History Series / Girls

-->'''Charlie''': [[CompletelyMissingThePoint ...what gay man?]]

* BingeMontage: The opening to "Role-Play." RealityEnsues when Hannah throws up all over herself and one of her work friends has to take her home and clean her up.

* {{Deconstruction}}: An absolutely scathing one of both ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' and romantic comedies in general, mostly with a touch of RealityEnsues. In particular, we have the following:

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: In Season 5's "Homeward Bound", Ray drives his coffee van all the way upstate after Hannah breaks up with Fran at the beginning[[note]]and, as it turns out, end[[/note]] of their summer road trip, to take her back to Brooklyn, noting that this is costing him a lot of money. Shortly after they get underway, Hannah takes it upon herself to give him a blowjob while he's driving as a way of thanking him, even though he suggests she doesn't have to, and when he tries to put his hand on her head tells him not to as that's a "trigger" for her.[[note]]Incredibly, with [[https://althouse.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-lena-dunham-character-on-girls.html one exception]], most recaps of the show (written by women) downplayed the clear lack of consent.[[/note]]. This distraction [[RealityEnsues naturally makes him crash the van and roll it over at the side of the road]][[note]]; [[https://fanfare.metafilter.com/6507/Girls-Homeward-Bound Some viewers]] even blamed Ray for the accident on the grounds that he had ''later consented to the blowjob by closing his eyes''[[/note]] where, to add insult to injury, Hannah taunts Ray about him not getting aroused and then hitches a ride home while ... it's ''[[PlayedForLaughs played for laughs]]''.

* RealityEnsues: Shoshanna breaks up with Ray when she realizes that OppositesAttract can't work out when the people in the relationship have fundamentally different temperaments and values.

Supporting characters include Adam Sackler (Creator/AdamDriver), an awkward carpenter and actor; Ray Plochansky (Alex Karpovsky), manager of a coffee shop and about ten years older than the rest of the cast; Elijah Krantz (Creator/AndrewRannells), whose LastHetRomance was with Hannah; and Tad and Loreen Horvath (Peter Scolari and Becky Ann Baker), Hannah's long-suffering parents. CastCalculus being what it is, basically every character except Hannah's parents has had a flirtation with at least two of the girls. (Yes, even Elijah.)

* ChubbyChaser: Hannah accuses her co-worker, Joe, of behaving this way in the midst of her [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech scathing speech]] to her co-workers and boss at GQ and then quits.

* WomenAreWiser: Borderline inverted. Oftentimes, the men on the show seem to have it more together than the women, as evidenced by Hannah's interactions with Adam and Ray.

* BlackRepublican: In Season 2, the liberal Hannah ends up in a brief relationship with Sandy (Creator/DonaldGlover), who was not only Republican but also a TokenMinority, which meant that he was contrasted with the liberal white people, especially Hannah.

** Hannah starts the series as a self-centered AdultChild unable to hold down a job that didn't excite her, take responsibility or put anyone above herself, continually getting wrapped up in toxic relationships. By the final season, she [[spoiler:realizes that New York has caused her nothing but misery, ends things permanently with Adam when she realizes it's over between them, gets closure with her old friendships, accepts a regular job teaching in a boring area and finally becomes an adult in order to provide for her child]].
** Marnie, who spends most of the series a narcissistic, manipulative ControlFreak, spirals out of control [[spoiler:when she gets divorced and winds up humiliated, jobless and homeless]], which makes her a bit more humble and self-aware, and decides to continue seeking her own path.
** Jessa starts the series a flighty, flaky bohemian unable to hold a job and proud of her toxic presence in relationships. By the end, she comes to terms with her own toxic, manipulative behavior, decides to start working on herself, and accepts that she really does need love in [[spoiler:Adam]].
** Shoshanna starts the series naive, insecure, and extremely ambitious, and spends most of the show getting dumped on by the other characters. She ends the series the most focused and successful of the girls, [[spoiler:engaged and living the life of her dreams, and strong enough to end things with the others on her own terms, calling them out on their toxicity]].

