I Forgot to Write my GIRLS Think Piece Till Today But Here’s My Draft!
(Jason, I need your edits on this ASAP!)
(Hi Jason — this is a rough draft but you said you need it today and I forgot to do it when you asked two weeks ago. I haven’t really been watching the show that much so pls massage the parts that need it. I bolded questions I have. Thanks! Jenna)
Wow. Can you believe that after six seasons, GIRLS is ending this weekend (Jason, check if GIRLS as a word should be all capped or like just normal, thanks)? What a run Hannah and Jessa and Marnay and Shosh have had! What GIRLS they have been!
We saw that many entertainment sites are writing numerous think pieces this week on the entire series, so the entertainment section of the site I work for asked me for my thoughts in a piece as well because I am 25 and this show is made for me. (J — should we acknowledge this is why we’re writing this?)
I want to start out by saying all bodies are beautiful. This includes Hannah’s. Seeing it on TV was beautiful. Reading comments on it was not. But this debate is important and the GIRLS insisted that we have it every Sunday night (or Sat afternoon maybe?) when it aired. Don’t look away from beautiful bodies is the message!
A little about the journey of each GIRL:
Jessa is an opium addict who has sex in bars and owns many silk kimonos (Jason, is this true she is an opium addict? Or is she troubled in some other way? Also it might be the same ONE silk kimono so fact check me on that lol). She never changes at all in the series, which you have to respect.
Marnay (Marnie -sp?) is a singer who is divorced. She is probably going to get a spin-off because she is very thin. A GIRL can dream! (Jason — too pandering to refer to myself as a GIRL in this piece? Have other writers done that before?)
I read in one of Vulture’s think pieces this week (there were so many I could only get to one!) that Shoshanna is the daughter of playwright David Mamet (J — not sure if this is Shosh’s dad or the actress’ dad). I saw a production of OLEANNA when I was 17 that made me love live theater and older men in positions of power (Jason, can you work that in more organically like tie into sex on show or something) so her story was meaningful to me.
Hannah is the MAIN GIRL and wow, she is doing it. She has worked at a coffeeshop, a magazine, a school, and another place. Someone told me she is having a baby at the end of this season which seems unexpected but who am I to tell the writers what to do haha I would hate if they did that to me! If I were to extrapolate, I would say that Hannah will be a mom like most moms I know: tired but loving probs (J — OK to generalize “moms” like this? Should I put a stat about “moms” here?)
The GIRLS’ journeys encapsulated every theme on the show: friends, STD’s, growth, dancing, streets, jobs, sex, a-bombs (abortions!!), apartments, guys, bathrooms, music, Brooklyn, food, nudity, life.
Probably the best thing about GIRLS is how it addressed the challenges of maintaining a friend group as an adult. I thought that rang very true in terms of my own experience (Jay can you paste in part of that blog I wrote three months ago on how I lit my college best friend’s house on fire at her bachelorette party by mistake but the we made up after my insurance covered it, seems relevant here). I wouldn’t want to necessarily be friends with these GIRLS, but they are very honest and real. Sometimes too real, making me ask -
Is the show satire?
Honestly, I don’t know. (J, feel free to expand this graph, I trust you!)
More than anything, GIRLS made me think as I watched. Think about things like: should I wear more jean overall shorts? How does one get an arm as thin as Marnay? Tattoos: are they good or bad looking? And THAT is what I will miss about these GIRLS — the THINKING! (J — I need to leave early today my personal essay group is going to a Paint and Drink thing in the park!!! Good to post?)
Caitlin Kunkel is a comedy writer, satirist, and famed pizza scientist. She’s one of the co-founders of The Belladonna and yeah, she knows it’s “Marnie” and not “MarnAY” no need to email her about it!!!
