I’m currently rewatching The Office season two right now. That may seem like an odd statement to start off my weekly review, but it has its purpose. I rewatching season two, and it reminds me just how good TV can be. The season is one of the best on television, hands down, bar none, ever. Nearly every episode is excellent, from Michael dancing in “Booze Cruise” to Jim confessing his love in “Casino Night.” It’s the quality of entertainment that I want all television to have, so when I’m doing my reviews week to week, I always hope that the show I’m watching is going to have the same level of brilliance. More often than not, I’m disappointed, but on the rare occasions that a show does step up to the plate and knock one out of the park, it’s so fulfilling that I keep coming back for more. That’s how I watch TV. It’s a little like a crack addict chasing that perfect high, but I never said that TV wasn’t my addiction. In fact, I admit that it most definitely is. And with that insight, let’s get on with the reviews.
Girls
Going into this show, I was very wary of what it was going to be. The HBO promotions department was on overdrive and from the previews, it looked good, but I really did not like Tiny Furniture, so I didn’t know what to expect.
Color me pleasantly surprised, then, when I ended up really liking the show. I’m certain that I’m automatically biased when watching this show. I’m a twenty-something who spent her post-college years in New York City, working unpaid internships, while trying to to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. Basically, the past six years of my life have not been too far from the concept of this show. And so it’s nice to see that I was not alone in floundering in misspent youth.
But there’s a reason why there has never been a great dramatic television show about the post-college crowd. In high school, there’s so much drama of the changing body, the changing mind, and the rites of passage that it makes for really compelling television. And once you get into your thirties, there’s another upheaval in your life as you get married, have children, settle down, and that makes for good television too. But in your twenties, you’re an amorphous blob of potential and all you do is worry about how you’re going to shape yourself to realize this said potential. It’s a lot of naval-gazing, and it’s, more often than not, a pretty tedious thing to watch.
There is something about Girls, however. For all its specificity about a certain demographic of New York, there’s a universality to it. Everyone who comes out of college goes through the same thing, the same ennui, the same self-absorbed soul-searching. More so now than ever before. So there is something zeitgeisty about this show which can only help it be successful.
It also helps that the people involved seem to have a distinct voice. For as much as I didn’t like Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham has a clear point of view for her show. It’s honest, not trying to hide the pain of growing up. It’s subtle, not trying to overdramatize the situations the way other shows have tried and failed. And it’s not afraid to be uncomfortable. You make such stupid decisions in your twenties and the show is willing to go there and make you squirm. Just take a look at the sex scene from the pilot between Dunham’s Hannah and her boyfriend, Adam. If you didn’t flinch, than you are a braver, more perverted soul than I.
There are other great touches too. Each character is distinct with a clear point of view. There’s Marnie who has fallen out of love with her boyfriend but doesn’t know how to tell him, and there’s Jessa, the whirlwind of a friend who comes in, sleeps with your crush, then demands to sleep on your couch. And there’s Shoshanna who rattles off a whole speech about which Sex and the City character she is because she believes that her life will be just like that show. One, I’d be surprised you haven’t had the same conversation with your friends (I’m a Miranda, by the way) And two, that’s a perfect reference to cap of my review of this show.
This may be a bold statement, but I could see Girls being this generation’s Sex and the City. It has the same bones, now let’s just hope that the people involved know what to do with them. I, for one, will be eagerly watching to see how it all turns out.
Grade: A
PS. There’s a great article in the New York Times about this show and feminine sexuality. You should read it here. It’s great food for thought.
Stay Tuned: Pawnee meets D.C. (The West Wing, that is)
Mary the TV Maven 