Where this was said
What Critics Got Wrong About Girls
At 38:43 · chapter starts 36:22
Amy asks what people who wrote about Girls got wrong, and Lena lays out the bipolar spectrum of critical reception: on one end, commentators who thought the show took millennial concerns completely at face value and missed the point; on the other, conservative commentators who decided Lena was actually savaging woke millennials for their benefit. Both camps, she says, underestimated the show's capacity to hold both registers simultaneously — the comedy and the empathy — in the same frame. She also notes a pointed asymmetry: when people didn't like the show, it was entirely her fault; when they did, credit migrated elsewhere. The episode builds to Amy's best line: the way people think about you is none of your business.
Some critics thought Girls took millennial concerns too seriously; others thought it was a satirical takedown of woke young women. Lena says both missed it: the show simultaneously takes its characters seriously and finds them hilarious — and people consistently underestimate young women.
