The first season of the American comedy-drama television series Girls premiered on HBO on April 15, 2012, and consisted on 10 episodes, concluding on June 17, 2012. The series was created by Lena Dunham, who portrays the lead character, who based the premise and central aspects of the show on her personal life. It was produced by Apatow Productions, I Am Jenni Konnor Productions and HBO productions.
The season introduces Dunham's character Hannah Horvath, an immature aspiring writer from East Lansing, Michigan who is in for a surprise when she is informed by her parents that they will no longer support her financially. Having received their support for two years, following her graduation from Oberlin College, Hannah struggles with her newly established independence as she is left to her own devices in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Within Hannah's circle of friends they include Marnie Michaels (Allison Williams), Jessa Johansson (Jemima Kirke) and Shoshanna Shapiro (Zosia Mamet).
Cast and characters
Main
Lena Dunham as Hannah Helene Horvath, an aspiring writer living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, known for her narcissism and immaturity, who struggles to support herself and find a direction in her life.
Jemima Kirke as Jessa Johansson, one of Hannah's closest friends, Jessa is a global citizen of British origin, and is noted for her bohemian, unpredictable, and brash personality.
Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna Shapiro, Jessa's bubble-headed and innocent American cousin who's a Media, Culture, and Communications major at New York University.
Adam Driver as Adam Sackler. Hannah's casual boyfriend - an aloof, passionate young man, Adam works as a part-time carpenter and actor. He is an alcoholic who has been sober for years.
Hannah's parents cut her off financially and she loses her internship when she tries to convert it into a paying job. Meanwhile, Jessa returns to town and moves in with her naive cousin, Shoshanna. Also, Hannah's roommate, Marnie, expresses dissatisfaction with her relationship to her boyfriend Charlie. Hannah and Marnie throw Jessa a welcome-back dinner party in their apartment that ends with Hannah drinking opium tea and showing up at her parents' hotel room high. After Jessa misses her own party, Marnie confronts her over her careless ways, and Jessa reveals that she is pregnant.
Jessa schedules an abortion. Marnie and Shoshanna agree to attend as moral support, whilst Hannah decides to get tested for STDs after she discovers that her friend-with-benefits, Adam, is having unprotected sex with other girls. Jessa fails to show up, and realises her pregnancy was a false alarm when she gets her period while hooking up with a stranger at a bar. Shoshanna admits to Marnie that she is still a virgin.
Hannah learns she has contracted HPV, but Adam protests the idea that he gave it to her, claiming to have been tested recently. While watching a TV show about someone's "biggest baggage", Shoshanna reveals to Hannah that she is still a virgin. Hannah tells her not to worry and tells her about her HPV diagnosis. Shoshanna tells Hannah that Jessa also contracted HPV by knowingly sleeping with a man who has it, reasoning that "All adventurous women do." Later on, Hannah meets up with her ex-boyfriend Elijah (Andrew Rannells) for drinks and finds out that he has come out of the closet. They get into an argument over Elijah's sexuality and Hannah's accusation that he gave her HPV. Meanwhile, Jessa begins her new job as a babysitter and makes a connection with the children's father Jeff (James Le Gros). Also, Marnie starts to fall for Booth Jonathan, an artist (Jorma Taccone). Hannah ruminates on recent events on Twitter, but decides she can accept having HPV.
Hannah starts her new job as a secretary at a law firm, but she soon finds herself the target of sexual harassment by her leering boss Rich (Richard Masur). The other women in the office counsel Hannah to simply put up with it, finding Rich ultimately well-meaning and will eventually stop. When Hannah's friends learn that Adam sent her a photo of his penis and then a text claiming "SRY that wasn't for you," they suggest she dump him immediately. Meanwhile, Shoshanna makes out with Matt (Skylar Astin), whom she knew from summer camp, but he refuses to have sex with her after she confesses she's a virgin. Jessa briefly loses the two children she babysits, but Jeff is forgiving. Whilst at Marnie and Hannah's apartment, Charlie and his bandmate Ray (Alex Karpovsky) discover the episode's eponymous diary. They publicize Hannah's opinions about Marnie and Charlie's relationship as song lyrics, sundering the happy couple and causing an argument between Marnie and Hannah.
