3. Girls With Balls
The self-centredness of each of the characters is made up by the fact that the show as a whole is so brilliantly self aware. Take the scene in season two's first episode: Hannah and Elijah's party. Elijah's boyfriend George wants to get funky with the karaoke machine but neither of the checkered shirt wearing guests want to join in. Cue angry rant:
You guys are all too f***ing cool to do one song.
and...
What are you looking at fake lumberjack guy?
A show that will make fun of its own demographic: now that's ballsy in my book. I also love that it ticks people off who believe that television can't be about a twenty something that hasn't achieved anything in her life. John Kubicek wrote on BuddyTV:
There's nothing particularly special about Hannah's life, no reason that her memoirs would be remotely interesting.
I couldn't agree with Mr. Kubicek more, but I would use that very sentence to argue that Hannah's unremarkable life is what make this show interesting. It's not something we're normally allowed to see on TV. A normal sized normal person leading a normal life trying to get it together and almost, daily, failing at it. I personally love it. Now I feel better that some days I don't get it right: I only eat tinned food, I annoy my friends and I forget to shower. Dunham has allowed me laugh at myself with a cackling untamed mad-woman-in-the-attic type laugh. I am grateful for that, my neighbours not so much.