not so sex(y) and the city

Girls. A new HBO series chronicling four twenty-something-year-old characters living in New York City that promises the most realistic sex on TV.  Sounds intriguing right? The plot line immediately rings a bell for every woman in America with a working cable box: Sex and the City. With trailers depicting witty banter and various sexual encounters, it was only natural that I set my standards high and hoped the series would be every bit as good as Carrie Bradshaw and her friends. And oh how I was so so wrong.

Here’s a breakdown of the show:

Girls: check. Gossip: check. Sex: check. Sexy, enviable characters with killer closets and A-list appearances: uhh.

The main character’s wardrobe consists of clothes typically found in the closet of a 60-year-old cat lady (in one episode she wore a button up sweater with cartoon peaches on it..someone get the girl a mirror!). Her makeup is always smeared in strange streaks across her face and her hair is in no particular style at all. But that’s not the worst part.

The encounters between the girls and various other characters: boyfriends, boy toys, hookups, parents and even bosses; are nothing short of awkward. Not the normal awkward, the grimace-at-the-TV-and-turn-away-in-humiliation-awkward. It physically hurts me to watch a full episode because I end up squinting so hard at the TV I give myself a headache. It’s like a train wreck you just can’t turn away from.

This is the mystique of Girls. A show so awkward it’s compelling. Series like Gossip Girl or Sex and the City showcase sex in its glammed-up version: perfect bodies and passionate kisses and clothes that seem to rip off with ease. Girls, on the other hand, paints a more realistic picture: average Jane and Joe up-close and personal (seriously, very personal) in all their awkward glory. Sure, it’s not perfect, but its this element of reality that has me hooked.

While I may cringe in sympathy pains as I watch the characters endure one unfortunate situation after another, I cannot help but tune in every Sunday at 10:30 p.m. to see what the newest episode will bring. It is a show so wrong it’s almost right (except for the sweater with peaches on it, that was sinfully wrong). Watch and decide for yourself!

~shannon~

(video taken from YouTube.com)