The cat’s been out of the bag for several days now; “GIRLS” has arrived, and it’s probably the most disappointing debut of a show in recent memory. It’s a wasted premise on a group of, as of now, uninteresting characters, that lacks a strong immediate conflict, and appeals to a narrow audience.
Women in their mid-20’s, in this country, in this economy, don’t have the kind of grounded representation in entertainment the way they need to. This is a ripe market that’s desperate for content. And here it is, “GIRLS,” or as a friend of mine brilliantly renamed it “Vacuous, Socially Awkward, Privileged White People Who Find Themselves Interesting But Are Unable To Stop Talking In A Fake New York City, Devoid of Real Conflict.”
I don’t mind unsympathetic characters. I kind of prefer them. They’re meatier. And this show has a fantastic premise that does represent a lot of people, men and women, in their mid-20’s, who are mooching off their family, who do lack work ethic, who are going to be the first generation of Americans in the history of the country to have a lower standard of living than their parents. That’s a story that hasn’t yet been captured. We’re living in a society that’s not yet had the kind of lens on television that illustrates the enormity of the crisis and allows all of us to relate to the severity of it. “GIRLS” could have been that, instead it’s a mediocre in-joke, at best, and at worst it’s an alienation of what it’s trying to represent.
People have hailed this thing as the next great American television show, but let’s look at the facts: Its debut was modest. 1.1 million viewers across 2 airings. It lost more than a third of its lead-in audience from “Eastbound & Down” and “Game of Thrones” pulls in over 4 million viewers every Sunday night.
The entire show has the feel of someone having lunch and thinking, “Hey, let’s make a show about us.” I could even imagine it happening over the course of the “dinner party” scene in this past week’s pilot. And that’s fine if you’re a film student, but not if you’re getting the Judd Apatow stamp of approval and a major HBO premiere.
Let’s go even further. Let’s take away the demographics and ratings and focus on the quality of the show itself:
The girls: First of all, kudos to putting on a female show full of women who look like real women. Gold star.
The inciting incident: After 2 years a mid-20’s girl with no direction in life is cut off from her parents and has to enter the real world without a safety net. FANTASTIC!
The pacing: Off (note the opening dinner scene that dragged on for too many jokes and reaction shots, or the “good angel vs. bad angel” scene in the bedroom with our protagonist high on opium). The shooting style is reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s work, but misses the tone and the fact that Anderson is painting a world that’s not quite like our own, whereas this show is trying too hard to be naturalistic.
The acting: Flat as a board with the exception, maybe, of a couple nice moments from Allison Williams.
The humor (it’s billed as a comedy after all): You can literally notice a beat after every joke as if they’re waiting for a laugh track “I may be the voice of my generation. Or a voice of a generation.” [pause for laughter]
It’s failing on the basic levels of storytelling in a visual medium. It’s not necessarily a bad cast and it’s a phenomenal idea, but the execution is supremely disappointing. The jokes are stilted, one of my favorite exchanges was the oh-so-clever: “I’m not on Facebook.” “You’re so classy.” [pause for laughter] Because no one’s made jokes about Facebook with such biting wit since, oh right, The Social Network! The drama’s muted, as evidenced by the blink-and-miss-it preggers revelation by the foreign cousin while squatting on the toilet, and the look of the show is bland as f*ck, as evidenced by the hipster actor’s apartment (Sooooo much brown…).
And you know what? It’s going to get renewed. HBO doesn’t have a high bar when it comes to viewership and they’d have a major hole in their programming. Too much money’s been invested. Unless a horse dies on set of course. The main reason it will get picked up for a second season is because the masses DON’T have a show like this on television. And in a starving marketplace, the consumer will buy the single option available. “GIRLS” may end up being THE representative of a generation of women, but by default.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West: are they or aren’t they dating? Apparently it’s really on! TMZ reports that Kim brought Kanye to meet the entire Kardashian crew in New York this past week, and the family couldn’t have been happier. Kim and Kanye were also spotted shopping and eating ice cream in Soho. Get all the details here!
