Cable TV has always been a place for more risky TV, where the writers have more freedom to push the envelope and create shows that make a statement.
One of those shows is HBO’s “Girls”. The show is pushing just what audiences want to watch and is reflecting on the young hipster culture.
The show takes place in New York City and follows the lives and loves of a group of girlfriends as they confront serious issues like visiting their parents, falling out of love with a long-term boyfriend and finding a job.
The first season opens when the main character Hannah’s parents tell her they can’t continue to support her. The character graduated college years ago and is mooching off her parents as she works an unpaid internship. At one point, she steals the tip her parents leave for the maid because she can’t imagine how she will support herself.
All the characters deal with their own set of issues and their struggles aren’t glamorized. The characters aren’t drop dead gorgeous or wearing designer outfits and the show isn’t afraid to show people at their worst.
“Girls” is known for its writer, star and sometimes director Lena Dunham. Dunham based the show on her life and experiences of growing up, dealing with roommates and finding a job. Dunham made her debut when she wrote and directed the independent movie “Tiny Furniture,” which was funded by her mother and some artist friends, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
Dunham has been published in the New Yorker and the TV show swept at the Golden Globes, but Dunham still doesn’t feel comfortable being labeled as the voice of the twenty-something generation. She told Rolling Stone she felt confused with what she wanted to do with her life but doesn’t want to be type cast.
She has made headlines for her less than perfect body, where she isn’t stick skinny and has more than a few tattoos. On camera she appears chubby, not afraid to let her love handles hang over her shorts or spend half an episode topless.
Now she is set to appear on the cover of April’s Playboy and told the New York Daily News that she doesn’t want to have a perfect Victoria’s Secret body. It is refreshing to see that the time where the body type deemed sexy by Twiggy and the like may finally evolve into one that more accurately represents realistic body types.
There is a saying floating around the Internet that if something calls itself ‘hipster’, then it isn’t, but for better or worse the show has characters wearing vintage clothing, working in coffee shops and of course struggling to write an e-book that will hopefully lead to the next great American novel.
The show and its outspoken star and creator dive head first into what it feels like to be a member of the so-called “me generation,” adrift in a world of passive aggressive roommates, friends with benefits and finding out that there is life after college.
