Girls

Girls (2012) starring Lena Dunham. Five episodes of the HBO series are presented on this disc. It's a tour-de-force for Dunham, who writes, directs, produces and acts in most of the episodes. Segments range from Hannah (Dunham) and her girlfriends going to a party, to Hannah taking a shower and getting peed on by her boyfriend, to Hannah and her roommate having a fight and deciding not to live together anymore. The series is both funny and sad, ending on a down note with Hannah sitting on the beach eating wedding cake. Dunham says on the Extras that she wanted the show to be about the way twenty-somethings really act, as opposed to the way they have been portrayed in sitcoms, and I think she has succeeded. Dunham herself belies the stereotypes by the way she looks; by TV standards she is not an attractive woman. But her show ultimately succeeds, perhaps because she is a smart and funny woman. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A-