It seems everyone with a beating pulse and a warm internet connection has already passed judgment on Lena Dunham’s TV show ‘Girls’, despite it only airing in the UK for the first time last night. There seems to be a consensus forming that while sure, it may be keenly observed, whip smart and downright hilarious, it speaks only to a narrow audience of young people who have enjoyed the same privileges and life chances as the characters it depicts. Most controversially, it’s been noted that despite a contemporary New York setting, all of these central characters are white.
Not everyone sees this as a problem. When I interviewed Nas for this magazine, I asked him what the best thing he’d seen on television recently was. This is what he said: “‘Girls’. It’s a new show on HBO. It’s dope. It’s real: it’s about real people, real things and it makes you feel like you’re not alone out here. There are more people who are more alike in ways that you would never know. And it’s funny, too!”
The Collected Works of Kevin EG Perry 