Wherein I write a review of Girls, indicating an utterly delusional belief that anybody on the planet cares one iota what I think about Girls.

I've been watching Girls on HBO. Some random thoughts after a season and a half:

1. The show works best as a satire of privileged kids trying to transform themselves into interesting people. It's strongest when it's mercilessly mocking their narcissism and class-blindness and naivete. It's weakest when it seems to break from satire to try to impart some profundity to these characters. They're not profound. They're mostly all douchebags and pretentious buffoons trying to become interesting people by living in a place they've been told is interesting and doing things they believe interesting people would do. They aren't interesting people and probably never will be. The show mostly understands this, though, and it's funny to see their efforts pilloried. Having come out on the far end now of the age group depicted in the show, I know by the time they get to be my age, most of them will be gainfully employed with a middle class salary, married, with a house, a kid on the way, and nanny interviews scheduled. Which is fine. I love it when people finally settle in and accept that they'd rather be comfortable than interesting. It's honest. It's painful but funny to watch these characters try to have it both ways, which is about as rare as getting a pro-basketball contract. You can be interesting, or you can be comfortable, but you can't be both. Like most people, they'll get there eventually. Although, ironically, the show consists of actors and it's creator (Lena Dunham) who actually have succeeded in finding a lucrative and creative career. Still, though, I don't think these characters are going to make it.

2. Fuck New York City. We don't need any more stories set in that place. Plenty of other places in the world worth hearing about.

3. I've never spent too much time around female social circles, having grown up in a house with three males and only one female. I don't think I believe, though, that most women just walk in and talk to their friends while they're on the toilet or taking a bath.

4. Lena Dunham is naked a lot, to the point where it's noticeably incongruous with the story. I almost get the feeling she gets off by writing nude scenes for herself. It's a strange contrast with the character Hannah's personality, which is fairly uptight and neurotic. Yet, she still gets naked every other scene and in fairly public ways sometimes. Maybe this contrast is intentional and is trying to say something about her desperation to be somebody different than she has been her whole life. That's possible. It's also possible Lena Dunham is an exhibitionist who has been handed the power to put herself into a lot of nude scenes on a popular television show.

5. Oh, Hannah is talking to some new guy and they're standing close to one another. Do you think maybe one of them will suddenly and aggressively kiss the other without warning, leading to an intense sexual encounter?! Yes! Because this happens every single goddamn episode.

6. There's a scene where the owner of the coffee shop where Hannah works makes fun of her for writing about relationships. He asks why she doesn't write about political issues or death or "real shit." I liked that scene because it was the show acknowledging it's own ridiculousness: that it's trying to derive meaning from this story about privileged white kids trying to find meaning. Later in that episode, Hannah tries to write a story about death that turns out to suck. It's the show saying, "yes, we know this is material is neither profound nor politically relevant, but it's what we know how to do, and we do it well, so just fucking enjoy it." Later, we see the coffee shop owner struggle with a romantic relationship and his own anxiety about failure, and it's the show saying, "see, even you pretentious assholes who are always on about politics and whatnot have a heart that needs tending."

7. The arc of Hannah's relationship with Adam is very well done and funny and touching and believable. Most of the other romantic relationships are hard to believe. The actor who plays Adam is incredible and might be in the new Star Wars movie!

8. I enjoy the friend fights between Hannah and Marnie. As I said, I don't have a lot of experience with female friendships, and it's really interesting to see them argue. The arguments seem really strange to me. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly they're arguing about a lot of the times.

9. I like how the show wrestles with the male characters' misogyny and the female characters' reactions to it. Marnie is dating a really nice guy and dumps him for being too nice, eventually finding a verbally abusive jerkoff artist. But she clearly makes that choice of her own free will. It's strange. And Hannah's boyfriend Adam is both really honest and sweet but also a stalkery psycho who she ends up fearing. But something about him attracts her to him, despite all the red flags that he's got serious anger issues. The women are not completely absolved of responsibility in pursuing these crappy relationships with asshole men. The hippie-dippy world traveler gal marries an asshole financier. We all know it's doomed from the get go, but who's fault is that? Hard to say. It's nice that these dynamics are not placed squarely on the shoulders of some caricatured misogynistic men.

10. I realize that many people in the world have a lot more sex with a lot more people than I do, but this show is almost entirely about people having sex. The dramatic tension in the show is mostly about sex. The dialogue in the show is often about sex. Sex is certainly a big part of life, but it's not THAT big a part of life. Sex is not actually that interesting. It's like kids....if they're yours, there's probably nothing that matters more, but if they're somebody else's, they're about as interesting as mold. I don't care about these characters' sex lives, except when they point out how stupid they are, which is funny.

Overall, I think it's a good show that sometimes gets confused about whether it's a satire of the age-old quest by young privileged people to be cool or an earnest exploration of the beauty of 20-somethings finding themselves in New York City. When it sticks with the former, it's often really well done and funny. When it drifts into the latter, it's a crap shoot.