GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

i saw this btw it was decently funny except when they talked about facebook so you'd know they know where the hands have come to on the clock

the shirtless boyfriend almost offended me on behalf of my gender but nah i'm sure that's how half of us behave

couldn't stop thinking about how small his head was relative to his torso

I know right! First thing I said when I saw him, his head does not go with that body.

i do think this show will kinda stack up better after a while. it's weird to think about it in terms of sympathy, or in terms of realism; there was maybe not a moment but a point in tiny furniture at which it became apparent that she wasn't shooting for a story but for a pretty cynical, i guess sorta self-loathing critique, and that that was the POV it had, on her generation, or on being stupid & in your twenties, rather than the whole thing being a charming or compelling portrait of the individual characters.

i keep wanting to bring up nicole holofcener but more for the sake of it than anything.

ha, no that's p otm

Every wall in NYC seems to carry an advert for this programme. Every free magazine in Brooklyn talks about it. And even the UK Guardian is banging on about it. It is quite sad not to be able to watch it.

btw in the main pic the Lena chick looks better than the other 3, I wonder if she knows this

pinefox, search 'girls hbo' on youtube and you can watch the whole first ep

watching this show made me glad to not be in my 20s, in that i could relate to some of the awkwardness, but mostly i felt like i was watching a show not meant for me. and that's okay.

brian williams' daughter's legs are the best thing about that pic imo, lena looks like she's trying a little too hard to convey the tone of the entire show in her posture and facial expression

ratings weren't great, got less viewers than eastbound & down

watching this made me think about Solondz and how i think his films are genius, but perhaps that's an unfair comparison since Dunham's film/show isn't full-on satire. though it kind of is.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2012/04/12/hbo-s-girls-is-the-best-new-tv-show-of-2012/_jcr_content/body/inlineimage.img.503.jpg/1334220343607.jpg

it's seriously becoming hilarious to me that there are multiple promotional photos where she strikes that exact pose

really odd thing about the pic at the top, I belatedly realize / formulate, is that it appears to show them together, as friends, but they appear all to be in different scenes, with expressions totally unrelated to each other

the one on the left (is she the English one?), laughing at something quite other than her chums, or laughing at her chums while looking totally inappropriately away, is the one that really makes this effect a bit unnerving or annoying for me.

I do want to watch this programme (thanks Rrrobyn) but I read "Lena D and best friend interview each other" in a free Brooklyn magazine (L?) last week and it was horrendously self-aggrandizing and worthy.

ah, yes, well, it's not called Friends, it's called Girls
xp

haha i wish this show was called Happy Ladies

it's seriously becoming hilarious to me that there are multiple promotional photos where she strikes that exact pose
, lena looks like she's trying a little too hard to convey the tone of the entire show in her posture and facial expression

otm it's really annoying

tbh i was sort of wondering if that was a photographer's instruction so that shed be hiding her body

Oh, don't say that. :(

show should be called "in my world of young people"

the photo should have been staged like this imho

http://static7.depositphotos.com/1011061/785/i/950/depositphotos_7850329-Smiling-family-lying-on-floor.jpg

really odd thing about the pic at the top, I belatedly realize / formulate, is that it appears to show them together, as friends, but they appear all to be in different scenes, with expressions totally unrelated to each other

One of the things I really liked about the pilot was that it doesn't present them as some kind of artificial self-contained friend-cluster. You might come home from work and there are random dudes hanging out in your apartment.

also im beginning to wonder if any of you have ever seen publicity photos / movie posters before

oof: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/04/girls-writer-learning-theres-no-such-thing-ironic-racism/51338/

i guess that explains the meanness

yeah. btw link in Clusterfuck thread indicates that Arfin is a former Vice writer.

that yeah was to al

ah i knew that name looked familiar

multiple promotional photos where she strikes that exact pose

Her pose is always the same because it is a design feature. It conveys the stereotype her character is built around. Since the series is too new to have progressed beyond the grossest of stereotypes into nuances, the pose is still unchanged. Simple, really.

I haven't seen the show yet, but I still think she is weirdly cute.

here's the link from that thread, in the interests of completism. i agree with the writer of that article that a lot of pressure was being placed on this one show wrt lack of diversity, which makes arfin seem like that much more of an idiot. there are so many graceful ways she could have responded to the criticism.

I don't give a fuck about people of color I hate white people

x-post - otm - her responses were idiotic though.

tho I was hanging out w/ some friends last week and suddenly one of the people pointed out that we were all diff races, and then they suddenly said "this feels like the UN" and I didn't like that for some reason I dunno but I was stoned so I don't know

that is a super 1990s joke

right

i feel like someone makes it in a 90s movie. about ethnic tension in the Balkans, no less.

say Benneton ad, channel the 80s

"this feels like the UN" vs "United Colors of Benetton"
xp haha

I mean it was a single episode that had a limited number of speaking parts to begin with; if this was a season in I could understand the POC issues but like it's not shocking that an overprivileged white girl would hang out with other overprivileged white girls

godammit i wanted to make the Benetton joke

Let's all make it on 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZKszTyfubw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqTyBBit7NI

had never seen that commersh b4

nb this following rant might be totally challopsky or whatever but: the reason ppl think that ironic racism is okay to use is bc they don't really believe the sentiments that they're delivering. they're making a racist joke, but they don't really hate the group that they're making the joke about. but all kinds of racists have distance from the sentiments that they express. they tell jokes about other races that are formed by hyperbole that they don't actually agree with - they're just using it for comedic effect. or they don't hate ppl of other races, they just don't think they're as good, or as valued, or whatever. i mean, ironic racism is obv racism bc you're verbally demeaning another group of ppl to give yourself a chuckle. isn't that the entire basis of any racist joke ever, ironic or not?

multiple promotional photos where she strikes that exact pose

Her pose is always the same because it is a design feature. It conveys the stereotype her character is built around. Since the series is too new to have progressed beyond the grossest of stereotypes into nuances, the pose is still unchanged. Simple, really.

― Aimless, Thursday, April 19, 2012 1:10 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

oh i know i know, i'm not playing clueless about the nature of image and design like s1ocki was saying. i just find it funny that they've honed in on that particular body language as shorthand for post-modern urban female angst or whatever, the same way a kid might shrug with his hands out in a "who me?" pose on the poster of a broad family comedy.

"ironic" racism is about being rich and white and perceiving yourself as cosmopolitan and smart so you get to say whatever you want, in implicit contradistinction to hillbillies toting confederate flags or whatever. it's not like it's less racist than what you brand non-ironic racism among white people who are poorer than you. it doesn't mean "ironic" racists don't mean what they're saying, viz. gavin mcinnes.