Grade: B-
Warning: The following is an actual review of the pilot episode for Girls & not just an opinionated assessment of privileged white girls. Read on at your own risk.
Lena Dunham’s latest venture is the much talked about
Girls, a show focused on the neurosis of twentysomething girls living in New York trying to survive. Much like her previous work,
Tiny Furniture, Dunham stars, writes, directs, produces, & credits herself in many other roles. As well, Judd Apatow is also attached as a producer for the series & has helped in much of the marketing of the series with clever interviews with Dunham & twitter posts of
Girls advertisements around LA. With the promise of a younger, realistic, & somewhat awkwardly hilarious look at the much reviled lives of twentysomethings the bar is set high. What follows in the 30 minute pilot is not the realization of the marketing team behind the series but it is something that holds a lot of potential.
The episode starts off with main character Hannah, played by Dunham, out to dinner with her parents who are visiting her in New York. As we watch her scarf down her food with her father, her mother lays the bomb that will be part of the focus of Hannah in the series. Her mother explains that they will not be supporting Hannah anymore & that she is effectively cut off. As the episode goes on we see Hannah ask to be a paid employee at her internship & effectively be let go because she doesn’t bring any additional skills like the previous photoshop savvy asian intern. This of course leads Hannah toward seeking solace in her friends, a ridiculous, & probably the most hilarious character on the series so far, hump buddy, & some opium tea. Meanwhile her roommate Marnie, played by Brian Williams daughter Allison WIlliams, is experiencing relationship trouble with her caring boyfriend who she feels has become very subservient like a family member. There is also the arrival of their friend Jessa, recently arrived from London & staying with her cousin Shoshanna, played by Zosia Mamet, who drops a bomb that she is pregnant.
Girls sets up a lot to deal with in its first 30 minutes: relationship problems, monetary problems, pregnant problems, & twentysomething angst. This is also what fails the pilot from really achieving anything special but it also lays the groundwork for a pretty daring series to emerge. With this being such a new medium with such high stakes for Dunham there is no doubt going to be some parts where
Girls fails or really falls short. It is also those glimpses of hilarious & awkward moments filled with mumblecore-esque dialogue that feed this series its potential to continuously strive for something more. Though
Girls is such a freshman series from the very fresh & young force of Lena Dunham there are going to be slip ups but its the parts that she gets right that continue to make her a voice of a very unrepresented & admonished generation.
