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You know the feelings of early-aughts nostalgia are strong when whispers of this series start cropping up again. And those whispers are now impossible to ignore, as the series that originally aired in 2012, when it took the world, and especially millennials, by storm, is back on the Top 10 Most Watched list for HBO Max. In just the last few days, it’s made its way into the #4 spot on the list, bumping Halfman farther down.
Obviously, we’re talking about Girls, the series from Lena Dunham that held millennials in a chokehold during its run on HBO. And while the show and its creator have had their fair share of controversy, it’s likely that that fact is what’s pushing it back into the spotlight. Girls centers on an aspiring writer and her three friends living in New York as they try to figure out what life looks like post-college. None of them are sure what they want or who they want it from, and drama and mess seem to follow them everywhere as they attempt to discover who they want to be.
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Sure, tons of sitcoms revolved around a group of twenty-something-year-old friends making it in the big city, but there was something unique about Girls in the way that it owned the inherent insufferability and cringe factor that surrounded each of the main characters. The series did well with critics and audiences alike, who praised it for being more honest than its contemporaries about what life was actually like at that age. Critic Kelsey Wallace says, “It’s tough to talk about something that’s already been dissected so extensively, but I will say that, for a show that is praised for being about likable but flawed characters, that is exactly what it was: likable and flawed.”
Girls made no bones about what it hoped to portray, which went over well with general audiences. “I’m watching it again, 10 years after the first time, and I’ve felt the same excitement, have the same laughs and happiness seeing it. It’s really too good. Simple, funny and good. It has a combination of struggles, complex characters, and at the same time has all the futilities of youth at that time (and some not just from that time),” said one viewer. Considering all that, it’s not actually that surprising that Girls is back to topping the charts.
Do you have a favorite moment from the series? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to see what’s going on over at the forum.
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