Girls Like Guys Who Like "GIRLS"

With the season premier only 4 days away, @newyorksiddy dropped by to give us her two cents on the show. When she isn't running around as Associate Producer for the TODAY Show, @newyorksiddy is dropping knowledge and backing up all us guys who watch (read: enjoy) the show. If you wanna read more from @newyorksiddy then go right ahead.

Here's the thing about "Girls": It's the best TV show ever. 

It reminds me of a scene from season 1, episode 7: On the way to a Bushwick warehouse party (“all of Brooklyn and two-thirds of Manhattan” were there), Jemima Kirke’s character Jessa says "Jaded as I am, I still hold out hope that the next party will be the best party ever."

“O.K., best party ever," Lena Dunham's character Hannah ponders.  "To me that's like saying best gym ever or best nature documentary ever -- how good can it really be?"

One might think the same of a TV show. The answer, in this case, is simple: it’s really fucking good.

And despite what many may have assumed from the title -- the show isn't of the chick variety. I think many men I know (at least all of them in Brooklyn and two-thirds in Manhattan) assumed “Girls” would turn Sunday nights back into the hell that was 1998-2004 (also known as the "Sex And The City" era). It was a dark period defined by a lot of endless stereotypes about supposed Manhattan women (everything from unrealistically expensive clothing to equally as unbelievable relationships) that became the fantasy for every woman who has ever lived here (disclaimer: I could probably recite the entire six seasons in their entirety).  For guys, it was a particular low point. The show magnified everything they had ever feared about New York women.

While "Girls" is exactly the opposite of its predecessor, it's still fascinating that guys find the show so endearing.  For a long time, I thought that my guy friends didn't want to know what girls were actually like. We don’t all look that great naked. Sex can be alarmingly awkward. Some of us are still virgins. Some, like Jessa, are free spirited, emotionally unavailable, and downright out of their minds. Some are an incredibly annoying combination of uptight and gorgeous, like Marnie. Some are quirky, vibrant, and not particularly good at smoking crack -- like Shoshana. And some, like Hannah, are still trying to figure out who they are. That’s just how we roll. 

And that's the reason that every self-respecting man I know watches every Sunday. Maybe it's just as refreshing for them as it is for us ladies to watch a show about girls who look a little something like the girls they actually know in their lives: their girlfriends, co-workers, sisters, friends. They are complicated, kind of crazy, really fucking hilarious, and a whole lot of fun.

"Girls" has made Sunday nights like the best party, ever. Boys allowed.  

-- @newyorksiddy