* '''Jessa Johansson''' (Jemima Kirke), a [[TheDrifter drifting]], [[GranolaGirl Bohemian]] Brit who returns to New York after a bit of traveling around. She has a reputation for being unpredictable and flaky.
* '''Shoshanna Shapiro''' (Zosia Mamet), Jessa's American cousin. An excitable [[TheIngenue ingenue]], Shoshanna is extremely insecure about being a virgin, and despite having the most ambition and goals of the girls, she has the least clear idea of what she wants from her life.

The tituar [[TitleDrop girls]] are:

* CerebusSyndrome: The show gets significantly darker and more dramatic in the second season, dealing with Ray and Shoshanna's relationship degrading, Hannah's stress over her book deal that leads to a nightmarish OCD breakdown,

* YourCheatingHeart: There's quite a bit of infidelity going around, though the creators have outright stated that the affairs aren't usually romanticized infidelity, but a consequence of the characters wanting out of their relationships but being too [[AdultChild immature]] to just communicate this to their partner.

* WomenAreWiser: Completely averted.

->''"I think I might be the voice of my generation. Or at least '''a''' voice of '''a''' generation."''

->''"I think I might be the voice of my generation. Or at least ''a'' voice of ''a'' generation."''

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Despite having a real, passionate relationship and seemingly being an OfficialCouple, [[spoiler:Adam gets a new girlfriend and moves her into his apartment within a month of Hannah leaving for Iowa. It didn't help that the two of them agreed to have only sporadic contact, and Jessa manipulated him into a new relationship for her own benefit.]]

* AmbitionIsEvil: Shoshanna often gets criticism for trying to improve her life and getting a great career as something of an obsession with image and short-sightedness, such as Jessa deriding her "15-year plan" as Jessa herself only lives day to day. The series itself isn't as critical, however, [[spoiler:and Shoshanna ends up in the best position out of all of them, with a loving fiance, good job and lots of caring friends.]]
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Downplayed. [[spoiler:Getting pregnant doesn't change Hannah that much at first, and she gets a devastating TheReasonYouSuckSpeech flatly telling her that she'll be a terrible mother. However, the pregnancy does end up being a driving force in her finally growing up, and the final scene shows that her son is someone she can finally, unequivocally put above herself.]]
* BadassBoast: Booth Jonathan delivers one when hitting on Marnie, informing her that he's going to have sex with her at some point and might scare her when he does, because "I'm a man, and I know how to do things". [[spoiler:Subverted, because though they do hook up eventually, it turns out he's not nearly the SexGod he implies he is.]]

* BingeMontage: The opening to "Role-Play". RealityEnsues when Hannah throws up all over herself and one of her work friends has to take her home and clean her up.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The girls start drifting apart, which ends up permanent in the final episode. Shoshanna moves on with her life after cutting ties with the rest of the group. Hannah and Jessa reconcile enough to respectfully decide to end their friendship, and Hannah moves upstate with a steady job and preparing for her new baby, and though she and Marnie reconcile, things will never be back to the way they were, but Hannah has more or less grown up and finally put someone else above herself. The second-to-last episode, considered by many to be the real "ending" of the show and the leads, ends with the girls spending one final happy moment together as they dance the night away, before Hannah moves away and prepares for the next stage in her life.]]

** In "Close-Up", Mimi-Rose blithely reveals to Adam that she aborted a pregnancy by him the day before. She asks him if he had wanted a child, and he says "Maybe". She points out that they have only been living together for seven weeks, which doesn't seem like a long enough time to have made that decision together. He responds that his parents got married after only having known each other for a week, however.
** "American Bitch" is initially set up this way, a tense, episode-long back-and-forth between Hannah and an author she had admired. Hannah's right in that there was an inherent power imbalance between Chuck and his fans and the dangers that come with speaking out, but she concedes to Chuck's point of the dangers of ruining a person with encounters that were consensual, especially by someone like Hannah who was not involved, uninterested in the other side and unaware of all the details. [[spoiler:Though this is all turned on its head at the end, when Hannah, who had felt in control and assertive during the confrontation, ends up [[ItMakesSenseInContext touching his penis]], with Chuck downright delighted that he tricked her into doing it so easily.]]
* BrokenAesop: After being involved in a semi-adulterous situation, Jessa is told "You're doing it to distract yourself from becoming the person you're supposed to be." Jessa plunges into commitment by [[spoiler: marrying Thomas-John, a guy she's barely known and who had one cameo on the show until their wedding. Because nothing says committed like a Vegas style wedding.]]

