"Girls" Review

Has everyone seen Girls already? In case you haven't, it's HBO's attempt at Sex and the City for the younger generation, ie: four twenty-something girls try to navigate life in the big city. I really wanted to like this show because, I'm a twenty something trying to navigate life and a show that speaks to me would be great. But oh my word was this show ever NOT it . As someone who has paid for University (or at least, has student loans in my name) and has been working for the past 10 years, I have no pity for these lazy, entitled girls. The main character, Hannah (Lena Durham), is a poorly dressed 'writer' whose parents bankrolled her through college and now support her financially. I mean, what is she even writing about? As far as I can tell she hasn't experienced anything that every other twenty-something hasn't also experienced, and who wants to read about that?! In the opening episode her parents, painted as some sort of bad guys, tell her it's time to get a job. She's been working at her unpaid internship for long enough, it's time to get real work. There's nothing likable about Hannah, she's spoiled, obnoxious and her dialogue made me cringe. I know that these characters are supposed to talk like 'real' girls but, thankfully, I don't know anyone who talks like this. Her friends are a mish-mash of stereotypes, there's the carefree, promiscuous Brit (Jemima Kirke), the pretty virgin (Zosia Mamet), and the glamorous best friend (Allison Williams) who's boyfriend just loves her too much. Ah yes, I have so much sympathy for all of these characters..or,no, wait, no  I don't.  The problem is that these girls completely lack the ability to do anything about their problems, or, should I say "problems". Look, I know from experience that people for the most part, don't necessarily try to fix the problems they're confronted with, but I also know that  I don't want to watch four girls complain for 45 minutes, get to the next episode and nothing has changed. Something else that I'm definitely not a fan of is explicit material for the sake of being explicit and Girls goes overboard on this front. Was there any real reason to show us Hannah's dad's junk? I can't think of one. And the awkward sex scenes are just..awkward. When Hannah apologises to her quasi-boyfriend Adam for not letting him...er, well, for the sake of being PG, do something she doesn't appreciate sexually, I wanted to hide under my blanket and never come out again. Later Hannah claims that she doesn't want a boyfriend, just someone who is faithful to her and wants to spend all his time with her. Bitch please, can we all agree that only girls who want to justify staying with a crap boyfriend say shit like this? And don't even get me started on the fact that Hannah claims that Marnie's boyfriend has a vagina because he loves her so much. One review I read said that it was an interesting role reversal. Role reversal? No, I think that's just sexism by another name; Hannah implies that he is womanly and therefore, weak. Although I suppose that the show has hit on one of the problems of today, guys who aren't held accountable for their actions while the nice ones are criticised for being nice. Perhaps the bottom line here is that, even if some of their problems are legitimate    these girls are no fun, where are the scenes of them having a cocktail, or heck, having a few vodka shots, getting drunk and making fun of themselves? Would it hurt for at least one of them to be well dressed? Who travels with their clothes in a garbage bag? Is this even legal? I hope that one day someone makes a show that depicts girls like my friends and I, who are insecure in someways and confident in others, who can eat a tray of bacon,who drink too much, cry, love their families (even though they AREN'T supporting them financially) and who actually seem to like each other. 


Basically, my annoyance towards this show culminated in one scene where Hannah and her roommate Marnie are eating breakfast and Hannah loudly slurps her cereal and chews with her mouth open. There is nothing that disgusts me more than someone slurping their cereal, except possibly this utterly pretentious show that claims to be 'a voice of a generation' but is fact just the voice of the annoying, unrealistic "girls" who have been fed with a silver spoon their whole life and have the nerve to complain about it.