Oh, right, so Girls ended. Let's talk about that. Six seasons is a long time, but you know what's weird? Girls and Veep debuted only a week apart, and at the time Girls was the one getting all the attention, both positive and negative, whereas Veep was sort of just this quiet little political satire with a well-liked sitcom veteran as its star. Fast forward to now, and Girls just feels completely exhausted (and exhausting), but Veep has won all these Emmy awards and topped all these critical best lists, and it feels like it's as strong as ever, with the newest season serving as a soft reboot of sorts. But there'll be time for that later - Girls. Let's talk Girls.
What was Girls? Early on in its run, Girls was a show about four young women making their way in Brooklyn after college. The girls are all around my age, and the show started when I too was young and lost (though not that lost) and right away it just felt like something special. Back in 2012 there just weren't many shows made by people my age - millennials, yes, sure - and this was just a breath of fresh air.
A lot has changed, obviously. The show slowly grew insufferable, largely because most of its characters did, and it was this absolute magnet for controversy - the show's too white, Lena Dunham's too naked, Lena Dunham's too ugly, the show's too unrealistic, Lena Dunham's too political, none of the characters are likable - and at a certain point enough felt like enough. I never stopped watching Girls, and I never even really stopped liking it, but it absolutely dropped from being fun, new, and exciting to being just another show. (Actually, I can quantify this - thanks, year-end rankings! In 2012 I had Girls as the 4th best of 30 shows - pretty dang good! By Season 2 (2013) it was 15 of 38; by Season 3 (2014) it was 19 of 43; and by Season 4 (2015) it was 29 of 60 - still in the top half, but just barely. Season 5 was a nice bounce back year and, hey, wow, I had it at 11 of 80. Season 6... well, 2017 remains to be seen, as it's only a third over, but Girls will definitely return to "eh" status for me. And that's too bad!)
But yeah, backing up - what was Girls? Apparently it was a story about a bunch of terrible and selfish twenty-somethings learning to be slightly less terrible and selfish at 28 than they were at 22 - which, hey, credit to them, at least these characters displayed some growth, unlike those in Workaholics or Always Sunny, to pick on two old favorites. Problem is, the growth was never really lasting, and that didn't seem to be the point. Jessa could have a breakdown or Marnie could come to a big realization about herself or Shoshanna could start to take control of her own life, but then three or five or thirty episodes later they'd be right back in their old habits - less out of a specific relapse, it seemed, and more out of the writers just needing them to behave like they used to in order to advance a certain plot. Gah! Frustrating. And then at the end of it all, apparently the one thing that made Hannah grow up was... having a baby? What kind of weak-ass anti-feminist shit is that? Not that motherhood is anti-feminist in and of itself, or anything, but the way Girls operated for years, it just didn't seem like it was all building toward this idea of pregnancy and childbirth being this magical maturity-inducing life change for Hannah. It just seems like if 2012 Lena Dunham were told that her show would end with Hannah having a baby, she'd have all sorts of shit to say about that. Who knows?
Okay lastly here are the Girls main character power rankings from best to worst television characters.
1. Shoshanna
2. Elijah
3. Adam
4. Jessa
5. Ray
6. Hannah
7. Marnie
[huge gap]
8. Charlie
And here are the Girls power rankings based on which characters I'd most and least want to have in my social circle.
1. Ray
[huge gap]
2. Charlie (Seasons 1-2)
[small gap]
3. Elijah
4. Shoshanna
5. Marnie
6. Adam
7. Jessa
8. Hannah
9. Charlie (Season 5 cameo)
These were both very easy, although the middle of the second list is kind of up for debate and reordering.
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