Girls: Season One

Girls is the most polarizing new show of the year. People who hate it hate it with a passion, calling it the worst show ever made. We think that’s a bit much, even if you don’t hate Girls. Two and a Half Men is still on the air, after all. To support their hate, critics say that the main characters are too selfish, all the men are portrayed as dogs and users, and the show isn’t funny enough. We wonder if most of these people only watched the first two episodes which, admittedly, were difficult to love, since they were cold and had all that bad (fascinating) sex.

In the subsequent episodes, Girls became even more relatable and less stressful. It didn’t focus so much on Hannah Horvath being broke, jobless, and futureless. It focused a little more on her friendships and insecurities. Shoshanna emerged as the best character on the show. Part of that is that the show only gives her to us in moderation. The time she did crack and lost her pants was one of the show’s best moments. Leeard is mad at what Marnie did to Charlie, breaking up with him during sex after working so hard to get him back. Ern thinks it’s funny and fabulous. Ern was never a Charlie fan.

We are going to miss Kathryn Hahn as Jessa’s boss. We won’t much miss her husband. Kathryn Hahn is so gorgeous and we don’t think she gets enough credit for that. We both hated Adam in the first two episodes, calling him an uggo and a waste of space. But after that, he became the second best person on the show. He’s a complex, honest guy. Yeah, he’s still kind of a jerk, but we can’t wait to see more of him next year. Also, his jerkiness is related to his honesty, which we can appreciate. He's be a much better friend than a boyfriend though. Why did this season only have ten episodes instead of a billion? Didn’t HBO anticipate that we would need more?

The finale had quite a few surprises. We didn’t love the beach ending, but we did love Shoshanna hooking up with Ray, which is much better than hooking up with that one guy who wouldn’t sleep with her because she was a virgin. We loved Ray’s lines in the finale. We also loved Jessa trying to speed up maturity by marrying that dick head Wall Street guy (Chris O'Dowd!). The wedding was cute, very Jessa, and it made perfect sense after her ex-boss’ pep talk. We wonder if, next year, she will be divorced and have half of his money. The relationship could be interesting to watch, if only because the actor playing her new husband (Chris O'Dowd!!!!!) does his part really well, but we think a divorce meltdown would be even more entertaining.

Season one is only five hours long, total, so we think you should check it out and give it a chance, if you don't mind raunch and language. Overall, it makes us smile. Everyone’s talking it about it. For being so short and new, it’s really got us hooked. We looked forward to a new episode every week. We think this show is going to come into its own and outgrow its critics as it matures and develops its four main characters more. We could use a little more Shoshanna, but not much. Sometimes you want to hit the characters, but at least the show makes you care, right? But warning: Some people hate this show so much. You might be one of them.

Season grade: A-