I'm an avid HBO viewer. For as far back as I can remember, HBO has been a stronghold in my home. Since Kids in the Hall, Def Comedy Jam and the Larry Sanders Show in the early 90's, I've always had some acquaintance with HBO series. So last spring I heard about this show Girls, it's original time slot conflicted with another television show I watched and I forgot about it.
Over the next few months tho, I read little snippets of reviews or comments online so I thought it was time to give it a chance, finally, during the summer. I was really curious to see what all the hype was about. Frankly, it couldn't hold my interest. I tried over and over again to re-watch the first few episodes but I would either fall asleep or become distracted by something else. I just remember thinking that it was kind of slow, that not one actor was ethnic NOT ONE (that's kind of weird for a television show set in NYC) and the show seemed cold - I mean, it didn't depict NY as vibrant as I know it is (I live in NYC). I never went past episode 3, in fact I don't think I ever finished it.
Fast forward to about two months ago. In watching Boardwalk Empire, I saw trailers for the new season of Girls to be airing in January 2013, noting that the entire season 1 was on demand. So, I decided to give it another chance. I kept hearing about how fabulous Lena Dunham is for the latter part of 2012 and I really wanted to figure out what the draw was.
(Image from
http://www.internqueen.com/blog/2012/05/4-intern-tips-hbos-girls)
I don't know why but this time the show had me hooked from episode 1, I honestly don't know what changed. If you haven't seen this show or heard of it, "Girls" is a show depicting the lives of several young 20 something's living and loving (more like sexing) in NYC. The show's writer is also the star, Lena Dunham, who portrays Hannah Horvath. The series follows her as she struggles with finding herself, establishing a career and becoming an adult. Her friends are along for the ride, bringing their own problems to light. Marnie, (Allison Williams, daughter of news anchor Brian Williams) plays the gorgeous level headed friend. In a serious relationship, she seems to have her life on track but really doesn't. There's Shoshanna, still a student at NYU, very eager and desperately wanting to shed her virgin status. Finally, there's Jessa. She's that friend that everyone has or knows, the kind that is effortlessly sexy. She's sort of mysterious, worldly, fun, easy-going - the kind of girl the rest of us awkward girls almost hate (but we can't ) because they're so damn interesting without trying and we want to be like them.
Anyway, the first season actually turns out to be quite amusing. All kinds of stuff happens to these kids. At times, it is serious and at others, it is quite comical.
So, I'll admit, I did read the article by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (check it out here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kareem-abduljabbar/girls-review_b_2593756.html) and if I hadn't attempted to re-watch the first season, I might agree with him wholeheartedly. Yet, here's the thing - the show is, as Hannah is famous for saying, the "Voice of a Generation", a new generation that I believe unless you are part of our generation, you may not fully relate to. We're a bunch of college graduates (many of us still toting student loan debts) trying to make it in a really fast paced world after an economic collapse. Most cannot find sufficient employment in their chosen field or no longer have a desire to pursue a career in their major, and attempt other careers such as any of the following: cupcake baker (if you live here, you definitely know Magnolia, Billy's and Buttercup serves as an inspiration to MANY), party promoter, some sort of freelance anything (stylist, makeup artist, etc.), musician, artists....the list goes on and on.
We're bombarded by pictures of photoshopped celebrities all day everyday with perfect bodies and skyhigh networths. "Celebrities" no longer refers to the genuinely talented, everyday we watch the Kardashians and other reality show personalities reach fame simply by doing nothing or for being ordinary people. Our generation feels underachieved if we haven't found some way to become a celebrity in our own right and find a way to leave our mark in this world.
Our language is no longer the same, we choose to text rather than call, we sometimes speak in acronyms like ttyl (I mean in ACTUAL conversation, people will ACTUALLY say this) and we're CONSTANTLY connected via iPhone to any number of social networks. News and gossip spreads immediately and like wildfire. We are more aware of any number of celebrity twitter battles than our own parents lives. In fact, you're the odd one out if you DON'T have some sort of Twitter or Facebook account. But, most importantly, sex became such an un-taboo subject so early in our lives, that by the mid-20's, yes most of our generation is incredibly oversexed and scarily casual about it.
So thinking about it, yup, Girls actually is a pretty accurate portrayal of our generation. I realize now that what I took for "coldness" when I first saw this show last summer is perhaps a reflection of how disenchanted our generation is. We're not wowed or shocked by much these days and we no longer view the world as a great, amazing place with bright eyes and lots of eagerness. We've grown up (in that regard) a lot faster than generations before us. No, this show isn't as glamorous as Sex and the City, it's not as over the top funny as other shows depicting people trying to make it in the city(like How I Met Your Mother). But that's just the point. It is unique, it is quirky, it is new - just like our generation. There is nothing to compare it, so do we really have a basis for criticizing it?
As a viewer, there are things I'd like to see on the show. I'd like to see more ethnicities (Hannah's black republican fling at the beginning of season 2 was amusing and a good start) and see the characters venture to other parts of the city as most of us living here do. But this is Ms. Dunham's view of our generation and the city and I can't knock that.
