Lena Dunham and HBO get it right

By SHARON STEEL | April 13, 2012

"Tell them you'll get tuberculosis in a garret if you have to," Jessa advises Hannah about her parents in the show's first episode, hinting that Hannah's discovery as an artist is just one of the many layers Girls intends to peel back. Hannah, who has just guzzled a cup of opium tea, merely stares at her, unable to process the proper response. "When I look at you, a Coldplay song plays in my heart," she finally says, before racing off to beg her parents for a bankroll to subsidize her lifestyle. Girls today live with many mixed messages, namely that they can "have it all" and that they should also feel absurdly guilty for this desire. But Girls already does have it all. Seeing it, and just thinking about it, makes me glad to be a girl, because there is bliss in finally having something that explains so perfectly why, a lot of the time, it completely sucks. ^

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ARTICLES BY SHARON STEEL

YO, JONNY! THE LOVE SONG OF JONNY VALENTINE | February 05, 2013
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LENA DUNHAM AND HBO GET IT RIGHT | April 13, 2012
When a new television show chronicling the lives of young women arrives, it tends to come packaged with the promise that it will expertly define them, both as a generation and a gender.

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LOVE'S LEXICOGRAPHER | February 10, 2011
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