After seeing The Rise of Skywalker twice, I wanted more Adam Driver media to consume. His portrayal of Kylo Ren was outstanding. One of Adam Driver’s roles was in the HBO series Girls, written by Lena Dunham. After getting access to Amazon Prime, I decided to dive right into watching this show. Many of the main characters in Girls are extremely unlikable. This made me wonder, to what extent do our characters have to be “likeable” to be able to sympathize with them?
Before I go through answering this question, I wanted to provide background on this show. Girls is a Sex in the City for this generation. It tells the story of four 20-something’s living in NYC after graduating from college. Hannah (played by Lena Dunham), Marnie (played by Allison Williams), Jessa (played by Jemima Kirke), and Shoshanna (played by Zosia Mamet) are the main characters this show focuses on. The girls go through breakups, hookups, and career shakeups throughout the series.
Each of the four girls is unlikable in a different way. Hannah can be selfish regarding her view on relationships. Marnie can be super judgmental. Jessa is flaky, and Shoshanna talks extremely fast to the point where it’s hard to carry on a conversation with her. It became difficult to continue in the series because I never felt I could relate to their struggles.
There are a couple of shows I like where the characters aren’t likeable, but I’m not sure what makes Girls different. For example, I watch The Big Bang Theory. However, if you pay closer attention to the four male friends, they make fatphobic jokes towards Howard’s mother and act misogynistically towards women they find attractive. I like the show, but the characters can be awful at times.
One reason why I believe Girls became hard to watch was because I didn’t see the girls maturing into better human beings. Hannah can’t take personal criticism when she goes off to graduate school. Marnie sleeps with men in relationships while Jessa is rude to her friends. Shoshanna is probably the most likable girl in the bunch, but I don’t see her maturing either. For me, I don’t want perfect characters in media, but I want to see them learn from their mistakes and become better human beings. I didn’t feel this way from watching Girls.
Let’s go back to Adam Driver’s character. His character is also named Adam, and for most of the show, he’s dating Hannah. Adam’s character is a douchebag who only sees Hannah as a hookup. He’s a slob and has quite a bit of growing up to do. As the seasons progress, Adam starts to develop. In season #2, we find out Adam is in AA. This information makes me love Adam’s character. When Hannah is having an OCD episode, Adam makes his way across the city to comfort her. Adam isn’t a perfect character, but he’s the only character who has grown up throughout the seasons.
I stopped watching Girls mid-way through season #4 because I discovered this show wasn’t for me. I don’t regret watching the show because I believe Girls does a couple of things right. The sex positivity in this show is what makes watching the first couple of seasons worth it. Lena Dunham doesn’t have the stereotypical Hollywood body, and it’s refreshing to see a different body type on TV. Some of the sex scenes were hard to watch, while other scenes felt accurate.
If you want to watch Girls because of Adam Driver, go for it. I recommend watching seasons #1-#3 because that’s where you will see the best of Adam Driver.
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