Sorry, but I’m just not that into “Girls.”
No, that was not the answer that I gave to the quite good-looking lesbian who sat next to me on the plane to Athens last summer. I mean, it was the answer, but that isn’t the question in question now.
What I am talking about is the breathlessly anticipated debut of HBO’s new sitcom, “Girls,” which has been hailed as “ground-breaking” and “brilliant.”
The slice o’ life series is from 25-year-old Lena Dunham, the phenom who, at the ripe old age of barely-out-of-college, made the indie darling, “Tiny Furniture. ”
The show is the real, deal “Sex and the City,” about four young women who live in NYC, but this group is more depressed than not and insecure.
The lead character of the ensemble is Hannah (Dunham), a dumpy, 24-year-old who has a vague ambition to be an essay writer, but who has been living off her parents. Hannah has ugly, afternoons-only sex with a slacker, “actor” Adam (Adam Driver), who prefers painful, anal sex.
Hannah’s roommate, the gorgeous Marnie (Allison Williams), is in a dead-sex, long-term relationship with Charlie (Christopher Abbott), such a big doormat, he probably has muddy boot prints on his back.
Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) is a virginal, NYU student with a creepy adoration of her roommate cousin, British, bohemian, Jessa (Jemima Kirke). Jessa, in turn, is dangerous, droll and disinterested.
Each week is a loose series of situations in which the “girls” find their footing in the world.
On the premiere, Hannah’s parents tell her, as she sucks spaghetti out of a bowl like a spoiled 4-year-old, that she’s cut off financially.
This sends her into a tailspin — because, wait — will she have to get a real paying job now?
Interestingly, all the girls in “Girls” mimic their real-life privileged selves.
Dunham’s mother is the famed art photographer Laurie Simmons; Mamet is the daughter of playwright David Mamet; Kirke is the daughter of Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke; and Williams is the daughter of a NBC anchor Brian Williams.
With Judd Apatow as one of the executive producers and a writer, these girls will no doubt remind you of the slackers in Apatow’s hilarious movies. Only thing is you never feel sorry for those guys. I couldn’t help but feel that “Girls,” like Dunham’s back-end sex, may be helmed by a woman but backed by a man.
All that being said, if you are female and under the age of 28, you may really relate to these women and their struggles.
If you’re over that age, you should hang in until episode three when the series takes off in a great way. Hannah’s encounter with her long-gone college boyfriend who has come out is flat-out, well, ground-breaking, brilliant and hilarious.