It Girls

Lena Dunham's brainchild has officially won me over. HBO's Girls, in which she plays struggling writer Hannah, as well as director, producer and writer for the series, was so good that I no longer consider Gossip Girl my favorite show. (WHAT?!?) I've watched every single episode of Girls, some of them more than once, and each was more hilariously raw, real, and somehow relatable than the next. 

With my former love, GG, it's easy to pick my favorite female character. Blair, obviously, because try as Serena and her ever prominent cleavage might, they can never match up to B's scathing one liners. With these four, though, I couldn't even begin to pick a favorite. I see a bit of myself in each of them. I think all girls will, and I think that was Dunham's goal. Jessa goes through life barely trying and still manages to charm the pants off everyone she meets with her endless wavy hair, killer style, and British accent.  Marnie, the uptight overplanner is classically beautiful and always seems to follow the rules, even when she doesn't want to. Hannah is the only one who gives the impression that she can pinpoint what she wants, to be a writer, but is caught somewhere between believing in her abilities and being dangerously hard on herself. In the dramatic season finale, she admits she's "more scared than any other person on earth." Shoshanna, hyper fast talking Shosh, is still a virgin and it's painfully obvious. Everything about her, from her teenager-y ensembles to her girly bedroom complete with a Sex and the City poster, is sickly sweet.

Not only are the characters more familiar and endearing than those in Gossip Girl, they are noticeably less calculated. So are, for that matter, the dialogue, situations, and New York City itself. GG seems like a fantasy world, something you could aspire to but never attain. The lives of these girls are never something you'd aim for, but if you found yourself in their most-likely-not-designer shoes, you'd have no choice but to laugh and embrace it.

I've never ditched my own abortion to hook up with a stranger in a bar bathroom or gotten married on a whim, never drank so much champagne that I made out with Bobby Moynihan, never got peed on in the shower, and never ran pantsless down the street after accidentally smoking crack. I probably (hopefully) never will, but I was thoroughly entertained living vicariously through Jessa, Marnie, Hannah and Shosh and learning from their mistakes. Ignore all those spoilers and watch the full season marathon Saturday on HBO.

Right now I'm about to search for Lena Dunham's film, Tiny Furniture. Vogue just named her It Girl in the July issue, so I'm not about to question my new obsession with her, only feed it.