I watched the pilot episode of the much-hyped HBO series Girls, brought to us by Lena Dunham, who wrote, directed and stared in the show. My feelings about it so far are, well, mixed.
On the one hand, it’s great to see a show written and directed by a young woman, chronicling lives of other women who are trying to figure things out. It may be an old subject, but it’s not like they issue a guide book. Every generation has to figure things out and so it comes as no surprise that there are hundreds if not thousands of works of literature, cinema, poetry and music dedicated to this theme.
On the other hand, I felt unnerved. It was like my life flashed – or sluggishly dragged itself – before my eyes. Here was Hannah, our main character, who lives a life uncannily similar to my own. She’s in her mid-twenties, has a college degree, works in an office, has some aspirations and unrealistic expectations.
If I wasn’t depressed before, I sure am after watching this.
At one point Hannah tells her parents that she feels she is the voice of our generation. Or at least a voice of a generation. And I think that speaks to a lot of us twenty-something would-be hipsters. We feel like we have something important to say, but no one is really listening. And if they do listen, they point out that what we’re saying has been said before.
And I know, I know, people roll their eyes and say, “oh, you poor white girls and your petty little problems.” And they have a point. We (and I’m talking about a very specific segment of the population here) have had a comfy life so far. We know little about war and next to nothing about hunger. And, yet, we live with a perpetual threat hanging over our heads – there’s terrorism, global warming, proliferation of fanatics and conservatives both abroad and at home. As the baby boomers are getting ready to retire, we are left with a world that is held together by scotch tape and some spit.
Of course, the truth is, every generation faces very similar challenges. There’s always the threat of mutually assured destruction or some disaster looming on the horizon. But here we are, young people, who are told that we must be self-sufficient individuals, but we can’t be selfish; we are all special, but in the end we’re all unemployable; we must make our own choices but every choice we make will be scrutinized and criticized; we must love ourselves, but we are utterly undeserving of love. We’ve been told from a very young age that we can achieve anything we want. But then we’re suddenly left out in the cold with a crumbling economy, excessive expectations and unrealistic images of success and social worth.
Girls is restrictive in its scope and appeal. The majority of humanity would have a hard time sympathizing with affluent, white women living in New York. I’m sure it doesn’t speak to or for many people, but it in my own case it hit pretty close to home.
Dunham’s show is a comedy. But, to be honest, it felt too real to make me laugh.
Angry on Fridays 