Girls: Series Premiere

We’ve all been here; girls or guys. Fresh out of school, scrambling to hold on to money, friends and stability, navigating your way blindly through sex and love and trying to determine your purpose in life. Girls’ main selling point: relatability. Girls’ main problem: relatability.

Who the heck is Lena Dunham? And how the heck did she manage to woo the likes of Judd Apatow? I think that was the question on all of our minds.

Lena Dunham has been writing and creating her own films since the dawn of time. Just kidding; she’s only 25. Her film Tiny Furniture, about a recent college grad that returns home while she tries to figure out what to do with her life, premiered at South by Southwest in 2010. The Austin festival has become a hot, new breeding ground for young filmmakers and musicians alike, where big time producers go to find hot, new voices. Apatow saw Dunham’s film, died over it, emailed her, told her he wanted to give her a pilot pitch…and the rest is history (a starving artists’ dream, in other words).

Girls is a comedy about being in your early 20s: confused, excited, distraught, and totally perplexed at life. Having a blast being young while having a conniption over not being old enough to have your s*** together.  “No more money!” Hannah’s (Lena Dunham) parents tell her over dinner that after years of supporting her, they’re done. To a non-paid intern, aspiring writer, young girl in New York City, that statement is like hearing the death sentence. What does she do now?

Lucky for Hannah she has a network of amazing girlfriends. Her BFF Marnie (Allison Williams) assures her everything will work out and she can find a new job. Her gorgeous, hippie cousin Jessa (Jemima Kirke) tells her to pose the argument that she’s an “artist” and will do whatever it takes to succeed in her craft. Zosia Mamet plays the fourth friend, whom Jessa moves in with. She calls herself, “I’m really a Carrie…but sometimes a little Samantha comes out.” Well, at least they’re acknowledging the show’s unavoidable similarity to Sex and the City.

Meanwhile, each girl is dealing with her own romantic rendezvous. Hannah has awkward sex with a dude who, clearly, doesn’t have the best intentions (haven’t we all been there?). Hey, she’s having a bad day. Marnie feels like the touch of her boyfriend is more like a molester than a lover and Jessa, who seems to live the perfect carefree life has troubles of her own. Oh, being a girl is so hard!

But the characters promise some serious depth. They’re all gorgeous in their own way, jam-packed with that Deschanel-Wigg-I’m-weird-but-I’m-attractive quirk that’s so in right now. Even more so than the fabulous foursome that flanked Ms. Carrie Bradshaw, these girls care more about putting food on their plate and catching a taxi than cosmos and Manolo Blahniks. It’s refreshing…and real.

But because the subject matter is so specific to such a small audience: women, and for that matter, young women, the characters will have to be sincerely compelling for us to care. Nothing in the pilot is extreme; there aren’t any shockers, any outrageous twists. Watching the episode is almost like peering in on their lives through the flat across the street or from the stairwell below. It’s intimate and simple. But this simplicity and dedication to portraying real life could hurt or help Girls. It could score! Or bore. Let’s hope Dunham can hook us in the next few episodes, otherwise I’d rather deal with my own problems that watch other girls dealing with theirs.