Having teenage girls myself, I wasn’t too anxious to watch the new highly acclaimed HBO series, Girls.

Now that I’ve seen the first season, I can honestly say my fears were well-founded….yet I find myself hooked!

What makes this series so intriguing is not that it is unpolished and unsanitized, like many adult series today, but that the actresses themselves are raw in their appearance.

Girls without makeup, flabby skin and bad hair—are you kidding me?

It actually took me a few episodes to get used to the fact the main character, Hannah, is far from beautiful—at least in the television-Hollywood sense of the word.

In fact, watching her very middle-aged parents having sex in the shower gave me such a visceral reaction; I had to look away due to the pure nature of seeing real sex with real people under realistic lighting.

So real is good, right? Isn’t that what we want today—more authenticity and less glitz?

Yes, but sometimes the truth hurts.

How does one find balance between what is real and still maintaining a healthy detachment?

With the age of Facebook and Twitter, every thought and image is in your face; the dark unconscious, no longer protected by an ego filter, sometimes denies even its own existence.

No, today, everything is on the table; the darkness emerging and seeking the light. Not a pretty process, but then again neither is the very messy business of gardening. Digging in the dirt and uprooting the deep dark soil to mix and integrate with the light fluffy stuff on top. Ever buy a bag of Top Soil? Its light brown porousness is in direct contrast to the dark black stuff found in the ground.

It’s no wonder Girls is both illuminating and disturbing at the same time.

Stuck in mud, these girls are looking for something intangible to lift them up so they can walk on water again rather than flail around in their own depths. (This will take some doing since most of the male characters are oblivious to how emasculated they have become.)

They are confused by these angry girls who reject their well-intended niceness and frustrated their feminine-male qualities are not being received with gusto. What these guys don’t understand is these girls are striving for a big, strong hand to lift them to a higher ground; whether they find this higher ground within themselves, or not, remains to be seen.

Very plausible indeed, since there is little for them to grasp onto in an external world that continues to be heading down stream.

So, how will the series end?

I’m not sure, but I wonder how long the viewer can stare into the dark abyss before it becomes too uncomfortable to watch.

If Girls is a commentary on how far down the rabbit hole a show can go before it loses viewership, I’m up for the challenge.

If the point is to turn this into a Hero’s Journey, then I’m looking forward to the awakening.

Either way, Girls has my full attention and an eager heart hoping for light and resolution soon!

 

Vera Snow finds the mystical in just about everything but is particularly mindful of it when it comes to pop-culture. Visit www.verasnow.com to learn more.

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Asst Ed: Jennifer Spesia/Ed: Bryonie Wise

 

(Source: hitfix.tumblr.com via Julie on Pinterest)