I’ve been enjoying “Girls” quite a bit. Dunham’s hilarious and her writing’s great. It provides awkward moments that are actually organic, as opposed to the lazy comedy tropes in recent years of characters just creating awkward situations out of thin air and saying things as if they’re not aware they’re even human beings.

The reactions to it, particularly the negative ones, have been a bit silly. The all-white principal cast has been unfairly singled out, even though the bigger problem is television and society as a whole. Others have complained of it as a show about privilege, which, exactly. That’s a theme of the show. It opens with her parents cutting her off and the fit that she throws about it. Criticizing Lena Dunham’s character for being privileged is like taking “All in the Family” to task because that Archie Bunker is just so bitter and racist and dumb!

The best and most laughably pathetic attempt to deride the show, though, comes from this meme:

I bet being the daughter of the drummer of the 1970s band Bad Company(!) really opened a lot of doors for that actress! Because he’s such a player, that guy that drummed for that band that had one hit album thirty or forty years ago. Oh, and let’s not forget about the fact that Lena Dunham is the daughter of an artist you and Hollywood and HBO have never heard of. Also, hey, check out Mamet’s daughter. I bet that helped her out quite a bit since he’s such an affable and congenial fella.

Sorry you’re not that talented and nobody likes your boring pitches, assholes on the internet. But don’t take it out on Lena Dunham.

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7 Responses to Assholes on the Internet Hilariously Miss the Point of “Girls”

  1. MeghanButler says:

    hahahaha. and i love you, k marshall. 

  2. J Eric Smith says:

    I watched “Tiny Furniture” and found it painful . . . I’d actively run from most Lena Dunham projects based on that experience, even though my beloved is actually enjoying “Girls” too. On the flipside, I’ve listened to a lot of Bad Company over the years,  so if that’s actually Simon Kirke’s daughter, then that captures my attention . . . not for the show, mind you, but I’m totally going to go listen to “Rock n’ Roll Fantasy” now.

    • kevinmarshall says:

      They called themselves “Bad Company,” released a single called “Bad Company,” and put it on an LP called “Bad Company.”
      That’s power right there.

      • J Eric Smith says:

         Damn straight . . . them and Black Sabbath are in rare company in that regard. Believe it or not, Bad Co. were viewed as a supergroup at the time given their prior gigs, and they’re actually pretty darn good, with quite a few hit albums and singles under their belts . . .

  3. kevinmarshall says:

    They called themselves “Bad Company,” released a single called “Bad Company,” and put it on an LP called “Bad Company.”

    That’s power right there.

  4. Roger Green says:

    For the record: 1) I haven’t seen Girls, and probably won’t for a while, since I don’t have HBO, 2) I’ve read more about this show I’ve never seen since Lost went off the air, and 3) I think, in general, the diversity argument is a legitimate concern, as this person notes:   http://thomwade.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/girls-incognito/

    • kevinmarshall says:

      In general, yes. I agree. I noted it there. But I understand, though don’t condone, the manner in which one of the staff writers defended it.

      The problem here is that “Girls” is simply representative of a larger problem in media and society. There’s a very real cultural segregation in our society, where people put on racial blinders in their day to day activities. That transfers to film and television and results in what we see: shows set in New York and LA where blacks and other minorities are all but invisible. And I loathe when the discussion gets poo-pooed by defensive white people who think someone’s simply being reactionary in asking serious and real questions. For them, post-racial  and “colorblind” is their way of saying “can’t we all just pretend racial make-ups don’t exist and just act like everyone’s white?”

      But my point was and is that to single “Girls” out and indict it specifically for this larger phenomena reeks of unfairness and inconsistency with just a hint of misogyny. Of the litany of shows that have premiered in the last two years with all-white principle casts, why this one? Is it simply because of privilege? I doubt it, because nobody made a peep about “Entourage.”

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