Girls is back: why it’s the perfect time for more of Lena Dunham’s millennial Sex and the City
HBO’s era-defining comedy is set for a new five-episode series. Its bleakness and warmth couldn’t be more welcome It’s a pop culture emergency. A millennial-quake that shook my social feed to its core. Girls, the HBO show that stole the zeitgeist in the early Instagram era and made Lena Dunham a generational star, is returning for a five-episode revival series. The project was announced via a mock video call with…
Key points
- HBO's Girls will return for a five-episode revival series set 10 years after the 2017 finale.
- Original cast members Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet and Andrew Rannells are returning.
- The article says the revival comes during a period of renewed success for Lena Dunham.
HBO's comedy Girls is returning for a five-episode revival series, the show's original cast announced in a mock video call. Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet and Andrew Rannells are all returning. The new series will pick up the story 10 years after the 2017 finale.
Girls premiered in 2012 and made Lena Dunham a generational star. The article says the show captured the early Instagram era, when social media still felt new and Barack Obama was president. Its approach to sex scenes, described as sticky and awkward, made it one of the first shows to be widely discussed on social media.
What the article says about timing
The article notes that the revival arrives as Dunham is enjoying renewed success. Her memoir Famesick became a New York Times best-seller and explored her time filming Girls while living with chronic pain. The piece asks whether her lightning can strike twice, given that reboots often have a mixed success rate.
It compares the revival with And Just Like That, the Sex and the City follow-up, which the article calls a case study in how not to do a reboot. It says that show lost the original's cynicism and changed characters beyond recognition. The article adds that the 10-year gap for Girls is shorter than the two-decade gaps of many 2000s reboots.
Marnie would have 100% wrapped herself in cellophane, Hannah would have pretended to do the same, but would have been living very riskily in secret
— Allison Williams
What fans might expect
The article says Girls became a hit through a mix of warmth and bleakness. It followed four privileged women in New York whose dreams collided with the post-recession economy. The piece suggests the revival could address how many millennials still face housing and job insecurity and feel they are not progressing.
It also says the show faced intense criticism at the time for its lack of diversity. The article argues that 10 years on, without constant social media discourse, the show's satirical edge is easier to see. It says Dunham's main challenge is meeting the expectations of fans who have strong views about the characters.
