Okay so I've recently just finished HBO's new comedy series 'Girls' masterminded by the imensily talented Lena Dunham. Dunham not only stars as lead character Hanna but also manages to write/co-write every episode and direct them also.
The show centers on the lives of four twenty-something females living in New York and no doubt many parallels to that other famous New York set, HBO comedy featuring four female protagonists will be made. Yet whilst 'Sex and the City' showed the glamorised side of sex and being successful in pre-recession New York, Girls on the flip-side deals with the aftermath, the directionless youth of today trying to survive after the generation before them pissed it all away. It's real, it's raw, it's nasty and moreover at times it's incredibly funny.
Dunham has managed to pull off something that's not altogether easy, in the creation of characters, Hanna included that at times are absolutely real, repugnant even but can completely endear the watcher to them. Whilst watching on more than one occasion I would turn to Husband and go 'Jesus she is being an absolute Thunderbitch' and then only ten minutes later be in absolute hysterics at the very same character.
My favorite moment from the whole series pans out in this vein, in episode 3, Hanna finds out she has an STD and decides to go confront an ex-boyfriend about it and confirm if he is the cause of her discomfort. The ex is now an out and proud gay man and needless to say Hanna's reaction to the whole situation it not handled very well. It all plays out in a hilarious albeit cringeworthy way which ends with Hanna listening to depressing music and taking to Twitter to vent her misfortune, she begins to write and delete desperate tweets which only make the viewer cringe even more at how it has all played out. Then the song changes to the more upbeat Robyn 'Dancing on my Own' and with that change so does Hanna's mood, she becomes empowered by the what has happened and gets up and dances and laughs at the ridiculousness of it all.
I think this scene encapsulates the greatness of this show, the ability to find the joy and hilarity at life's more fucked up moments and also how one minute Dunham's characters have you cringing behind a pillow and then suddenly you are back with them and cheering them on.
It won't be for everyone, for some the sex may be too graphic/strange and the all white cast may have been a bit a of a misguided step in terms of depicting a culturally diverse post-recession New York but other than that I'm having trouble faulting it.
That said, seeing how Dunham's is only 26 years old and already so incredibly talented and successful I can't help but feel incredibly jealous.
GBM
I love HBO shows (except Entourage, no one needs to watch frat-boys with no problems embark on adventures in misogyny), but HBO makes it difficult for those of us without cable to get their shows. And I really feel gross pirating shows. But if you say it's worth it, I'll have to check it out. I liked Dunham's movie Tiny Furniture.
ReplyDeleteEntourage sucks balls, I didn't realise that Pickleope, over in Europe the major networks here usually purchase they HBO shows and air them, possibly because you can cuss and show as much nudity as you want on terrestrial TV over here after the watershed. Loved Tiny Furniture, Dunham's Hanna is a little less sympathitic than Aura but funnier I must say
DeleteI've been so slack with watching HBO. I have an excuse, I can't seem to get my 8yr old to stay in bed long enough for me to watch anything. The thought of her catching a sex scene on one of my HBO shows makes me cringe. I love the "Thungerbitch" and would love to use that one, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteBe warned on the sex scenes in this HMB, they are not pretty and probably not something you want her to see.
Delete