I’ve got girls on my mind.
No, not girls as in girls. But girls as in Girls – with a cap G.
Sitting on my couch yesterday, feeling miserable while trying to fend off the flu, I decided to give Lena Dunham’s hit HBO series, Girls, a serious shot. I’d watched an episode before and had come away no more than mildly amused. But, since context is everything, I thought a bunch of back-to-back episodes might give me a clearer perspective – even through the fog of severe sneezing and coughing fits.
As a number of friends in the TV/film business assured me I would, I came away impressed. A kind of hipster version of Sex in the City set in Williamsburg, Girls is both smart and funny. There’s some sort of charisma at play here that we simply haven’t seen before. I’m sold. And apparently so are the critics, since Ms. Dunham and the show picked up two Golden Globe Awards, last night.
I’m still not sold, however, on the merits of the obscene advance Ms. Dunham secured for her upcoming book, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned, as I wrote a few months back. I’m also sticking by my assessment that this type of story can only happen when you have talent and doors are opened for you through connections.
I know so many people with so much to offer who just don’t know the right people. It’s sad to realize that their creativity will probably just languish in oblivion. But I guess that’s neither here nor there. That’s just the way the world works and, for now, Lena Dunham deserves our attention.
