Wednesday, March 16, 2016

What the Problem with Girls is - and why Mistress America was much better

The HBO series Girls surely has many fans. Mostly young women in their 20s and 30s, many of whom are searching for their dreams and not quite getting there a lot of the time, the theme of the show and the lives of the four young women featured surely strikes a chord with them.

As for yours truly, I have to be honest: I just cannot see the appeal, personally. A few years ago when I first learnt about the show, I thought it was something that I would like, but after watching a season, I just quit. The reason: it was boring (sorry Lena). I concluded that it was a great idea, but not that great in practice.

Fast forward to October 2015, when the movie Mistress America came out. It was set in New York City, and was about the lives of young women trying to find their way in life. Like Girls. Except it wasn't entirely like Girls - I liked it much more. There were a lot of great quotes and observations about life, stuff that was missing from that first season of Girls I watched. Mistress America inspired thought in a way that Girls simply failed to. It now appeared that Girls had a great idea, but just did not have great execution (sorry again Lena).

To be fair, all my observations of Girls was based on Season 1, as I hadn't bothered to watch any more of it - unlike Mistress America, of which I am looking forward to watch on DVD when I have the time to. But in this world of information excess, where Season 1 was a disappointment, there's no reason to watch Season 2, right? (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).