On "Girls" (the HBO show)

Since everyone else seems to have something to say about the HBO show, Girls, including the National Review, I kind of feel it's time for me to weigh in. Especially since I've apparently got a problem wrapping my head around it. I have attempted to watch a couple of episodes but each time I cringe inwardly (and sometimes outwardly) at how bad I think it is. I realize many, many people must love it. I mean... it's making millions. Yet, somehow, the appeal is lost on me. The first time I watched it I told my husband I think it should be renamed "Sad." Because it seemed like all the characters were sad, empty shells of some other characters that might have had life once. And the events, even if funny at times, seemed kind of pathetic. After trying a second episode I then informed my husband that it would be a good show to play a drinking game to. We could take a shot of tequila each time one of the characters actually uttered the word "sad". (I'd heard it a few times during the particular episode I'd watched.)

Still... the show's popularity had been gnawing at me - quietly - like a virus that runs through your body without your knowledge until you suddenly develop a rash and a fever, by which point, it's usually too late. It led to the following. One day while I was headed int NYC on NJ Transit, I found myself sitting next to a pretty, white, bookish 24 year old girl who was on her cell phone to her dad. She was explaining how she'd gotten off a plane from Spain and was headed into the city to meet up with a co-worker then headed to Brooklyn. Then she said some things that made me think she might be a writer or her job entails writing because she said something about needing to hand in a writing assignment to her boss.

Ding, ding, ding!! Perfect!!  If ANYONE on the planet could explain "Girls" to me, it HAD to be this girl sitting next to me! I saw my chance and took it. I engaged her in conversation and asked her if she watched the show. She said she'd only seen one episode but her friends loved it. Great! I asked her if she could explain why her and her friends seemed to love the show so much (because, I explained... I just wasn't getting it). She looked somewhat bemused and like she was debating if she should continue speaking to me but then decided to play along. She said she thought the characters were a lot like people she actually knew. That other shows about girls have historically sent a signal that girls are supposed to be cute and sweet and charming and always have perfect hair and this show showed girls could be fat and awkward and fart. Okay.... I get that. I do.

But looking at her, it still wasn't adding up. Here was a pretty girl who seemed to actually have her shit pretty together, judging from the conversation I'd just overheard. Even if she did fart she seemed to be doing it with a real job and responsibilities. And, frankly, she was about a size 4 and quite cute... so I'm not sure how she felt she identified with these misfits on "Girls' but... okay... I get that part of it. I get that we women are sick and tired of being told what we're supposed to look like, how we're supposed to act, what is respectable and what isn't... I DO get that. But still... "Girls"? Really? Is this the only way we have right now to get that point across?

Hm. I will concede that it is progress of a kind. Imperfect, but heading in a generally progressive direction. Ultimately, time will tell. However, I reserve to the right to continue thinking it's a little bit sad. But I also concede that maybe I don't "get" it because it isn't a show targeting my demographic. It is a show targeting a group of disaffected, frustrated 20 and 30 somethings. Mostly white, mostly college educated and mostly totally out of the realm of my understanding. So I accept that maybe I can't give this show a truly unbiased review any more than the National Review can. The pretty 24 year old on NJ Transit did kind of look at me as though my opening line to her was "I come in peace". That should have been my cue to stop trying to "get" this show. Maybe I just won't ever. And that is probably fine.