Blu-Ray Review – Girls: The Complete Fifth Season

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

HBO has a really weird way of determining which shows to keep around and which to cancel. Bored to Death seemed to be finding its groove as a wacky comedy and wound up being cancelled three seasons in, right when the show really started to go from “very funny” to “incredibly funny.” Entourage was a film and two seasons too late from the chopping block while Hung had about half a season of solid episodes over three seasons, limping to a finish.

Girls has managed to find its way to a sixth season this spring despite never being the sort of premium cable juggernaut that one would imagine it would take to keep a show like this on the air. It’s also a critical darling … but not quite the award winner one would expect for a show with fairly universal acclaim. Girls has a niche audience, at best, but has managed to find an audience large enough to justify its continued existence on HBO. Throw in a lot of award nominations, but very few wins, and Girls is an odd duck on the network.

Whereas Sex and the City had remarkable ratings in a key demographic, and justified its continued existence on the network as well as two movies of note, Girls has managed to last into its sixth season despite not being a regular award winner or rating topper. That’s incredibly interesting because the show itself really isn’t.

Simple premise: We follow four upper middle class millennial women (Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Zoisa Mamet, Jemima Kirke) and their wacky problems in Brooklyn.

The show’s problem is that it takes fairly minute problems and makes them the show’s inherent focus. Nothing major really happens; it’s a show about the overdramatization of small problems and it’s just shrug worthy. It’s the sort of show that if you’re past 30 you probably won’t be engaged by; it’s the ultimate show aimed towards those who are about to begin their lives who view small problems as the end of the world.

It’s also just not that funny, either, unless you’re in that specific demographic Lena Dunham and gang are specifically appealing to.

Nothing of note.

HBO presents Girls (Season 5). Starring Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Zoisa Mamet, Jemima Kirke, Adam Driver. Run Time: 300 minutes. Not Rated. Released on 1/3/17