If you want to escape to the glamorous side of being young, wild and free, you watch Gossip Girl. For how to be thirty, flirty and fabulous, retreat to Sex and the City. But for a generation of women trying to navigate a discouraging job market and the confusion of their twenties, there’s nothing to watch on TV. Not until now, at least. Thanks, Lena Dunham, for Girls — the best show on television for a lost flock of soon-to-be women.
I’m raving about HBO’s newest half-hour comedy (produced by Bridesmaids’ Judd Apatow) that follows four twenty-somethings who are “living the life” in NYC: Hannah is penning a memoir and hopes to become the voice of her generation, Jessa is a British bohemian who travels the world without a care or a budget, Marnie is in a perfect relationship and works at an art gallery, and Shoshanna is a virginal nerd who remains naive and enthusiastic about everything. A few of these characteristics echo those of a very successful HBO show, one whose lead character eventually wrote multiple books on love and has become the voice and fashion icon of this generation.
But be warned, Sex and the City fans: this show is nothing like Carrie Bradshaw’s search for love in the Big Apple. Read More »
We’ve seen them all: Sh*t Girls Say, Sh*t Black Girls Say, Sh*t Gay Guys Say, etc. There a have been tons and tons of videos uploaded to YouTube in the past couple of weeks that have truly made us laugh, and mainly because they are so relatable (my favorite being Sh*t Single Girls Say). But what goes up, must come down, and I think it might be overkill now. I don’t know about you, but it’s getting a little tired, and I think it’s time to put these videos to rest. So I have complied the best, the worst, the funniest, the stupidest, the hilarious, and the completely inaccurate all into one post. Get it all out now, guys. This is your final binge on Sh*t ____ Says videos. Enjoy!
It’s happened to the best of us. We go on two or three seemingly perfect dates with the guy we’ve been obsessing over for the longest time, and then…nothing. No phone call, no texts, no anything! All communication ceases, and we’re left wondering what the hell happened? Automatically we switch into it-must-be-my-fault mode. “Was there something in my teeth?” “Maybe he didn’t like what I was wearing?” “Is it because I ate like a slob at dinner?” “Am I a bad kisser?”
Then we turn to our best friend for advice, and of course she proceeds to ask you the very same questions you asked yourself. As the cycle of self-incrimination continues, we realize we’ve taken the guessing game way too far, far to a point where we almost don’t even remember what the guy in question even looks like anymore.
Then one day, I got sick and tired of the blame game and decided to come up with my own reasons for why guys don’t call us back.
1. You know what they say, girls mature faster than guys do. So in this case, he prematurely assumed that I was looking for a wedding ring and an indefinite life commitment that sent him running scared.
2. He’s a jerk.
Okay so maybe my list is a bit premature. This guy seems to have all the answers though! He’s a dating and relationship coach who has finally revealed all the reasons why guys fall flat on the communication tip. With all of us girls playing Guesstures all the time, it’s refreshing to hear what a guy has to say about why they won’t call back. Read his thoughts here.
My favorite holiday has always and willalways be Halloween (well at least until Super Bowl Sunday is finally acknowledged as a national holiday).
I mean, what is not to love about Halloween? It is a night of pure debauchery devoted to stuffing your face with Twix’s and candy corn without guilt, wearing the sluttiest of slutty costumes without shame, and inevitably hooking up (a man in a mask? yum.) without judgment due to all the socially acceptable scantily clad outfits.
Halloween is basically one long session of foreplay. Only bummer about the best day of October is the walk of the shame the next morning. Maybe you thought the Lady Gaga costume was a good idea for the 31st, but you may not think so while you’re walking home the next morning in a bright blue pantless body suit with smeared eyeliner and glitter all over your face.
So to avoid being the solo slut this Hallow’s Eve, dress up in a group costume with your friends so you can walk home together.
