There are probably at least 12,987 reasons why you should be watching the HBO series Girls that was unleashed by the network giant in April of 2012. Now I only became aware of the series fairly recently but that is mainly due to my own personal separation anxiety from the 1930s. It was during the winter of last year, which was sincerely the winter of my discontent as I was suffering the misfortune of a malady - bronchitis to be precise, and given it came replete with a pinch of pleurisy I turned to television as a possible means of reprieve. It was then that I discovered Lena Dunham's offering, which upon first glance, was frankly convinced was going to be just some variation on the Sex and the City theme (I am that one rare woman that had an aversion to the show). I decided to hang on just a little longer and to my pleasant surprise, this series, although at times a tad puerile and prurient (especially for the priggish set), and heavy on the 'too much information' factor - that it's just so goddamn flawlessly written and each of its ensemble of characters, so fearlessly self-loathing, why I even started to feel guilty for having any confidence or esteem whatsoever!
And you know that party guest that always manages to finds an empty seat on the sofa, and yes of that party you attended with trepidation mind; most likely the remit for going was out of some sort of allegiance to the host, but unfortunately that empty seat just happens to be right smack dab next to you. And although at first it appears this guest will do your head in like an iron tourniquet, it's actually someone kind of wonderful after all - well say hello to Lena Dunham's Hannah Horvath and what could have been a twenty-something year old babe in the woods manages to have the soul of Methuselah, oh my has this girl lived - and has far more tales to tell than a WWII veteran but these such tales you will want to hear again (please forgive me Uncle Joe). And Dunham can't help but to 'keep it all real,' given the series concept is kinda-sorta-kinda based on her own actual experiences and exploits. She has no such qualms about divulging the fact she suffers Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (and the rather bad kind at that) the unapologetic Dunham has no qualms about hiding anything at all and her door is left eternally ajar, so enter if you dare.
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| Sunday in the Park with Jessa, Hannah and Shosh (Kirk,Dunham and Mamet l.to r.) |
I must confess being a sucker for the succinct title of the show, and it may have been hate at first sight with some of these Girls but I have grown to love them each in my own way. Now take Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) who isn't just petulant for petulance sake, why she gets about as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield did in his drumming days, and only to be undermined by the other three gals, so it's no wonder she's ever on a whinge binge, and not to mention one of her 'friends' is betraying her, as it's Marnie (Allison Williams) who is clandestinely shtuping her ex - Ray Ploshonsky (and with a name like Ploshonsky it's no wonder he is an ex). Now granted Shoshanna and Ray were splitsville last season, there is usually a code of honor amongst friends in the arena of love, isn't there? Then there's the globe-trotting, bra-burning Jessa (Jemima Kirk), who also doubles as Shoshanna;s too cool cousin - and she is the character you secretly don't want to sober up after her brief stint in a country rehab, well any excuse is a good one to keep the once withnailed Richard E. Grant, who plays closest confidante Jaspar at said rehab center and conveys with conviction how much he'd like to nail with the decidedly younger Jessa, aboard. Needless to say, the guys (Adam Driver, Andrew Rannells et al) of Girls are truly just as swell.
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| Guys just want to have fun too - pictured above Adam Driver and Andrew Rannells |
And how could I forsake the photography? One particularly lavishly lensed episode from season two titled Video Games finds Jessa on her own journey,( albeit with Hannah in tow via Metro North) to a land far,far away, or as some pedants like to refer to as upstate New York, and it wasn't your average pony kind of visit either as the prodigal Jessa is attempting to reconnect with her estranged daddy who is remarried to a bohemian old salt (played with aplomb and by Rosanna Arquette) whilst Hannah is entertaining other shenanigans, such as bedding (well out on the lawn really) Jessa's decidedly younger virgin of a brother. And there are some shots in this episode that I assure you are the very bedfellows of Musuraca and Kovacs (Laszlo, not Ernie).
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| Miss Dunham is on the right track |
Yes there are some episodes where the elephant in the room may inspire you to step outside of your own, you may balk or you may be bewitched and bewildered, 'tis your call - but beware viewer there are those kinda moments, the hilarity doth ensue however And if you have not already been tuned in or attuned with this exceptional series, I can recommend - and there are infinitely worse ways for you to spend your Sunday evenings. I know because I have done, there's only so many times you can count the tiles on the bathroom floor.