So I actually watched HBO's Girls

You know, I can sympathise with murderers, with gangsters, motorcycle gangs, despots, even lawyers: a really good tv show will make me care about their struggles, their dilemmas, their hopes, their dreams. But ask me to give a shit about someone whose biggest psychic trauma is that her parents won't pay her rent any more? It seems that's a bridge too far.

GO AND GET A SHIT JOB LIKE THE REST OF US, YOU PRIVILIGED LITTLE FUCK. Is what I've spent most of the last two hours thinking.

So sad

And yeah, I know that's the point; I know shows about paragons of virtue and wisdom would be pretty dull. And it is well-written, witty, and insightful about the pitfalls of ridiculous relationships and early 20s life drama. But I've watched too many people get promoted past me because Daddy paid their rent through a prestigious internship, unsaddled with petty problems like overdrafts and student loans, to have the requisite distance here to care about her feelings.

I believe the technical term is "peril": any good drama needs the possibility of something pretty awful looming over its characters to make the audience care what happens. So you can watch The Tudors knowing full well that these are the most unimaginably privileged people that the world has ever seen, and still get involved in the story, because there's a very good chance that if they don't play every card in exactly the right way at exactly the right moment they will end up really, really dead. If Hannah Horvath doesn't make very good decisions, she might have to get a job that she doesn't find that fulfilling. Which is a predicament that I don't find particularly compelling.