Girls is one of the those really odd TV shows that I’ve followed from the beginning. What makes it odd – for me – is that I have no idea why I’m such fan. None of the characters are particularly likeable; they don’t have particularly interesting lives and none of them have grown since the show started.
I guess I enjoy it because they’re very much like most of the human race; maybe it’s the ‘ordinariness’ of it that I find appealing. The characters are outlandish, but they’re believable… just. They’re a bunch of selfish narcissists who somehow manage to come through for each other when it really counts, which is just as well because I’m not sure why anyone else would bother with them.
Of course, I’m not counting the weird, wonderful and painfully vulnerable Shoshanna in all of that; she’s the greatest friend any of them could ever hope to have – and I say that as someone who hasn’t understood a word she’s said since episode 1:1. The creative talent behind the whole show is abundantly clear throughout, though in my less-than-humble opinion, it really shines through Shosh. (I have no idea how you spell that).
But of course, there’s a ‘but’…
In much the same way that I can’t really point to a reason why I’ve been a fan of the show, I’m also a little bit mystified as to why I haven’t enjoyed Season 5 as much. It could be that everything’s fine and that the problem is my attention span. I dunno.
I get the sense that rather than shocking with a stylish subtlety, the show is perhaps contriving scenes to just plain shock. Case in point – Lena Durnham’s take on Basic Instinct in 5:5: how did it really fit in with her being told off for dissing her work colleagues behind their backs. I said earlier that Girls always managed to sail just this side of believable; I think here’s a place where we may have just tripped over the line. I mean, everyone saw it coming, but it just left me scratching my head:
Wow. Did she take her pants off before she went into the office, or was she walking around like that all day? Why would she take her knickers off before a meeting with the head of her school? Who the hell walks around a school with their chuff out?
It just didn’t ring true for me, and I was wondering if the writers were making a point that I missed, or were trying to be controversial.
That aside, Season 5 has still been a treat (though not as much as Seasons 1 – 4). I read somewhere that Girls will be finishing with this series, and I’ve got mixed feelings about that. I hate to lose a show I’ve enjoyed so much, but at the same time I want to remember it as a modern classic that didn’t jump the shark.