* CerebusCallBack: Jessa's actions in "What Will We Do This Time About Adam?" mirror her actions in the first season's "Vagina Panic," smoking and going to a bar to hook up with a random stranger in the bathroom. Whereas the first time was casually lighthearted and a show of her free-spirited attitude, the latter is much more lonely and painful to watch as she breaks down into tears, sickened and lonely from [[spoiler:Adam briefly leaving her to rekindle his relationship with Hannah, proving to [[InsecureLoveInterest her]] that she's second-best, but still wants and needs him.]]

** Hannah starts the series as a self-centered AdultChild unable to hold down a job that didn't excite her, take responsibility or put anyone above herself, continually getting wrapped up in toxic relationships. By the final season, she [[spoiler:realizes that New York has caused her nothing but misery, ends things permanently with Adam when she realizes it's over between them, gets closure with her old friendships, accepts a regular job teaching in a boring area and finally becomes an adult in order to provide for her child.]]
** Marnie, who spends most of the series a narcissistic, manipulative ControlFreak, spirals out of control [[spoiler:when she gets divorced and winds up humiliated, jobless and homeless,]] which makes her a bit more humble and self-aware, and decides to continue seeking her own path.
** Jessa starts the series a flighty, flaky bohemian unable to hold a job and proud of her toxic presence in relationships. By the end, she comes to terms with her own toxic, manipulative behavior, decides to start working on herself, and accepts that she really does need love in [[spoiler:Adam.]]
** Shoshanna starts the series naive, insecure, and extremely ambitious, and spends most of the show getting dumped on by the other characters. She ends the series the most focused and successful of the girls, [[spoiler:engaged and living the life of her dreams, and strong enough to end things with the others on her own terms, calling them out on their toxicity.]]

* ConvenientMiscarriage: An inversion; [[spoiler:Jessa has her period on the day of a scheduled abortion.]]

* DeusExMachina: Hannah's fate in the final season. [[spoiler:She ends up getting interviewed for and accepting a cushy job as a professor upstate despite only having a bachelor's degree, [[InformedAbility apparently good writing]] and some spotty freelancing experience, with the department completely unconcerned with her lack of relevant experience, education or her advanced pregnancy (which has disqualified many real women looking for work).]] Real-life writers immediately lambasted the arc, pointing to the high unemployment rate for academics and the unfortunate trend of unpaid work, even for someone with years of experience and a graduate degree, arguing that it would be unlikely for Hannah to qualify for the job at all, much less receive benefits or make enough money to afford a house and support a family considering her relatively light course load.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler:Despite one last-ditch effort to reconnect with original LoveInterest Adam, Hannah realizes it's truly over and moves to upstate New York alone.]]

** After spending much of the series being dumped on by characters and the plot alike, Shoshanna ends the series with a fiance, good job, and plenty of nice new friends. [[spoiler:Though she uses all of these things to coldly suggest that the group permanently disband, as their dynamic has been destructive and toxic.]]
** Hannah in the final scene of the show [[spoiler:with her baby latching on to breastfeed. The look on her face makes it clear that she's finally, unequivocally put someone above herself.]]

* TheFellowshipHasEnded: The leads begin to drift apart as the series wears on, especially after [[spoiler:Jessa begins a relationship with Adam, which devastates Hannah, and Shoshanna comes to terms with how toxic their friendships are. At the end of the final season, Jessa and Hannah reconcile enough to mutually end their friendship and Shoshanna ends things with the group after a devastating TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. Marnie follow Hannah upstate to her new job, but Loreen convinces her to chase her own dreams so that she won't resent Hannah.]]

