Sunday 23 December 2012

TV: Girls (S1) (7/10)


Why did I watch it?
Remember mentioning this to my other half, who is a massive Sex and the City fan, that Girls was supposed to be a modern, more offbeat take on the lives of New York's young women. And that was enough. Oh and Judd Apatow's name was attached to it.

What's it all about?
Four twenty-something girls, Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna deal with a variety of everyday issues individually and collectively as they each look to make their way in the Big Apple.

Should you watch it?
Remember the four Manhattan based women on Sex and the City? Splashing the cash to keep up with the fashion and attending NY's most glamorous parties? Forget them. Four girls in New York is where the similarities end. These girls live in Brooklyn, struggle to pay rent and are more likely to attend parties in warehouses.

Based on some of her own experiences, Lena Durham (who plays lead character Hannah) created and wrote the show, as well as directing five of the ten episodes. She deserves credit for writing such a fresh take on the 'girls story'. The girls in question are not always at their glamorous best, crude, promiscuous and are supported by a witty and often hilarious script. Their day to day issues are largely trivial, Hannah's parents cut her off financially, Marnie's boyfriend is too perfect, Shoshanna is a virgin and Jessa returns from travelling unhappy at adapting to the real world. Despite this, the script makes these trivial storylines more than amusing and the pure oddness of the supporting characters, mainly Adam (Adam Driver), really helps. One guy decides not have to have sex with Shoshanna when he discovers she's a virgin because "virgins get attached. Or they bleed.". To which she replies, "I'm a totally unattached bleeder". Chris O'Dowd makes a hilarious cameo in a later episode as a wealthy businessman who gets agonisingly close to having a ménage a trois with Jessa and Marnie, only for it to fall apart before his eyes and actually be more annoyed that the girls spilt wine onto his expensive rug.

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