Marnie visits Charlie's apartment to beg his forgiveness, and eventually they reconcile; however, mid-coitus Marnie realizes that she's done with the relationship. Meanwhile, Hannah decides to file a sexual harassment suit against Rich after he brushes off her demands to stop touching her. But when Hannah decides to go further and tries to seduce Rich to make her case against him stronger, she fails and as a result quits her job. Also, Adam is very cool toward Hannah and doesn't seem interested in their relationship. Elsewhere, Jessa has a fling with a former boyfriend whom she brings to her apartment and they have quick sex, and she then dumps him just to make him see how she felt when he rejected her after sex.
Hannah returns to Michigan for her parents' 30th anniversary. Over the course of the weekend she has a fling with a friend from high school, and begins to doubt the wisdom of her decision to move to New York and pursue a writing career. Hannah's parents are willing to resume giving her financial assistance, but Hannah says that won't be necessary. In a late-night phone call, Adam makes it clear that he still cares for Hannah.
The four girls, Charlie, Ray's band and Adam all attend a warehouse party in Brooklyn. Hannah meets one of Adam's friends and learns that he is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Marnie and Charlie attempt to converse for the first time since breaking up two weeks ago, but are derailed when Charlie's new girlfriend Audrey arrives. Shoshanna accidentally smokes crack cocaine, and Ray is assigned to keep an eye on her, leading to a foot chase through the deserted streets. Jessa sends a taunting text to an anonymous number, only to discover it is her employer, Jeff, and that she has inadvertently invited him to the party. She gets him into a physical altercation, and then turns him down when he makes a pass at her. Hannah and Adam close the episode by having an argument about the fact that Adam has never talked about his own life and history because Hannah is too self-absorbed to ask him. She rectifies this, and they begin formally dating.
While Hannah delves deeper into Adam's life and tries changing her life by jogging with him and eating healthy foods, an unemployed Jessa and a down-and-out Marnie end up forming an unexpected bond by going out for drinks at a local bar where they have a run-in with an eligible bachelor, named Thomas-John (Chris O'Dowd), a wealthy financeer who is pretending to be something he is not.
Hannah attends a book-signing event for a new memoir, "Leave Me Alone," written by college classmate Tally Schifrin (Jenny Slate). Her former professor Powell Goldman (Michael Imperioli) encourages her to attend a writing circle and read one of her pieces aloud, but at the last minute she changes her mind on what to read, bringing out an unpolished new work that is poorly received. She is also forced to take a job at the coffee shop where Ray works, to Marnie's relief. It turns out that Marnie has been covering Hannah's bills since the beginning of the series. Meanwhile, Jeff's wife Katherine (Kathryn Hahn) visits Jessa and asks her to return to work, but the two ultimately realize it would be a poor idea. Hannah and Marnie get into an argument about Hannah's self-centeredness, and Marnie decides to move out.
After Marnie moves out, Adam offers to move in. Jessa invites her friends to a mystery party, which turns out to be her wedding to Thomas-John. Marnie decides to embrace her free-spirited nature and impulsively hooks up with the best man, Thadd (Bobby Moynihan), to the dismay of Charlie. Ray approaches Shoshanna for the first time since "The Crackcident" and admits that he is attracted to her; they go home together and Shoshanna finally loses her virginity. Hannah chats with Elijah and his boyfriend, and they decide to move in together. To her surprise, Adam is offended by this: he offered to move in because he loves her. The two get into a terrible fight, which ends when Adam is hit by a car outside. Hannah, now single, takes the subway home but falls asleep; she wakes up in the morning in Coney Island with her purse stolen. The season ends as she sits alone on the beach, eating the piece of wedding cake she saved for Adam.
Release
Critical reception
The first season of Girls received universal acclaim from television critics. On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season of the series holds an average of 87 based on 29 reviews.[11] The website also lists the show as the highest-rated fictional series debut of 2012. James Poniewozik from Time reserved high praise for the series, calling it "raw, audacious, nuanced and richly, often excruciatingly funny".[12] Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter called Girls "one of the most original, spot-on, no-missed-steps series in recent memory". Reviewing the first three episodes at the 2012 SXSW Festival, he said the series conveys "real female friendships, the angst of emerging adulthood, nuanced relationships, sexuality, self-esteem, body image, intimacy in a tech-savvy world that promotes distance, the bloodlust of surviving New York on very little money and the modern parenting of entitled children, among many other things—all laced together with humor and poignancy".[13]The New York Times also applauded the series and said: "Girls may be the millennial generation's rebuttal to Sex and the City, but the first season was at times as cruelly insightful and bleakly funny as Louie on FX or Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO."[14]