** [[spoiler: Jessa and Thomas-John the venture capitalist, in the first season finale. A definite deconstruction, since it doesn't end well.]]
** Implied with [[spoiler:Shoshanna and Byron,]] the former stating at the engagement party that it hasn't been long since they got together, with the relationship not developing onscreen. It's portrayed as being at least somewhat more optimistic than the above marriage, with the latter a NiceGuy.

* HeroicBSOD: Hannah holes herself up in her bedroom under a blanket and refuses to eat or shower [[spoiler:after learning that within a month of her leaving, Adam has already gotten a new girlfriend, moved her in and removed all of Hannah's possessions.]]

* HopeSpot: Charlie reappears in season five at the exact moment Marnie is at her wit's end with Desi. [[spoiler:After sharing a romantic evening together, Charlie suggests they run away together, an idea Marnie seriously considers as an out of her own unhappy life and marriage... Until she finds his heroin needle and realizes it's impossible.]]

* InstantHumiliationJustAddYoutube: Marnie's "What I Am" music video. ''Oof.''

** After [[spoiler:Shoshanna's icy TheReasonYouSuckSpeech effectively ending the group in her apartment's bathroom, Hannah announces that she's also fed up with the other girls and her decision to move to upstate New York is now cemented.]] Then Elijah pops in, crudely announcing that he got the lead role in ''White Men Can't Jump.''

* NeverTrustATrailer: Judd Apatow and the people he works with have always dealt with this, and ''Girls'' is no exception. Hannah's "I think I may be the voice of my generation" line was heavily pushed by HBO's marketing department when the series premiered. However, in its corresponding episode, the line (and, thus, that entire notion) is immediately ''subverted''. Specifically, [[spoiler: Hannah says it while high on opium. And she immediately retracts it once she realizes, through the dirty looks her parents give her in response, how stupid it sounds.]] Lena Dunham herself has openly stated that ''Girls'' is not at all a Generation Y manifesto but simply a look at the trials and tribulations of four specific twenty-something year old women trying to make it big in NYC. The show's surprisingly broad fanbase (encompassing everybody from 18 year old girls to 55 year old men) speaks for itself.
* NoBisexuals: Discussed with Elijah [[spoiler: when he has sex with Marnie.]]

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted. Marnie and Hannah swap stories about the regularity (Marnie) and irregularity (Hannah) of theirs, [[spoiler: and then there's Jessa's very convenient one.]]

** Marnie and Charlie reconnect by chance in the middle of season five, but after a romantic night together, she ultimately leaves in the morning [[spoiler:after learning he's a liar and an addict.]]
** [[spoiler:Adam and Hannah]] reconnect near the end of the final season, with the former, learning of the latter's pregnancy, giving it one more shot. But despite still having solid chemistry and his sincere commitment to her, they ultimately realize it can't work after his anemic marriage proposal over soup in a diner, and she realizes that they have too much painful history to go on like nothing happened. [[spoiler:And the fact that he's living with Jessa when this happens.]]

* PairTheSpares: [[spoiler:Ray ends up with Shoshanna's old boss Abigail.]]

* PercussiveTherapy: Booth breaks at least two bottles of vintage wine in a cellar when he has an argument with Marnie in "Boys".

** [[BewareTheNiceOnes Shoshanna, of all people,]] puts all ''three'' of the others in their place in "The Beach House."

** Subverted when Hannah gives two failed ones to her GQ coworkers and her [[spoiler:grad school classmates]], as she quits both. The first ends up just coming off as her whining about having to work in a corporate environment instead of using her talents to spend all her time writing whatever she wants, and she lashes out against the one coworker who consistently treated her well and helped her; she recaps the incident later to acquaintances, to an unimpressed and awkward reception. In the latter [[spoiler:she's clearly bruised that she's not the star of the program that she thought she would be and not everyone loves her writing, and she goes around the room insulting everyone before awkwardly leaving.]]
** Elijah, learning of [[spoiler:Hannah's pregnancy, telling her he has no interest in helping her raise her fatherless baby and flatly telling her that she'll be a terrible mother. It hits Hannah ''hard.'']]
** In "Latching," Marnie comes upstate, ostensibly to help Hannah [[spoiler:with her new baby.]] Conveniently, she's looking for a place to live at that time, and Hannah calls her out for expecting an idealized version of them living together when Marnie "sucks at" dealing with the reality.

