To this day, Girls remains one of HBO's best originals and is influential for many reasons. Beyond its then-timely portrayal of millennial women in the United States, the series effectively made actor Adam Driver a household name. Viewers really took a liking to his character "Adam," which surprised star and creator Lena Dunham, given she didn't write him to be liked at all.
Dunham talked about this in depth with the New York Times, and how Hannah and Adam's relationship was meant to highlight their toxicity as a couple, and yet it wasn't always received that way by the fans. She talked about it below:
What was also interesting was those dynamics, which were in life scary at times, lonely — those would be recreated on television and people thought they were funny and fun and at times sexy! I didn’t write Adam [Driver’s] character to be a romantic hero, and by the end, everyone was like, ‘I want a boyfriend like that. I want a boyfriend who throws two-by-fours and spanks me,’ and that is not what I was going for, but it was certainly a lesson in: What we desire cannot be untangled from what we have been through and what we fear.
It's interesting to hear Lena Dunham remind people about how Adam was received, because it is wild when given just a couple examples of how he wasn't a great boyfriend to Hannah. This was illustrated particularly at the end of the series, when she realized she had matured enough to want a partner who valued her more than he had in the past.
Lena Dunham's comments about the character stemmed from her learning to accept that she can't help how the public responds to her writing. Dunham and the writing staff's work on Girls occasionally even made HBO uncomfortable, and the network had to shoot down a sex scene the show originally planned.
The lasting cultural impact of Girls can't be denied, with people calling modern NFL stars a "Shoshanna," and Dunham's more recent works being compared to the hit series. Even A-listers like Florence Pugh have talked about being fans.
And while his character wasn't the beacon of the ideal man, it feels like Adam Driver has made a career out of roles that embody that flawed betrayal. Ben Solo certainly had his fair share of issues and was arguably fighting greater demons than his Girls character.
I also feel like Adam's "rage" moments in Girls influenced his casting in roles like BlackkKlansman and Marriage Story, and maybe even Star Wars. The guy has a great screaming voice, and if you were watching him on the HBO series back in the day, he was screaming quite a bit.
Girls is available to stream with an HBO Max subscription, and I've already convinced myself that it's time for a rewatch. Those who watched already know, but for anyone who hasn't, now is the time to jump in and strap in for a wild ride.
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