Group costumes are interactive, more creative than the insert Sexy in front of anything costume, (ex: sexy nurse, sexy teacher, sexy plumber, sexy firefighter, sexy scuba diver, sexy nun?), and ideal for a quality Facebook profile pic.
So here are our top ideas for this year:Read More »
Ever feel like you’re the only one sitting on the couch, mindlessly staring at the TV with no idea what’s going on? Are phrases like “point conversion”, “fumble” and “fourth down” completely foreign to you? Well have no fear, here are a few simple things to keep in mind so that you can keep your head afloat during College Football Saturdays. Grab the chips and dip, and prep yourself for kickoff!
To start off, here are some fun facts about football. The field is measured in yards, 100 yards long, but 120 including both end-zones. The Pittsburgh Steelers have won more Super Bowls than another other team in the history of the NFL. The ’72 Miami Dolphins are the only team to achieve a “perfect season” (meaning no losses throughout the entire time), though the New England Patriots had a perfect regular season (their only game loss was in the Super Bowl itself) in 2007. It began based on the rules of rugby and soccer combined, but the first real football game (the way we know football now in the USA) was played between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869 (Rutgers has since commemorated the game field by making it a big, beautiful… parking lot). I could go on and on with boring stats and scores that are floating in my head, but I promise that I’ll spare you.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any technology to translate exactly what John Madden is muttering about while he comments on the game, but if you’re lucky enough that he lets someone else get a word in edgewise, here are some basic terms that can help you navigate the game like a pro.
Week after week (after week after week…), CollegeCandy and our pal John bring you some of the weirdest, funniest, and saddest things he hears on his college campus. And we know he’s not the only one who hears this stuff. Join the Overheard revolution! Listen in on some weirdos’ conversations and share them in the comments or send ‘em over. You know there’s a lot of funny things to be heard on your campus, so get to it. We’ll throw them in a future post!
(Girl, on the phone.)
Girl: Lil Wayne was in my dream last night! Yeah. He had a farm. No, I mostly just made fun of his voice a lot. “Hey, girl, who knew we’d have so much in common?” And I was like “Lil Wayne, I had no idea!”
(Professor, heard from outside a chemistry lecture hall.)
Prof: Okay. Now, imagine you’re all molecules. Good. But I hate molecules! Uh-oh, really bad!
(Two girls, talking at a library study table.)
Girl 1: Were they at least cute?
Girl 2: The girl was a cute Latina woman, but the guy had a scum-stache. I had to turn up my Walkman to drown out the squelching noises. Read More »
When I was a sophomore I lived in a quad in my sorority house. That meant 4 girls, 45 pairs of jeans and over 100 pairs of shoes stuffed into a very tiny space. With bunk beds. The close quarters were an issue when any sort of studying had to get done (“Can’t you wait until after 90210 is over to start that paper?!”) or heavy drinking was going down (“Dude, there is not enough room in here for you to do the worm…”) but we made it work most of the time.
And then we had a date party.
For those of you who don’t know, a sorority date party consists of asking guys to join you at a bar where everyone gets very, very drunk. Kind of like any other night of the week but with dresses and a photographer.
Anyways, needless to say, my roommates and I got quite intoxicated. Upon returning to the sorority house, everyone proceeded to leave their men outside and completely pass out fully clothed. I was pretty much dead to the world when I suddenly woke up out of my sleep; something smelled really bad. It took me awhile to figure out where I was, why I was still wearing heels, and why there was a slice of pizza in my hand, but when I finally came to I realized that my roommate (whose bottom bunk was a mere 4 inches away from mine) was also sniffing the air with a not-so-happy look on her face. Read More »
It’s happened to the best of us. We go on two or three seemingly perfect dates with the guy we’ve been obsessing over for the longest time, and then…nothing. No phone call, no texts, no anything! All communication ceases, and we’re left wondering what the hell happened? Automatically we switch into it-must-be-my-fault mode. “Was there something in my teeth?” “Maybe he didn’t like what I was wearing?” “Is it because I ate like a slob at dinner?” “Am I a bad kisser?”
My favorite holiday has always and will 
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