9. Girls
Growing up has different meanings for different generations. When our parents were growing up, it meant you are out of the house at 18. As any adult of any age can attest, growing up does not end after college, but those in their late 20's/early 30's tend to take a little longer to cut the cord these days. Whether it is due to economic climate, evolving parenting styles, or simple laziness, with an ever increasing amount of possibilities for the future added to an undeserved sense of entitlement, life choices seem to have become even more difficult. That is the reason why a divisive modern show about girls who think that the world revolves around them is on this list. People of a certain age were unfortunate enough to have loving parents who made them think they were special, and therefore are dumbfounded when the rest of the world does not also immediately realize it. This self awareness sprinkled with Lena Dunham's uniquely relatable sense of humor is why people love Girls or love to hate it. Are the character's likable? Not really. Do they deserve what they get? Probably. The magic of the show is in Dunham's ability to make gradual realizations about adulthood play out in a comedic narrative. What she gets the most right though is the struggle of wanting to be thought of as an adult while still behaving like a child. Dunham almost makes the audience agree with her when asking her parents for a few hundred dollars a month, and we do not slight her when she comes to the realization that she does want to have tangible comforts in her life. Having lived in New York in My 20's, I can tell you that this does not seem unreasonable. When it comes down to it though, I cannot think of any other show on TV that speaks to a younger generation through its realism while speaking to an older one through its absurdity.