Girls (HBO)

..and why not?
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Charlie O.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Charlie O. » 14 Apr 2016, 17:44

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Ray K.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Ray K. » 14 Apr 2016, 20:24

I've had a struggling love/hate relationship with this show since the beginning but this season has pushed firmly into the later. Wish it was as good as the SNL trailer.

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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby naughty boy » 15 Feb 2017, 22:22

Back on board with the sixth (and last) season - the first episode was good.

I like Lena Dunham - hope she goes on to do interesting things. I think she probably will.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Goat Boy » 15 Feb 2017, 22:28

I've never seen it but my understanding is that it's basically a bunch of 20 something prats arsing about in New York.

Should I care?
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby sloopjohnc » 15 Feb 2017, 22:37

Goat Boy wrote:I've never seen it but my understanding is that it's basically a bunch of 20 something prats arsing about in New York.

Should I care?


No. My son started watching this season's first episode and I couldn't last five minutes. Even with the female nudity.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby martha » 15 Feb 2017, 22:49

Goat Boy wrote:I've never seen it but my understanding is that it's basically a bunch of 20 something prats arsing about in New York.

Should I care?



Definitely not, that's a very accurate assessment of the show... for me as a gen-xer I find it to be incredibly aggravating as it more or less sums up everything I detest about New York, hipsters and Millennials and their baby boomer parents and seems to be completely oblivious to why all of detestable aspects about those things are detestable....

There are lots of things I love about New York and millennials but none of them are documented in Girls...

Mind you I struggled hard to like it because feminism so I watched it for the first season and then gave up.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby sloopjohnc » 15 Feb 2017, 23:03

martha wrote:
Goat Boy wrote:I've never seen it but my understanding is that it's basically a bunch of 20 something prats arsing about in New York.

Should I care?



Definitely not, that's a very accurate assessment of the show... for me as a gen-xer I find it to be incredibly aggravating as it more or less sums up everything I detest about New York, hipsters and Millennials and their baby boomer parents and seems to be completely oblivious to why all of detestable aspects about those things are detestable....

There are lots of things I love about New York and millennials but none of them are documented in Girls...

Mind you I struggled hard to like it because feminism so I watched it for the first season and then gave up.


Glad to hear you say that. Every character is a complainer. There's no refuge from the deluge of complaining in that show.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby martha » 15 Feb 2017, 23:09

I have to admit part of the reason why I stuck with it for an entire season was because I was convinced that it was self aware and going to become enormously interesting or scathingly satirically funny at some point due to all of the critical acclaim for it .... so I hung in there for that payout.

But no it was exactly what had appeared to be at face value from the get-go.
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Re: Girls

Postby martha » 15 Feb 2017, 23:16

Snarfyguy wrote:
martha wrote:But the characters are the reason that I can't live in San Francisco anymore.

The characters in a TV show are the reason you can't live there? Not the rampant hyper-gentrification that's purging the city of its very soul?

I guess I need to watch more TV.


They are one in the same. Every single one of the characters on girls is some trust-fund mommy and daddy supported artistic wannabe type, contributing nothing but self-importance, driving the rent up because they can always just ask Mommy and Daddy for more or pull it out of their trust fund, taking unpaid internships at dot com startups, that effectively price actually talented and qualified people out of any gigs and moving into the lower rent neighborhoods I loved and driving out the people that live there while simultaneously complaining about homeless people. And their Boomer parents are the pricks that create the unsustainable lifestyle for everyone. Seriously it's like the show runners took everything I hated about New York trust fund babies invading San Francisco set it in Brooklyn and put on HBO.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Snarfyguy » 15 Feb 2017, 23:32

^^^ Good rant. I feel you.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby naughty boy » 16 Feb 2017, 00:27

Ah yeah, they're (mostly) not especially likeable - but there's absolutely no attempt to hide that. They're certainly not being held up as anything other than annoying, over-privileged young people. I don't think you need to relate to them - that's not what the show's about. But they're sufficiently sharp and self-aware and possess enough self-doubt to make them interesting. You've seen developments in their characters over the seasons, too.

The writing's great, she's very clear-eyed about these types. You see and hear everything - it's as honest as it gets. Altho' I'm not sure if showing an overweight nude woman throwing up in the morning is really worth the kind of praise she's getting!
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Geezee » 16 Feb 2017, 08:04

Larson E. Whipsnade wrote:Ah yeah, they're (mostly) not especially likeable - but there's absolutely no attempt to hide that. They're certainly not being held up as anything other than annoying, over-privileged young people. I don't think you need to relate to them - that's not what the show's about. But they're sufficiently sharp and self-aware and possess enough self-doubt to make them interesting. You've seen developments in their characters over the seasons, too.