** Hannah and Adam in the first season. It doesn't last long though. However, they later get together and they remain together. [[spoiler:Until they break up for good, and Adam dates Jessa (and according to Dunham, [[OfficialCouple eventually marries and has kids with her]]) instead.]]

** [[spoiler:Ray hates Marnie's guts at the start of the series, but ends up getting together with her and he declares her the love of his life. None of their attempts at a relationship last, however.]]
* RewatchBonus: Rewatching ''Panic in Central Park,'' it's easier to notice how Charlie frequently leaves, typically to the bathroom, and comes back more manic than before [[spoiler:because of his heroin addiction.]]

* SexAsRiteOfPassage: Shoshanna's a virgin, and very insecure about being such, so this is bound to come up. [[spoiler: In the finale of season one, she finally loses her virginity to Ray.]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: As a FourGirlEnsemble dramedy set in New York that airs on HBO, it's naturally one to ''Series/SexAndTheCity''. [[ShoutOut Shoshanna even has a poster of the SATC movie in her apartment, and designates Jessa as a Carrie/Samantha.]]

* UnusualEuphemism: Hannah complains "I have been dating someone who treats my heart like it's monkey meat". Just what does it mean to treat something like monkey meat? Isn't that real stupid to say, especially coming from someone who graduated college with an English major?

** Joshua, Hannah's onetime fling, casually informing her that [[spoiler:she's pregnant in the last season.]]

*** After she's accepted into the highly competitive grad school of her dreams, [[spoiler:she moves to Iowa and gets a nice place, but can't cope with any criticism and chafes with the other students when she realizes that she's not immediately made the coveted star of the program. After blowing up at the other students and giving an ItsAllAboutMe apology, she realizes she's not cut out for grad school and leaves after only one month... only to get salt rubbed in the wound when she returns to New York and find out that her stuff is gone, and Adam has moved his surprise new girlfriend into her old apartment. Ouch.]]

** "American Bitch" is initially set up this way, a tense, episode-long back-and-forth between Hannah and an author she had admired. Hannah's right in that there was an inherent power imbalance between Chuck and his fans and the dangers that come with speaking out, but she concedes to Chuck's point of the dangers of ruining a person with encounters that were consensual, especially by someone like Hannah who was not involved, uninterested in the other side and unaware of all the details. [[spoiler:Though this is all turned on its head at the end, when Hannah, who had felt in control and assertive during the confrontation, ends up [[ItMakesSenseInContext touching his penis]], with Chuck downright delighted that he tricked her into doing it so easily.]]]]

That ''[[Series/SexAndTheCity other]]'', more grounded {{Creator/HBO}} series starring a FourGirlEnsemble living in [[BigApplesauce New York City]], ''Girls'' is a dramedy co-produced (with Creator/JuddApatow), written by, and starring Creator/LenaDunham which follows the lives of four young women transitioning into full-blown adulthood. The show ran for six seasons from 2012 to 2017.

''Girls'' is an {{Creator/HBO}} dramedy about the exploits of four young women living in [[BigApplesauce New York City]]. To most, this concept sounds [[Series/SexAndTheCity very familiar]], but the result is decidedly less glamorous (and probably a bit more realistic) than that ''other'' FourGirlEnsemble that previously aired on the channel. The show ran for six seasons from 2012 to 2017.

Co-produced (with Creator/JuddApatow), written by, and starring Creator/LenaDunham, the show follows the lives of four young women transitioning into full-blown adulthood. The [[TitleDrop girls]] are:

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: In "Close-Up", Mimi-Rose blithely reveals to Adam that she aborted a pregnancy by him the day before. She asks him if he had wanted a child, and he says "Maybe". She points out that they have only been living together for seven weeks, which doesn't seem like a long enough time to have made that decision together. He responds that his parents got married after only having known each other for a week, however.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After spending much of the series being dumped on by characters and the plot alike, Shoshanna ends the series with a fiance, good job, and plenty of nice new friends. [[spoiler:Though she uses all of these things to coldly suggest that the group permanently disband, as their dynamic has been destructive and toxic.]]

* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Jessa and Thomas-John the venture capitalist, in the first season finale. A definite deconstruction, since it doesn't end well.]]

* OldFlameFizzle: Marnie and Charlie reconnect by chance in the middle of season five, but after a romantic night together, she ultimately leaves in the morning [[spoiler:after learning he's a liar and an addict.]]

* RelationshipUpgrade: Hannah and Adam in the first season. It doesn't last long though. However, they later get together and they remain together. [[spoiler:Until they break up for good, and Adam dates Jessa (and according to Dunham, [[OfficialCouple eventually marries and has kids with her]]) instead.]]

* WhamLine: Jessa's employer in the middle of a [[spoiler: MercyKilling]]:

* YankTheDogsChain: Right as Shoshanna is really becoming comfortable, happy, and fulfilled in her job in Tokyo, she gets laid off. The creators outright stated in an interview that they couldn't let Shoshanna be ''too'' happy.

** In episode 5, after Hannah sabotaged Charlie and Marnie's relationship by saying the two don't belong in her journal or diary or whatever she calls it, Marnie tries to make Hannah apologize and admit what she did was wrong. Hannah just continues to [[Fat Bastard eat cereal and]] [[JerkassBall belittles Marnie with her mouth full]].

** In episode 5, after Hannah sabotaged Charlie and Marnie's relationship by saying the two don't belong in her journal or diary or whatever she calls it, Marnie tries to make Hannah apologize and admit what she did was wrong. Hannah just continues to eat cereal and belittles Marnie with her mouth full.

* FatAndSkinny: Hannah is fat, Marnie is skinny.

* RewatchBonus: Rewatching ''Panic in Central Park,'' it's easier to notice how Charlie frequently leaves, typically got the bathroom, and comes back more manic than before [[spoiler:because of his heroin addiction.]]

* BasementDweller: Hannah was this until the show's pilot without choice. Having given up looking for work after only one failed job interview, she runs back to her parents demanding continued payments for her rent and food which only makes them laugh, then lose their temper.

* CerebusSyndrome: The show's gotten significantly darker and more dramatic in the 2nd season

---> '''Hannah:''' Joe, what do you want from me? Does it, like, make you feel good to have a chubby girl paying attention to you? I am not the right conquest

-->'''Jessa''': I know what you are.
-->'''Thomas-John''': Oh do you?

** Hannah grows out of her immaturity and finds success as a writer. She also becomes an adult, becomes kinder and more accepting of the people around her.
** Marnie remains somewhat self-centered by the end of the series, she is becoming much mroe self aware and growing out of her entitlement.
** Averted with Jessa. Aside from settling in a monogamous relationship, Jessa remains the most static out of the main four.
** Shoshanna turns out the best of the four. She becomes the most satisfied with life, and becomes much more secure and focused in her life and what she is looking for.

* TheFellowshipHasEnded: [[spoiler:The group begins to drift apart later in the show, and in the final season, a meetup without Hannah just feels awkward and forced. This culminates in Shoshanna's engagement party, where she gives an icy, devastating TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in the bathroom in the penultimate episode, stating firmly that the group's dynamic has become so toxic and tiresome that it would be better to just "call it [quits]". Shoshanna ends her friendship with the group, and Jessa and Hannah decide to mutually call it quits; in the finale, where only Hannah and Marnie appear, Loreen encourages her to chase after her dreams and not spend her life supporting Hannah, as she did the same thing for her own best friend for decades and ended up resenting and hating her, making it likely that Marnie will ultimately end up doing the same.]]

* '''Shoshanna Shapiro''' (Zosia Mamet), Jessa's American cousin. An excitable [[TheIngenue ingenue]], Shoshanna is extremely insecure about being a virgin, and has the least clear idea of what she wants from her life.

** FriendsRentControl: Several arcs and motivations are kicked off because people can't afford their lifestyles.[[note]]This is played with as many characters have no problem finding jobs whenever the plot demands, many of which still couldn't support their rent.[[/note]]