Every HBO Comedy Ranked From Worst To Best

Lena Dunham’s coming of age series did a bang up job of irritating older viewers who seethed because they couldn’t relate to a story of four young women making mistakes in New York City. That’s fine - Girls really wasn’t for them. For other viewers, this was an incisive, often uncomfortably recognisable show that mixed the mundane with the deeply serious and troubling.

Dunham’s aspiring writer Hannah and her cohorts told stories preoccupied with youthful concerns - stagnant careers, unfulfilling love and sex lives - but did so in a more honest and hard hitting way than most NYC hangout sitcoms that deal with similar themes. The acting was naturalistic and often great, with a star making turn from Adam Driver.

When the show got serious, it could tackle sexual assault, consent, and mental health in stark and mature fashion. Girls strayed away from conventional story structure, and often failed to offer neat conclusions or lessons, allowing the viewer to make their own conclusions.

Its flak for focussing almost exclusively on privileged white folks is reasonable, but even if the casting wasn’t exactly inclusive, the stories told were recognisable by viewers of all stripes.