15 Thoughts On Girls
1. What the internet does not need is one more opinion on Girls, so here are 14.
2. I do not think Lena Dunham is attempting to make a ‘statement’ by being nude on the show, at least consciously.
3. What seems likely is we prescribe a statement to her nude body because we have been conditioned into seeing a certain other nude body on our screen(s).
4. I do not deny our evolution – I also find Kate Upton attractive – but someone who reacts negatively to Ms. Dunham’s nudity is, very possibly, uncomfortable with their own decaying form.
5. So it would seem those who protest Ms. Dunham’s nudity are simply echoing their own frailties.
6. That said, and to transition, the main reasons Ms. Dunham is nude on Girls are 1. it’s HBO why not 2. ratings go up when she is & 3. her obliviousness.
7. And that third reason, I would offer, is the root of all that is tone-deaf about Girls.
8. From its beginning, Girls has seemed “off,” even though it is well-written and the acting is as good as any Hollywood film and the direction is seamless.
9. And the reason it is “off” – maddeningly so at times – is because Ms. Duham’s worldview emerged from a fantasy land where no real problems exist.
10. That imaginary – to majority of people – land has buffered her well enough to be free to draw astute observations on love and relationships and what it means to be young.
11. But, it also seems to have dulled her into making an equal amount of arrogant – to the point of fantastical – statements on basic human nature
12. The most glaring recent example being the bedroom scene with “Jessa” & Danielle Brooks after group therapy in 3:1 (how could Brooks’ character even let her in the room? much less let her lie on the bed? as if Jessa, because she is rich and white and hot can solve every maligned group’s problems with her charm/sex, which would be laughably ridiculous, if it were not so offensive)
13. The show isn’t bad, though, to say so is burying your head in the sand, but it does suffer from a disconnect which will always alienate a portion of the viewing public.
14. Even with 3:1’s opening coffee shop scene – though it is good cathartic heartbreak porn – the show cannot absolve the past inhumanity of its main characters.
15. That said, Girls is well-done and I will continue to watch as long as Zosia Mamet is playing Shoshanna.