When it was originally on: 2012-2017

Original network: HBO

Where you can stream it now: HBO Max

Had I seen it before: I’ve seen at least the first season of Girls maybe more? It’s been a while though.

What IMDb says: A comedy about the experiences of a group of girls in their early 20s.

Why I picked it: One of the big things I remember about ’10s television was a genre I call the “half-hour character study.” They were often framed as comedies, but felt nothing like a traditional network sitcom. They were less built around jokes, and more built around exploring the human condition, but never in a procedural drama way either. The creative decisions are usually driven by a singular auteur rather than a writers’ room. Girls feels like one of the earlier examples of this, and its success probably helped other similar shows get their green lights. It’ll be interesting to explore the pilot and think about how it might’ve played when we didn’t quite know what this genre was supposed to be.

What I liked: I’m impressed by how well this one sets up all the different relationships that are going to shape the show moving forward. After just 30 minutes I feel like I have a perfect understanding of Hannah’s love life, her professional life, her relationship with her parents, and her relationship with her friends. None of these seem to be going particularly well; I can see how you could get hours and hours out of Hannah trying to make something of herself amid various interpersonal dramas, but at the same time everything that happens to her still feels super relatable for anyone in this stage of life. She’s tolerating a shitty guy just because she’s scared she can’t do any better. She can’t get a foothold in her desired career path. She has a best friend who cares dearly about her, but that sometimes manifests as her being overly judgemental.

The Marnie/Hannah dynamic is particularly well done. As focused as the pilot is on Hannah, we still get enough scenes with Marnie and some other non-Hannah character to understand who she is. These two couldn’t be more different, yet I still believe their friendship. I personally have never had a friend where I needed to share a bath tub with them, but these weirdly intimate scenes do drive home the friendship in a wonderful show-don’t-tell way. At the same time, I can see how their personalities could clash, especially now that Jessa’s back in the picture. Jessa’s a free spirit, and Hannah is easily seduced by that lifestyle. Marnie is sensible and responsible and has little patience for Jessa’s antics.

I also love Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna. She’s not in much of this, but her scenes were the closest I got to actual laughter.

What I didn’t like: I actually had fewer gripes with this one I expected since I know I never got super into the show despite seeing the whole first season. My dislikes are more reservations than full-on flaws.

I do think it’s still a little unclear how self-aware the show is, and what’s supposed to be funny vs. what’s not. Hannah’s an annoying spoiled brat but I think the show at least sort of knows that and maybe that’s the whole damn point? Ergo, it’s not entirely fair to sit here and say “oh I wish she were more likable.” But the result is sometimes she just says random weird things and I can’t tell if that’s a joke that I didn’t find funny or if the show is trying to tell me that Hannah’s sense of humor is weird.

The show’s also guilty of one of my comedy pet peeves: just because you wrote something awkward doesn’t mean you wrote something funny. I think the awkward sex scene with Adam does a great job of showing us what kind of relationship these two have, but I don’t think it’s funny.

Now, I do wish it was funnier, but I also am not sure how fair it is to judge the half-hour character study by the same metrics as comedies. I think it serves everyone better to just admit that this is a different kind of show and should be judged accordingly. However, I’m still not sure what exactly that other kind of show is and how funny it’s supposed to be, and what exactly Girls is trying to do.

Do I want to watch Ep. 2?: Kind of? I liked this one better than I expected to since I remember not liking the show when I first tried it (which was probably a decade ago). I think maybe it’s the kind of thing where if you spent a few episodes in its world and adjusted to the tone, it might be more enjoyable.