Millennials and the 2010s have been trending on TikTok, which has led to a resurgence of the popularity of HBO’s “Girls.” People in their 30s and 40s have been wanting to go back to simpler times of being twenty-something in the early 2010s.
After watching “Girls,” a college student will feel seen, especially since it’s about a group of those in their 20s trying to figure out their lives in New York City after graduating college. The show is a masterpiece because it is still able to be relevant ten years later. This show is focused on the flaws of four privileged women in Brooklyn. When watching this show, fans can’t help but wonder which “Girls” character is the worst and which one is their favorite. In many ways, Hannah Horvarth, played by Lena Dunham, is the worst.
Hannah is the quintessential millennial. She has all the negative traits that are associated with millennials: selfish, rude, spoiled and ungrateful for the opportunities that she has been given. The series mainly follows Hannah Horvath, a 24-year-old writer from the Midwest aspiring to make it big in New York City.
Intent on being a famous writer, Hannah believes she is the voice of her generation. Oftentimes, she blames her friends for her own shortcoming as a writer. This is seen in moments like when she found out that her college ex-boyfriend Elijiah, who came out as gay later, slept with her friend Marnie. While they were on cocaine, Hannah blamed him for ruining her novel because she cannot properly process her feelings of betrayal from her friends.
It is almost comical watching Hannah make embarrassing mistakes and encountering failures. When she attends her editor’s funeral, the only thing Hannah is remorseful about is the future of her ebook, which she mourns the potential loss of to the editor’s wife. She continuously behaves like a spoiled brat to her nice parents. In the first episode, after her parents tell her to get a real job, or to somehow convince her boss to make her unpaid internship paid, she completely cuts her parents off because they aren’t willing to completely financially support her in New York. She has no sense of empathy or remorse.
But maybe this is also what makes Hannah relatable. Maybe, her character is supposed to be terrible because it makes the audience come back for more. Viewers are constantly wondering about Hannah’s next move – like what she’ll do next, what silly fight she’ll have between her friends or what career opportunity she’ll ruin for herself.
Hannah’s friends are just as selfish, immature and terrible as she is, but somehow they become more likeable throughout the show. It might be due to the fact that the show is set in her perspective. Viewers watch the ways that Hannah becomes her own worst enemy.
She sabotages her own relationship with her boyfriend Adam because she believes she is too fat to be loved. It is clear that she hates herself. Her insecurity is probably why she continues to sleep with Adam even though he cannot commit to her and has proved himself a major red flag – like when he stalked her. Her self-sabotage is also probably why she gives herself a horrible haircut with kitchen scissors in an obsessive-compulsive disorder flare up.
It is unclear whether or not Hannah is a character to be liked or hated. She is the anti-hero of the series and the reason the audience keeps tuning in. She is ultimately a true representation of the flaws of her generation.