The writing's great, she's very clear-eyed about these types. You see and hear everything - it's as honest as it gets. Altho' I'm not sure if showing an overweight nude woman throwing up in the morning is really worth the kind of praise she's getting!


I see where Martha is coming from but I agree with this - I think it's pretty rare to see a show where every single character is unlikeable to the point of irredeemable - they are all horrible to each other, make horrible decisions, and for the most part you wonder what on earth they are doing with each other. But the general point of the show is precisely that - this is the kind of people that populate New York, and it's not a good thing. Has TV ever produced a more annoying couple than Marnie and Desi, but where you are sort of happy that they are together because they are so awful and don't deserve anything better? If i remember right the first scene of the whole show (or at least one of the first scenes) is Lena bitching to her parents about cutting off her allowance - and she comes across as nothing but a spoiled, complaining fantasist. She's jaw-droppingly annoying. This is quite different from something like Sex & the City, where the characters are all even more horrible, but where there is absolutely no awareness of that and they are essentially meant to be likeable role models. Now of course that means Girls might not be much fun to watch - but to criticise it for showing unlikeable people is sort of like complaining about Reservoir Dogs for showing violence or Blue Jasmine for not being very nice.

I really disliked the show for other reasons to begin with - I just found it too crude and I was too far away from my own early 20s to really relate to any of it - but I did come around to it and admire a lot of the elements of it.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby ... » 16 Feb 2017, 09:14

Watched the first series but didn't really float my boat. That said, as a late 50s European male (then) living in Asia, I guess I'm about as far away from the generation for whom LD's character thinks she might just be a 'voice' as its possible to get.

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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Goat Boy » 16 Feb 2017, 09:22

If the intention is to show how up their arses these people are then I wouldn’t describe that as a criticism. Not wanting to watch these arseholes is a personal preference. I don’t have a problem with unlikeable characters if they are interesting. Maybe these folks are but personally watching a bunch of spoilt kids who can afford to live in Manhattan moaning about shit is simply not appealing to me. It’s not a world I wish to explore, you know? Do people watch the show so they can express their hatred of these characters and what they represent though? Do people actually like them?
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby naughty boy » 16 Feb 2017, 10:17

I certainly don't find them obnoxious. They're young, they're lost. And they get their comeuppance, of course.

Lena Dunham's character has her moments, she's charming much of the time. .
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Goat Boy » 16 Feb 2017, 10:24

Yeah, you're not selling it too me.

I'll stick with Saul. Not there's an arsehole I can get behind!
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby naughty boy » 16 Feb 2017, 10:27

Anyway it seems silly to focus so much on how 'spoilt' they are when this isn't really such a huge feature. It's a story of talented young folk trying to find love and trying to make it in the big city. There's lots to relate to.

The first episode of the sixth series is mostly a kind of light comedy, it's got Apatow's fingerprints all over it. It's fun, give it a go.
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Goat Boy » 16 Feb 2017, 10:33

The lass and I went to a “restaurant” in new York called Cuenfuegos (I think) on the lower east side. I didn’t realise that it was some kind of hipster den but it was basically full of young folk gobbing off. Awful types. I imagine these are the same people Girls is about. Anyway, there was some young couple – or possible just folks on a “date” - on the next table who were talking so loudly we could hear their entire conversation. I can’t remember the specifics but the man, in particular, was fucking appalling. The lass and I couldn’t take it anymore so we left but before we did I leaned over to him and called him a “fucking gobshite”.
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby naughty boy » 16 Feb 2017, 10:48

:lol:
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Re: Girls (HBO)

Postby Goat Boy » 16 Feb 2017, 10:50

This reminds me. When we first arrived in New York the lass had really bad let lag and was sick for a couple of days so I went out for a meal by myself two nights in a row. One night, after caning a bottle of red, I went wandering up midtown in search of a decent burger joint. Anyway, I find one and sit down on me todd and there’s two young men on the table next to me and, like before, I can hear their entire conversation because the tables are close and I was so appalled I started messaging a mate back home. One of them said, and I am directly quoting here: “I am, like, so anti kindle”. Try saying that in some whiny, entitled little voice. I almost punched him in the face. Bearing in mind I was a wee bit tipsy but I actually message my mate saying “911 doesn’t seem so bad now”. It’s a different world, it really is.
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism


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