring so far.