Much like returning to an ex-boyfriend, only to find he’s nowhere near as funny, intellectual or good in bed as you once believed, TV revivals of a classic can be wholly disappointing. Characters that helped form your identity as a young woman can become unrecognisable (we’re looking at you Miranda, in And Just Like That.)
So when Lena Dunham jumped on a fake Zoom call with the former cast of Girls to confirm they were returning for a limited five-episode runof the show next summer, there was understandable anxiety among fans of the original series. Can Girls succeed where And Just Like That, Gilmore Girls and Gossip Girl all failed? Already, fans are questioning if we really need a Glee reboot. But if anyone is able to buck the trend, surely it’s Dunham.
Throughout its five-year run, Girls made household names of its cast, defined an era of TV and taught us never to sing 'Stronger' by Kanye West at karaoke. For all its flaws, the comedy has done the unthinkable: aged better with time. Who’s to say the characters haven’t as well?
When Girls wrapped in 2017, it ended on something of a bum note. The series faced critical backlash over its lack of diversity and viewers were divided about the sixth and final season, which saw the friendship group splinter. Dunham also cut a controversial figure in pop culture, criticized for her 2014 memoir Not That Kind Of Girl, in which she made a contentious remark about her childhood relationship with her sibling, and for her public defense of Girls writer Murray Miller, who was accused of sexual assault in 2017 (he denied the allegations and the charges were dropped.) Dunham has since said she regrets her statement.
There was an overwhelming sense, at least from Dunham’s perspective, that no one wanted to hear from her for a while. ‘When the show ended, I didn’t know what direction to move in,’ she wrote in her second memoir, Famesick, which was released earlier this year. ‘It was a painful metamorphosis.’ She also faced myriad health problems and was navigating her break-up from her partner of five years, music producer Jack Antonoff. All of which resulted in her taking an ‘international break’ from the spotlight.
However, during that period, the endlessly meme-able script has won over a new generation of fans. Pandemic-fuelled rewatches and subpar copycat shows have highlighted Girls’ quiet genius, and The New York Times just gave it the number 13 spot in its ‘Best 100 TV shows of the 21st Century’ honours.
‘We always said we would only return to Girls if there was a specific story we were burning to tell,’ Dunham has explained, revealing that the characters ‘started talking to [her] in the shower’ around the time of her 40th birthday, in May this year. She mused over potential plot points in an interview with Variety last year, suggesting her character Hannah ‘probably has a girlfriend who’s a chef, teaches as Bard [College] and loves raising her son.’ Marnie, she continued, ‘is on her third marriage, Jessa is unvaccinated and lives on a boat in Croatia,’ and Shoshanna ‘runs an athleisure start-up that’s zero waste.’
Comedy career-maker Judd Apatow is returning as executive producer, but former showrunner Jenni Konner is not attached (Dunham has claimed the pair fell out over creative differences, financial tensions and a so-called lack of boundaries, although Konner said at the time there was ‘no drama.’) Adam Driver (as Adam Sackler), whom Dunham called ‘spectacularly rude’ in Famesick and has not spoken to since 2017, is also unlikely to make an appearance - a la Samantha Jones in AJLT.
Wherever the girls - sorry, women - are in their lives, fans can trust Dunham has an unrivaled ability to speak to a moment in time. We can’t wait to hear what she has to say.
Nikki Peach is a senior writer at Grazia, working across news, entertainment, features. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things pop culture for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow with equal respect).