Where My Girls At? "Girls" Review

I honestly don’t know what to think of Girls. On one hand, I’d like to watch a show about young women in my generation that isn’t total crap (2 Broke Girls, I’m looking at you). I loved Sex and the City when it was on – let’s just pretend those terrible movies never happened, shall we? – even though at times it sort of got lost in its own fabulousness. So when Girls premiered to rave reviews and people started saying its creator, Lena Dunham, was the Next Coming of Awesomeness, I of course tuned in.

I don’t really know what to feel about this show. It has its good points. The characters, for the most part, are refreshingly un-waiflike – they’re not tiny, insubstantial beings that you can snap in half like a twig. They’re all struggling to get through life, just like the other twenty-somethings I know. Their version of New York is substantially darker than the version we saw in Sex and the City, and rather than being successful career women, these girls are just trying to make it in an economy (and a city) that seemingly has it out for them. OK, good so far, right? Here come my misgivings in 3, 2, 1… I don’t care for Hannah, the main character, at all. I get the impression she’s not supposed to be particularly likable, but her sense of entitlement – she wants $1,100 a month from her parents for two years to finish her “memoirs” and make it big – made me roll my eyes…not a good reaction to an opening scene. “This is our heroine?” I asked my ceiling. “I’m supposed to root for this chick?” She is the poster child for the whining millennial, the type who makes my entire generation look bad. The other three don’t seem to be as bad, except for the one girl who babbled on about Sex and the City. None of their names have stuck with me, which is unfortunate. (Disclosure: I was born in 1983, so depending on what timeline you use, I’m either an “old millennial” or “that weird in-between generation.” I’m a few years older than Our Heroines, who are 24-25.) With that said, there were some aspects of the show that made me nod. Hannah is in a terrible…I won’t even call it a relationship…with a complete prick. I think most women have been in at least one relationship with a man who treats them like garbage, and ladies, Adam is that horrible ex-boyfriend, acting like a jerk right before our eyes. He’s easily dismissed as a caricature, but believe me, there are men like that out there. Seeing it onscreen was definitely uncomfortable. Things don’t improve much for Hannah. When she attempts to ask for an actual paycheck after interning at a place for two years, her boss merrily sends her on her way: “When you get hungry enough, you’ll figure it out.” Typical baby boomer-esque dismissal. Most folks of my generation know that feeling well – “Oh, you’re replaceable. Later!” I think what really kept me from liking the show was how utterly miserable and hopeless it seemed. Hannah is trapped. Yes, Sex and the City was over-the-top, but it was also full of hope and light moments. Girls didn’t have any of those moments. At all. It was one trainwreck after another. I have real life for that – I don’t need to watch it on TV. Television is my escapism, dangit. I’ll probably tune in for another couple of episodes to see where it goes, but at the moment, Girls is getting a flat C from me.