Via: Tuned In
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, turn off that karaoke machine and watch last night’s season premiere of Girls. “You are not a sweet girl at all!” “I am a sweet girl!” Maybe the most essentially Girls moment of the second-season premiere of Girls involved Jessa, who was in the episode barely a minute. She and Thomas-John are getting back into town from their honeymoon, and in a whirl of giggles and kisses, they jump an entire line of people waiting for a cab at the airport, as Thomas-John halfheartedly pretends not to know English. Ha ha! Isn’t it cute? They’re so in love! Except, of course, it’s not cute at all if you’re one of the people standing in the taxi queue–it’s just a jerkwad move, unredeemed by the joy and insouciance of the self-absorbed couple in their little bubble of romance. You, as a newlywed feeling like you’ve discovered love for the first time, may feel you’re in the applause scene of a romantic comedy. To the rest of the world, you’re just another d-bag stealing a cab. This is not a criticism of Girls. It’s one of the things that make this show distinctive: it’s empathetic and understanding of its characters yet unsparing of their self-absorption. As a show about people in their twenties, enjoying various levels of support from parents and/or sugar daddies, it’s largely about the gradual discovery that there are other people outside your experience–or about the failure to discover that. (This, by the way–the addition of Donald Glover as a guest star notwithstanding–is why I think that the lack of people of color in Girls’ cast is both worth comment and totally believable. Yes, Brooklyn is full of people who are not white. But I’m not sure that these specific characters’ Brooklyn is—and that they do not seek out a lot of people outside their cultural or class experience seems entirely, if unfortunately, believable for them.) Girls is about friends, lovers, people with connections. But one of its great themes is also
Read full story at: Tuned In
Posted: January 14th, 2013
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