I’ve been, somewhat reluctantly, watching this show since it came out. The people on this thread saying they can’t relate to the show makes sense since it’s about modern-day 20-somethings in New York City, so if you’re not that then I can understand why you don’t get it. As a current NYC resident, I can say that the show is SPOT ON in rendering that demographic on screen. Early twenty-somethings who are narcissistic, difficult, entitled, romantic and easily manipulated by “educated cool” in new york city is what fuels this show. The sad part is that there is no other show offering this view of the city right now since How To Make It In America and Bored To Death were both prematurely cancelled.
So why do people like Girls? let me try to explain it to some of you.
NYC is a city of big dreams, romance and passion. There are two kinds of young people in New York City: people who grew up there and are there to stay, and people who moved there to get lost in pursuing their dreams. The latter are usually college or post grads , but both are quite often artists and/or somehow involved in the fashion or entertainment industries in some way. TONS of writers, designers, visual artists and musicians and actors, all of which are feeling very lost while trying to make their way, but also very excited and stimulated and are many times on their own for the first times in their lives. Lena Dunham’s character and most of the other characters on the show fall into this category. In short, it’s a really good snapshot of young, privileged thinkers in new york.
Yes, it’s not the only demographic in NYC in real life, but this is generally the demographic of the characters of the show. Yes, some of the characters are abrasive, but I swear to you that they all totally exist. This is the thing that draws me to the show because it does speak to people like me who have partied with and befriended these people. They are creative, they are individualistic, they are passionate and they have no fucking clue what they are doing. Most of them have no problem speaking their mind and expect people to be paradoxically both open to freely expressing themselves yet offended by intolerance and rudeness. It’s weird and self-contradiction, but it totally exists and this show captures it.
However… I generally HATE Lena Dunham’s character, almost with a passion, along with the girl who recently lost her virginity, whose voice and demeanor make me want to punch her in the face 99% of the time she is on the screen. Our main character is a total bitch to her ex-boyfriend, not attractive in any way aside from her interests, and is the most selfish and self-entitled person on the show. I wonder how much Lena Dunham is actually like that in real life cuz the show is so obviously auto-biographical, especially since she shows her boobs 50 times too often (can anyone say attention-whore?). Her recently de-virginized friend is no better, but at least she’s not the main character.
What saves the show is the depth of every other character, which I guess you could chalk up to great character development. Each one seems to have such a vastly creative, yet realistic background that we get to see carry out on the screen blow by blow. It’s a treat, actually, cuz most shows skip over character development these days, even some of the ones I think are the best shows on television (like ‘House of Lies’… awesome show, but we only know about two of the characters, Marty and his blonde sidekick (barely), but at least it’s full of zingers).
So, to sum up…yea. I love it but those two girls ruin it. Since the show is called ‘Girls’, I feel bad that it ends up that way, but it’s still better than Gossip Girl and most other female-led shows out there.
I could go on about how awesome I think Adam is, but in general I just wanna say that calling the show “mediocre” tells me that you just don’t get it.