GIRLS

I think the show is honest, and I appreciate that. Lena Dunham has not created the characters we want to be, but the characters we are. I find myself simultaneously hating and relating to most of what they do. For a generation of 20-somethings still told we have the world at our fingertips but believing less and less that we will ever reach it, the show rings true. Maybe this makes me shallow or self-depricating, but I take comfort in my ability to relate to characters without having to build myself up first.

From The Man Repeller (a personal blog hero of mine): "I’ll watch either way–it’s hard for me to deny Girls’ uncanny ability to break-down the twenty-something experience, which has also helped me to understand something very important: the fundamental difference between the idol you want to be, and the one you want to be friends with. Hannah Horvath is a deeply self-deprecating, wholly irritating individual–who wants to be that? Not very many people, I would guess. But it is in the tender moments that exemplify the nuanced, true details of female friendship that I for one, itch to get in that tub and participate in an Oasis sing-along. And isn’t that worth something far more valuable? Hannah never steals our personal compasses of self-worth or adequacy."

So maybe it's a guilty pleasure, but mostly I find that watching the show girls reminds me that it's OK to wallow in self-deprecating, narcissistic soul searching in hopes of coming out the other side an adult. It is a true testament to our "lost" generation of over privileged, confused 20-somethings desperate to find our way and make our contribution in the often underwhelming world of adulthood.