I SAW HER, YEAH I SAW HER WITH HER BLACK TONGUE TIED 'ROUND THE ROSES, FIST POUNDING ON A VENDING MACHINE, TOY DIAMOND RING STUCK ON HER FINGER: HBO's Girls debuted last night (as perhaps you know, if you have synapses). It was very funny, crisply and efficiently written in a way that pilots rarely are. I was kind of afraid of it, because of the "Sex and the City without Manolos" synopsis that has been making the rounds, but that, thankfully, is a gross and superficial mischaracterization, like saying that Entourage is just "Reservoir Dogs without guns," because it is about a bunch of guys in Los Angeles who are obsessed with status and money. In its first episode, Girls observed its characters more sharply than SatC ever did and deftly avoided, while at the same time acknowledging, the latter show's impulse toward reductive taxonomies of women.
My only complaint, which is possibly unfair, is that the show has a pretty narrow world view. It's not clear to me whether the show expects the audience to sympathize with the central conflict in the pilot -- will Hannah's parents continue to support her, two years after she graduated from college? I didn't. And I get that we're supposed to recognize that Hannah makes bad choices and is not entirely sympathetic, but it also irritated me that Marnie (who, on Hannah's shoulders, wears the white gown) and Jessa (red gown and horns) disagreed on tactics but agreed that the only strategy was to beg the parents for more money. The show is funny, well-acted, and well-timed, but I'm not sure how long I can take it if it's going to be just a bunch of stunted young adults lamenting about how unfair it is that they can't live beyond their means.
Nope, one other complaint. Hilde Desmond and Jean Weir are the same age? Impossible.
