Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

yallerdawg

(16,104 posts)
Sun Apr 16, 2017, 01:22 PM Apr 2017

Goodbye, 'Girls' *SPOILERS, OF COURSE*

HBO’s ‘Girls’ goes out as the one thing it always wanted to be: A good TV show

Source: WaPo, by Hank Stuever

On their last, long publicity lap, the cast and producers of HBO’s “Girls,” which airs its final episode Sunday night after six seasons, stuck to a clear and unified message about the show: These were fictional characters, never meant to be likable — and, anyhow, likability is an old and often sexist construct applied to female characters, an unfair burden in today’s TV, which thrives on telling stories about difficult and morally shifty protagonists.

So if there were things you didn’t like about Hannah Horvath (played by the show’s creator, Lena Dunham), Marnie Michaels (Allison Williams), Shoshanna Shapiro (Zosia Mamet) or Jessa Johansson (Jemima Kirke), then that was the intent all along. They were never meant to speak for all millennials, or even most millennials who happen to live in New York. They weren’t supposed to represent a new feminism (or the old one). They weren’t role models. To talk about “Girls” from start to finish was to enter an odd conversation about what the characters aren’t and what the show isn’t. Many viewers made peace with “Girls” by receiving it as a guide for how not to live, rather than how to live.

But for those still watching, the show has reached a sustainable tone as a work of entertainment and topical comment. It took the entire six seasons, but “Girls” is going out as the one thing it only ever wanted to be: a good TV show.

*****

What we’re seeing, at last, is that everyone gets to the shores of adulthood on their own schedule, in their own way, but parts of us remain forever vulnerable and unprepared for life. As seen last week in the series’ penultimate episode, Hannah is leaving the city to teach writing at a college upstate and raise her child as a single mom. Knowing everything we know about her (including her initial fast flameout in academia at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop), there are all sorts of reasons to imagine that it won’t work out. The remarkable achievement of “Girls” is that we can now worry about Hannah rather than judge her.

Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/hbos-girls-goes-out-as-the-one-thing-it-always-wanted-to-be-a-good-tv-show/2017/04/13/bf1bda9a-1fc0-11e7-a0a7-8b2a45e3dc84_story.html?utm_term=.e48ae8718057

Another 'jewel in the crown' for HBO - these four girls (and a couple guys) will be forever etched in our memories!

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»TV Chat»Goodbye, 'Girls' *S...