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Girls

Girls: Witty, Raw & Addictive TV Show

  • Adam DriverAllison Williams...
  • Comedy
  • Out now
  • Lena Dunham
reviewed by
Marija Loncarevic
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Girls: Witty, Raw & Addictive TV Show

If you had the pleasure of
viewing the incredibly entertaining indie-darling, Tiny Furniture
(2010), then you already know who and what Lena
Dunham is all about.  Written and
directed by Dunham, who also starred as the lead, 
Tiny Furniture‘s story of a fresh graduate who
struggles to find her on place in the world is endearing.  Never inviting her audience to fall in love
with her straight, Dunham does invite viewers to find pieces of themselves in her own journey of self-discovery.

Produced by Judd Apatow, Girls tells a similar story of four twenty-somethings finding their way through that gruelling
game called life.  

Hannah Horvath (Dunham) is a relative newbie to New York, where she has relocated to make it as a writer. Her world is turned upside down when her parents cut her off financially in an act of tough love. Hannah’s emotionally abusive relationship with the sex-addict pseudo-boyfriend, Adam (Driver), provides some relief and escape, but provides just as much heartbreak.    

Best-friend and roommate, Marnie (Williams), is
an art gallery assistant who, unlike Hannah, is more grounded and driven, although she struggles to maintain her stale, long-term relationship with her overly-nice college
beau, Charlie (Abbott).

Old friend Jessa (Kirke) has just arrived in the Big Apple after years of jumping from continent to continent, and has
proclaimed herself as a ‘citizen of the world’.  Always out on a quest for a new thrill, the bohemian Brit’s carefree nonchalance often lands her, and her friends, in trouble. .

Jessa’s cousin, Shoshanna (Mamet), is a twenty-something virgin who
constantly compares herself and other women to the Sex and the City character
types. With a vocabulary filled with lots of  un-ironic‘like’,
‘totes’ and ‘shut up’, her perceived innocence and straight-laced personality makes her just as peculiar as the others.

Naturally, the show
has been frequently compared to Sex and the
City
, which is ok, because Girls was conceived as Sex and the City for the next generation. More grounded in its storytelling, this is a show that is
blunt, real and makes no pretensions about women.

Girls offers a more realistic portrayal of
friendship, love and day-to-day struggles. 
All of the characters are relatable and genuine, while Dunham’s writing infuses even the
most tragic scenarios wit and humour. Her dysfunctional relationship
with Adam, for example, seems doomed from the start, but at times retains a sincere warmth that builds an empathy for her eccentric love interest.

Acting-wise, Dunham shines in what seems to be a semi-autobiographical role of Hannah, while the rest of the foursome are able to deliver versatile performances that never caricaturise their their character’s ambitions and fears.

Although the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree in relation to Tiny Furniture, Dunham’s raw, unfiltered, de-glamorised approach is refreshing – at least for now. But for the time being, Girls
is a show like no other; o
utspoken, raw and terribly entertaining.

Like This? Try

Sex and the City (1998-2004), New Girl (2011-present) , 2 Broke Girls (2011-present)  

360 Tip

Girls is currently showing in Egypt on OSN Comedy.  

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