All adventurous women do
– 4 min read
Whether you consider Lena Dunham the voice of a generation, or just “a voice” of “a generation”, or just a hack, it can’t be denied: she has pop culture power. Since Girls premiered, Lena Dunham has been the topic of endless conversation, a one-woman think-piece cottage industry. Is she a feminist? Is she reductive? Is she subversive? Is she a white feminist (derogatory)? Is she too privileged to see past her own nose? Is the hatred of her fueled by an undercurrent of misogyny? I don’t know!
But I was one of the many who rewatched Girls in the last couple of years and damn if it doesn’t hold up, presenting these navel-gazing, insufferable women with such frustration and insight. They are exactly the amount of self-obsessed that 20-somethings needs to be to develop their frontal cortex. The writing crackles, the pacing is excellent, the music and wardrobe are pitch-perfect.
The casting is amazing! Gabby Hoffman as Adam’s sister and the downstairs neighbour; Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the “something is clearly wrong with this guy” ex-husband of Marnie; Corey Stoll as Elijah’s older, news anchor boyfriend (cough, Anderson Cooper, cough). And Lena’s mom, played by Becky Ann Baker, delivering a sage piece of advice that is treated like a bible verse on TikTok, “I don't want you to spend your whole life socializing him like he is a stray dog, making the world a friendlier place for him. It's not easy being married to an odd man. It isn't.”
The rotating cast of characters didn’t jump the shark because of the strength of the core four – Hannah, Marnie, Shoshanna and Jessa. And the Instagram announcement featured the four (plus a cameo by Andrew Rannells, who played Elijah), each playing into their characters (Allison Williams is early, Zosia had a dog, Jemima is blasé and smoking). Lena Dunham got them all back on board to do a summer in New York, a limited series.
Now, we remember what happened last time an extremely popular TV show centred around four women was rebooted, right? We got a lot of Che Diaz memes.
Girls is a little different right off the bat because all four women agreed, there’s no Kim Cattrall to pass. But there are also some differences because And Just Like That… included Michael Patrick King, who was an executive producer and creative force, along with Sarah Jessica Parker. Lena Dunham is the heart of Girls but she had a partner, Jenni Konner, who had a big hand as co-showrunner, writer, director and producer.
Lena wrote about them falling out in her book, saying the relationship was toxic and unsafe but there was no singular issue or villain. Intense professional relationships often have this kind of friction. Kim Cattrall, as mentioned above, was coaxed back for an And Just Like That… cameo but wouldn’t film with them. If you’ve watched or read anything about The Sopranos, it’s clear David Chase was a difficult and mercurial showrunner, even firing a key writer for getting too close to James Gandolfini.
Out of all the on-screen and real-life relationships on Girls, it’s Jenni and Lena who interest me most because it will have an impact on the storytelling. Showrunners put their fingerprint on their season and Jenni is still doing that successfully as a co-showrunner for Nobody Wants This (taking over after a tumultuous first season). Lena Dunham was the showrunner on Too Much, which I really liked but a lot of people found uneven. Lena is much more experienced now than when she rocketed to stardom and was getting picked apart by Gawker. She has written and directed films, she has directed TV shows beyond her own and she wrote another memoir. Her voice has evolved and it will be interesting to see how that evolution plays out in the writing.
The big question is, where are they now? The storyline possibilities are endless. Who knows if Adam Driver will come back and really, it doesn’t matter because he was best served as the breaking point between Jessa and Hannah, he could be a movie star in LA now (it completely tracks with his character and would be meta). Ray is probably still in Brooklyn and still a curmudgeon. Charlie’s last appearance was one of the best single episodes of TV, “The Panic in Central Park”.
But it’s the women we care about.
Is Jessa an incendiary podcaster? (By the way, Jemima Kirke is filming a Woody Allen project right now, which is absolutely insane!) Is Hannah living in the city with her son? Is Shoshanna still estranged from the group, or is she freshly divorced? Did Marnie go to law school and give up on her creative dreams?
There’s no way to satisfy the expectations of the online masses but one thing Lena Dunham doesn’t do is pander to the audience, this isn’t fan service. The fans weren’t even mentioned, which is such a nice change. Auteurs don’t do their best work by committee and as the audience, we need to hand over our trust to the person who wrote, “Oh, let's make fun of the girl who took a risk and put herself out there creatively" because she has earned it.
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