Lena Dunham’s new HBO comedy ‘Girls’ is no ‘Sex and the City’
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
‘Girls,’ the new HBO comedy created by and starring Lena Dunham (and executive produced by Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner) is closely based on Dunham’s own experience as a young woman in New York struggling to escape from her parents’ home and find a path to independence in recessionary America.
Although the show will inevitably invite comparisons to ‘Sex and the City,’ with its quartet of young female characters struggling with friendship, sex and work, Dunham pointed out during a panel at the Television Critics Assn. media tour in Pasadena that she, like her characters, only wish they could have the glamorous, sophisticated lives of Carrie and friends. ‘ ‘Sex and the City’ is like a ghost following us around .... [My boyfriend] in the pilot is not Mr. Big. He literally does not have bedsheets!’
Dunham’s indie movie ‘Tiny Furniture’ featured a smart, funny lead character who put herself in some self-destructive situations (among them having sex with a guy outside in a pipe). ‘Girls’ takes matters even further at times. As Dunham says, ‘I feel like I brought my desire to share my shame with the world and be comforted by how these experiences can feel universal.’
Asked by a reporter why she heaps so much humiliation on her own character instead of spreading it around, Dunham chuckled. ‘It’s something I’ve been discussing with my therapist.’
‘Girls’ premieres April 15.
RELATED:
Profile of Lena Dunham, non-slacker
Is this the season of women behaving like women?
-- Joy Press
