This show is getting attention because it adds a fresh perspective on sex and youth today.  The four girls are shown dressed down, without makeup, and even on the toilet, but they still convince as confident, eager fledglings who enjoy sex, and get their appetites sated.  Lena Dunham, the star and creator (Tiny Furniture), wants to turn “plain” into the new sexy.  But all of the four actresses are actually good-looking.  A couple of them could morph themselves into the next “Bond” girl with no trouble.  Instead, Dunham shoots for authenticity.  Her sex scene in the pilot is shocking, but still erotic, because it is so casual and spontaneous.  We believe that it happens because both the boy and the girl know they have nothing to lose, so, hey, let’s  just enjoy it.  It captures the intoxicating stink of young sex in New York, which is something that that  other HBO show (wink,wink) could not do with all of its sly namedropping.  But a caveat: Dunham’s scenes with her parents don’t convince.  Her mother is way too frank and sarcastic in how she breaks the news that the money from home will stop.  I think that Dunham’s character  is her mother’s daughter in that she’s been manipulating daddy for years, and she learned from the Master.  Her mother should be shown as the supreme manipulator, and would have been more circumspect and, well, feminine, about it.

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