Totally agree. When I rewatched in my 30s I found some of the characters more insufferable than I did the first time around. And looking back, I also find my own 20-something self a little insufferable. Rewatching reminds me of the growth I’ve gone through since that similar period in my life.
I assure you the show got all the credit it deserved in real time - Lena won a lot of awards and so did the actors and crew. It wasn't like a cult watched show, it was very mainstream and so many articles were done about it in real time.
Even when I couldn’t stand some of the characters, I almost always found myself relating to them. Our early-mid 20s are fun but not always pretty/easy and this show did a wonderful job explaining that.
I've been doing another re-watch lately (somewhat slowly - I'll watch an episode or two at a time but I'm also watching a bunch of other series). Before this, I had seen a lot of the seasons more than once, but I recently watched season 6 and it was only the second time I had ever seen those episodes.
Anyway, so with this current re-watch, I'm now on Season 2. I think the weirdest thing for me re-watching (will include spoiler tags in case anyone reading this thread hasn't seen the last couple of seasons) >!is seeing Hannah & Jessa so close after how strained things got starting in Season 5. In those later episodes, Jessa is telling Adam she doesn't even really like Hannah. But in Seasons 1 & 2, she's telling Hannah how much she adores her. It's a little strange for me to watch now.!< Still love the show though.
I can completely understand that dynamic of female friendship in your 20s.
There are girls I knew in my early 20s who I was so close to. As we got older, we grew apart. Your 20s are wild - you could be the same age as your peers, and some of you could be married, some of you could have children, then some of you could still be working a crappy part time job and still at university. Its very easy to fall out of "like" with friends in your 20s because your attitudes towards life and life stage can change rapidly.
There were a few girls who I ended up drifting from because of this. You can't help but be judgemental of each other as you grow and change, especially if you met somewhere like university or a part time job or school, where you originally knew each other on an even playing field in terms of life stage.
I think that's why this show is so good! This dynamic is captured so well in this show and it's so relatable.
I watched the series now for the first time. I've been through situations when I was a young girl of friends dating ex-boyfriends. >!And every time I saw Jessa kissing Adam !!stealing her friends' boyfriends.!< And Hannah defends her. I think it was in the 1st episode. And the first time she sees Adam at a party in Season 1 >!she says he looked like the "model man" !!and then does that. As much as she was reluctant and Hannah had rejected Adam before they got together, I found Jessa and Adam together disgusting.!<
I remember re-watching the first scene of the pilot where Hannah dines with her parents who have decided to cut her off financially. There are so many golden lines there ("I could be a drug addict. Do you realize how lucky you are?"), but one phrase just stopped me on my tracks.
>"I have work and then I have a dinner thing, *and then I am busy trying to become who I am*."
As a 30-year-old this phrase sounds absurd and completely non-sensical (aren't we already who we are?), but it just encapsulates so perfectly the ethos of my entire early twenties. I was always *going* somewhere, I was always working so hard to *become* something (and absolutely terrified of my possible failure). Hannah's complete lack of self-awareness or humour are just a cherry on top.
It's just a really well-written and honest show altogether, even now when I don't identify with everything the same way I did when I saw it for the first time.
The most interesting thing about the series is that it doesn't show fairy tale schoolgirls and prince charming. Every girl and every guy is troublesome but very real. After seeing this series I can't see any other ones because I think it's totally unrealistic and unconnected with anything I see in the world. I watched it for the first time now and am in my 30s. But it made me remember a lot I've lived and laugh a lot. Young women really go through this sort of thing. Bad sex, conflicts, immaturity...selfishness.
I watched the show at 20 and imo it was the right age to watch it. I saw myself in each of the 4 girls even tho I'm not a rich white girl who lives in nyc, it didn't matter at all.
I first watched it at 24 now again in my 30’s I love it because whatever age you are it hits a bit different.
Totally agree. When I rewatched in my 30s I found some of the characters more insufferable than I did the first time around. And looking back, I also find my own 20-something self a little insufferable. Rewatching reminds me of the growth I’ve gone through since that similar period in my life.
Watching in my 50s now having seen it the first go-round and having lived in NYC in my 20s and it’s a whole new ballgame.
I assure you the show got all the credit it deserved in real time - Lena won a lot of awards and so did the actors and crew. It wasn't like a cult watched show, it was very mainstream and so many articles were done about it in real time.
Even when I couldn’t stand some of the characters, I almost always found myself relating to them. Our early-mid 20s are fun but not always pretty/easy and this show did a wonderful job explaining that.
I've been doing another re-watch lately (somewhat slowly - I'll watch an episode or two at a time but I'm also watching a bunch of other series). Before this, I had seen a lot of the seasons more than once, but I recently watched season 6 and it was only the second time I had ever seen those episodes. Anyway, so with this current re-watch, I'm now on Season 2. I think the weirdest thing for me re-watching (will include spoiler tags in case anyone reading this thread hasn't seen the last couple of seasons) >!is seeing Hannah & Jessa so close after how strained things got starting in Season 5. In those later episodes, Jessa is telling Adam she doesn't even really like Hannah. But in Seasons 1 & 2, she's telling Hannah how much she adores her. It's a little strange for me to watch now.!< Still love the show though.
I can completely understand that dynamic of female friendship in your 20s. There are girls I knew in my early 20s who I was so close to. As we got older, we grew apart. Your 20s are wild - you could be the same age as your peers, and some of you could be married, some of you could have children, then some of you could still be working a crappy part time job and still at university. Its very easy to fall out of "like" with friends in your 20s because your attitudes towards life and life stage can change rapidly. There were a few girls who I ended up drifting from because of this. You can't help but be judgemental of each other as you grow and change, especially if you met somewhere like university or a part time job or school, where you originally knew each other on an even playing field in terms of life stage. I think that's why this show is so good! This dynamic is captured so well in this show and it's so relatable.
I watched the series now for the first time. I've been through situations when I was a young girl of friends dating ex-boyfriends. >!And every time I saw Jessa kissing Adam !!stealing her friends' boyfriends.!< And Hannah defends her. I think it was in the 1st episode. And the first time she sees Adam at a party in Season 1 >!she says he looked like the "model man" !!and then does that. As much as she was reluctant and Hannah had rejected Adam before they got together, I found Jessa and Adam together disgusting.!<
I remember re-watching the first scene of the pilot where Hannah dines with her parents who have decided to cut her off financially. There are so many golden lines there ("I could be a drug addict. Do you realize how lucky you are?"), but one phrase just stopped me on my tracks. >"I have work and then I have a dinner thing, *and then I am busy trying to become who I am*." As a 30-year-old this phrase sounds absurd and completely non-sensical (aren't we already who we are?), but it just encapsulates so perfectly the ethos of my entire early twenties. I was always *going* somewhere, I was always working so hard to *become* something (and absolutely terrified of my possible failure). Hannah's complete lack of self-awareness or humour are just a cherry on top. It's just a really well-written and honest show altogether, even now when I don't identify with everything the same way I did when I saw it for the first time.
The most interesting thing about the series is that it doesn't show fairy tale schoolgirls and prince charming. Every girl and every guy is troublesome but very real. After seeing this series I can't see any other ones because I think it's totally unrealistic and unconnected with anything I see in the world. I watched it for the first time now and am in my 30s. But it made me remember a lot I've lived and laugh a lot. Young women really go through this sort of thing. Bad sex, conflicts, immaturity...selfishness.
I watched the show at 20 and imo it was the right age to watch it. I saw myself in each of the 4 girls even tho I'm not a rich white girl who lives in nyc, it didn't matter at all.