I watch Girls on HBO like I watch a train wreck. The characters on it have such incredibly horrible social skills I am embarrassed. So why do I watch these twenty-somethings with bad social skills and seriously questionable morals?
I don’t know. Lena Dunham, star and producer of Girls, hosted SNL last Saturday and did not disappoint with the socially inappropriate. Yet, you can’t help laughing. Perhaps Girls is the ultimate in cognitive dissonance. Perhaps it is like laughing when someone falls, even though you know you shouldn’t and if your mother saw you she would slap the crap out of you.
Who else watches? What are some of the best series shows now?
I flipped through the SNL show, more or less watched it. I thought it was funnier than usual (it’s not very funny this year). Not hilarious, but at least mildly interesting.
“Girls” disappointed me this week; totally unlikeable behavior throughout, and not funny or incisive. Hard to watch, and pointless. It appeared to me the way you usually describe it. I fear that it may have jumped the shark. But, these episodic shows sometimes have a slow episode that makes everyone think it’s a dead fish, and then bounce back strong.
When the show works, it is illustrating what it’s like to be a young twenty-something in the big city. And what it’s like to be a promiscuous young woman. Not really knowing what you want, and feeling your way through life. It illustrates it pretty well to me. And in funny ways.
I’ve started watching “House of Cards” on Netflix. It’s pretty addictive. It’s ridiculous, but fun. Kevin Spacey is an influential and wildly manipulative Senator, angry at being passed over for Secretary of State, and deviously laying long-term plans to f the President’s s up. His wife, who vacillates between manipulative genius and compassionate woman, is a great character, played by Robin Wright.
My favorite shows that are still running are :
True Detective (HBO) – truly creepy, cracked with energy. I hope it comes back for another season.
Mad Men (AMC) – Surreal and always interesting.
Girls (HBO) – At its best, sucks you right in and xshows you what the world looks like to other people.
The Walking Dead (AMC) – This season’s been quite good – much better than last year IMO. This show always keeps it interesting.
Orange is the New Black (Netflix) – Funny and compelling, great performance by the lead actress also.
Sherlock (BBC, and PBS) – This is a fun show. Each episode is movie-length, and fun, and Benedict Cumberbatch plays a great high-functioning sociopath.
Through the Wormhole (Science Channel) – The best science show I’ve ever seen – always great.
RIP Treme and Breaking Bad.
House of Cards
Orange is the New Black
Masters of Sex (about Masters & Johnson)
The Newsroom
They’re all guilty pleasures
… ok, I’ve said too much!
@Rick Bentley
I mean geeez…an entire thread dedicated to the TV and movie critic and he doesn’t even blink. LOL LOL
On the subject of Girls, I really hope educated young women aren’t that lost in space. I look at my own generation. We weren’t that socially inept and we were the cusp of traditional women vs the modern woman. We might have read Erica Jong and even tried to emulate her (I didn’t but…) but we did it with better social skills. Maybe the social skills came from our traditional mothers. I am just not sure. I just expect more out of young people. These girls are really losers.
@Rick Bentley
HOuse of Cards is totally great. I did some serious binge watching. first I looked at season one again and then I hit season 2. I can’t wait for season 3.
Sunday School was never like this.
Maybe you just didn’t go to the right Sunday School?
My Sunday School was never like that either, Wolve.
I’m up to episode 13 of HOC. I think you’ve got some real waiting to do before Season 3, I think it’s going to be a year or so.
On “Girls”, I think probably young people these days are more “lost in space” than your generation or mine were. The four characters on “Girls” are arguably misfits to one extent or another, but … finding their place. They generally don’t hurt anyone and have some self-awareness. I don’t really get why you dislike them so much. (Except for Jenna, who is totally unlikable. Hannah is smart and funny, if prone to selfish behavior).
I am embarrassed for their social gaucheness and lack of social skills. It is like they are unaware of other people. Part of the reasons we are all taught manners is so everyone can have the same set of social rules and no one will be uncomfortable. Their apparent lack of back manners just make the entire show awkward. Its like a bad frat party except with girls.
I don’t think they’re as bad as all that. Though the central character is a narcissist.
Hannah is self-centered, but gentle and harmless. She seems on track to be a success in life, albeit with a host of STDs in her body.
Marnie is pretty, looking for direction in life, and her worst trait seems to be being a bad friend or girlfriend – uses her looks or innate likeability to manipulate people towards her ends.
Shoshanna has lead a sheltered life and tends to live in her own head. And babbles a lot. She is awkward, but wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Jessa is an irresponsible drug addict who lives for the moment.
I am watching the beach episode as we speak. I am sitting here thinking to myself, would I have hung out with any of these people in high school? college? young adult? work? old adult. NO NO NO NO. not the girls and not the males–straight or gay.
Hannah isn’t harmless. I can’t tell you why she isn’t but she just isn’t. The fact that she is a walking STD factory is one reason.
Adam is strange and damaged, and antisocial. He wants to appear wordly, and takes a mentor approach to Hannah though they have both come to understand that he probably needs her around more than she needs him. Hannah and Adam are sexually uninhibited, to the point of grotesqueness; it’s how they learned to interact with the opposite sex, the thing that brought them at least somewhat out of their shells.
Ray is extremely cynical, though we see his soft underbelly that wants to be in a committed relationship.
And that’s the show.
Ray is the most normal and that in itself is sick.
Well, he’s the one who’s most like someone that you or i would have grown up with – and in fact the character is supposed to be a little older than the rest are.
Would you have associated with anyone like that? Shudder. (ppppssssst-Rick I bet you were way too cool)
I would have walked across the street to avoid all of them including whiney broken heart who is at least semi socially …trained.
I think I am boxing myself in as a snob.
Well, I would have wanted Hannah for a friend, because she is quite witty. Ray also to some extent.
Jessa and Adam I would avoid.
Marnie being quite attractive and also a bit lost i would certainly have wanted to cozy up to.
Rick, you are a better person than I am. I would have avoided all of them. Maybe its generational also.