The GIRLS thread

**tomgastall** · 05-18-2012, 05:43 PM

changed my mind and deleted MadTV's Friends parody; too tangental to the conversation.

**rkbull** · 05-19-2012, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by MIKE D

Here's why I'm suspect of the racial criticism: How I Met Your Mother and Friends went YEARS depicting a white New York, and no one said a peep. Suddenly it's an issue, and it's an issue for a show that's run by a young woman that freely admits she's writing from her own limited experiences. So even though inclusion of a voice of color would be tantamount to tokenism here, because there is no writers room (Dunham writes the whole show top to bottom) for that voice to be heard as authentic, THIS is the show some people make the stand on. I really think it's less the actual issue, and more the backlash to anything perceived as "hipster".

It may have flown under your radar because possibly you may be the target audience for a show like Friends or HIMYM, but there HAS been criticism about the white washing of NYC, ESPECIALLY with Friends. So your claim that no one said a peep is entirely inaccurate.

It's not some new criticism. It may be new TO YOU, but it's definitely not new.

**rkbull** · 05-19-2012, 02:02 PM

I am not the target demographic for this show. I'm a 40 year old, straight, black male. I've pretty much spent my entire life in NYC. I've lived in every boro with exception of the Bronx. I used to have friends from a bunch of different racial groups and ethnicities especially when I was running around on the late 80's early mid 90's club scene (The Tunnel, the Sound Factory, Mars, The World, The Red Zone, The Shelter, Sound Factory Bar and Body and Soul).

When I saw the ads and the commercials for GIRLS, I assumed that I'd be skipping it because it seemed like one more show about quirky white people and I'm kinda done with that. Very few of the white people I knew where that odd and quirky, then again I dont know many or any hipsters so maybe there's some accuracy to the quirky thing. Either way after making the effort to at least check out the show I found myself really disliking almost all of the lead characters except Shoshanna who has such a strange nervous energy about her she also seems like the only character who isnt completely self centered to the point of obnoxiousness.

I kept watching and I gotta say that I'm admiring the shit out of Lena Denham for the way that she writes and inhabits this character and puts her out there like this raw nerve for people to just gawk at. We make judgements about her actions and he obliviousness and seeming stupidity but I think that's the idea. Lena Denham is not Hannah (at least I hope the fuck not otherwise I take back everything I said here) but the way puts the character out there takes some level of guts. For that alone she and the Marnie and Jessa and Shoshanna have got me for the rest of the season.

**jenifu** · 05-30-2012, 07:20 AM

Originally Posted by rkbull

I am not the target demographic for this show. I'm a 40 year old, straight, black male. I've pretty much spent my entire life in NYC. I've lived in every boro with exception of the Bronx. I used to have friends from a bunch of different racial groups and ethnicities especially when I was running around on the late 80's early mid 90's club scene (The Tunnel, the Sound Factory, Mars, The World, The Red Zone, The Shelter, Sound Factory Bar and Body and Soul).

When I saw the ads and the commercials for GIRLS, I assumed that I'd be skipping it because it seemed like one more show about quirky white people and I'm kinda done with that. Very few of the white people I knew where that odd and quirky, then again I dont know many or any hipsters so maybe there's some accuracy to the quirky thing. Either way after making the effort to at least check out the show I found myself really disliking almost all of the lead characters except Shoshanna who has such a strange nervous energy about her she also seems like the only character who isnt completely self centered to the point of obnoxiousness.

I kept watching and I gotta say that I'm admiring the shit out of Lena Denham for the way that she writes and inhabits this character and puts her out there like this raw nerve for people to just gawk at. We make judgements about her actions and he obliviousness and seeming stupidity but I think that's the idea. Lena Denham is not Hannah (at least I hope the fuck not otherwise I take back everything I said here) but the way puts the character out there takes some level of guts. For that alone she and the Marnie and Jessa and Shoshanna have got me for the rest of the season.

Question for you!

What do you say to the idea that the Brooklyn of Girls is not its own character in the show in the fashion that the city (and various specific boroughs) were glorified or touted in some of the other shows cited in this thread?

When Travis and I were hashing over some of this, I told him that I hadn't really paid much attention to the setting (aside from its vague identification as Brooklyn) because the focus is so tightly on the characters themselves. Being thus oblivious, I did not necessarily detect any racial, socioeconomic, gender, or other disparities.

Where I felt that the environment was negligible, however, he disagreed, and said that he thought it appeared conspicuously and often enough that it at least merited examination - and that, not necessarily identifying with one or more of the groups possibly being excluded, I simply might not have paid attention.

I've promised myself to pay better attention to the environment from this point forward, to try to see what I might see...but I was just wondering what other people might think.

**Karen Mahoney** · 10-06-2012, 07:49 AM

This doesn't follow on from anybody in particular, but as someone who watched the first episode and wasn't all that taken with it... Well, I gave Girls another chance and have now seen a few more. It's growing on me. I think I'll see the rest of the first season before being so judgy. (That's not a word, but whatev.

) I certainly admire Lena Dunham's creative talent.

Kaz

**(akaRyanHoffman)** · 03-10-2013, 05:13 PM

This season has been great.

**Karen Mahoney** · 03-11-2013, 05:01 AM

Originally Posted by (akaRyanHoffman)

This season has been great.

I've finally seen all of Season One and I ended up liking it much more than I thought I would. Good to know that S2 continues strongly - I need to catch up!

Kaz

**MIKE D** · 03-11-2013, 03:37 PM

What an incredibly dark turn this season has taken. Each character is in a worse place than the last. Special kudos to Adam Driver, who managed to simultaneously break my heart and skeeve me out in the same scene.