I don’t think they’re trust fund babies. Lena Dunham’s character’s parents are academics and they recently cut her off. Zosia Mamet’s character is still in college and is being supported by her parents. Williams’s character hasn’t mentioned being “cut off.” She apparently has a job, but has some support from her parents (like half her Blackberry bill). I’m not sure about the British girl. It seems that their parents are fairly well off, but not the fabulously wealthy kind who would have trust funds set up for their kids.
The British girl got her period on the day she was scheduled to have an abortion, so aparently it was a false alarm.
A lot of people have pointed out how the main characters are all assholes. I’m not seeing this however, could someone maybe go into more detail on how they are assholes? I mean, sure, the characters are all very flawed. That’s the point. Who wants to see a drama about 4 people who all have their shit together? Some people have also said how they can’t relate to these characters because their parents are supporting them. Again, I believe this is the point. They’re all pretty financially sound yet still have all this crap they have to deal with, and they don’t deal with it rather well because, again, they’re flawed and only human. Also, lack of diversity? There’s only 7 real characters in the show, and they all live in Manhattan, how much diversity do you want?
What I get from this show is that it’s basically a satire of Sex and the City. I think they made that pretty clear from the first episode. It basically just adds some real personality to the characters and some reasonable dillemas.
I was wondering if I could get some feedback on this from the ladies. Could that sort of talk tend to be sexy for women, as the character in the show finds it? Obviously it could be inappropriate and creepy in the wrong context, from the wrong person, but, how would that kind of talk be viewed in a mutually flirty conversation? Would it need to be done exceptionally deftly from someone very desirable, or might it work well enough so long as it was done not poorly, by someone potentially acceptable?
Preferences will differ, naturally, but I’d like to get as much input as anyone cares to offer.
I’m not the target audience (male, mid-30s), but I watched all five episodes last night after hearing Lena Dunham’s interview with Terry Gross on NPR.
My impression? It’s slowly getting better. My main complaints are not that the characters are unlikable; it’s that the characters have mostly been one-dimensional caricatures and the writing has largely lacked any subtlety. There are a few nice moments that make it worth watching (like I actually liked the “I don’t want a boyfriend” speech, and the interview scene with the date rape joke was amusing) but I mostly have been annoyed by the lazy character writing of the first few episodes, particularly of the globe-trotting British girl and Shoshanna, both characters of which I couldn’t write more cliche-ridden versions of if I tried.
That said, the characters are starting to grow into their skins and gain dimensionality. I’ll keep watching the show, but it’s not must-see TV.
So why (with the exception of the lead’s “boyfriend,” who apparently doesn’t own a shirt) do all the ostensibly straight male characters seem sorta gay? Is it an in-joke, or a Manhattan thing, or…
The uh (sorry, can’t remember their names) chick’s boyfriend who cut off all his hair seems awfully fey, as did the jackass with the porkpie hat from the most recent episode (and what the hell was up with the British chick dressing up like a zombie geisha?)
Yeah, I said strike three but I’m still watching this damned thing. Shut up.
None of the guy characters seem gay to me. They just seem like young urbanites. I see people like them all the time around Chicago (especially around the building I work in, which also headquarters Groupon).
The entire first episode is the main character being a raging cunt. She whines about actually having to work for a living the entire time. She is writing a memoir! She attempts to steal from her parents after they take care of her while she’s on drugs and then steals from someone in a much much worse situation than herself immediately after.
Poor Marnie’s boyfriend. He’s one of those “too nice” guys one keeps hearing about. And the lead character can’t be that much of an asshole because if she was, she’d a stepped on that guys balls and enjoyed it. At least I would have and I know I’m an asshole.
Episode 6 was the first episode I enjoyed all the way through. A couple of months ago I went to go visit my parents and eat cheap neighborhood pizza. I want to do it again.
Why was Jessa at her employer’s house in the morning? Did I miss something?
I hated that they were so mad at Hannah for what she wrote in her “notebook.” I mean fuck…some dude who doesn’t pay rent there let his friend into her bedroom to read her private stuff and now she’s the bad guy? Jesus… I don’t like the way she didn’t tell her friends to STFU and deal with their own problems themselves.
Adam creeps me out. He is not a traditional looking/sounding actor at all.
Still watching. Heh.
ETA: This is about the episode from the 13th. I’m a week behind on my tv.
Question: When Jessa calls those guys “crusty sacks of shit,” one of them says something like “Great. You reduce us to a subculture and then you name us incorrectly.” What subculture was he talking about?