Lena Dunham’s Girls return could speak to women at 40
This opinion piece responds to the announced return of HBO's Girls. The writer, who watched it in her early twenties, is hopeful that Lena Dunham can portray the characters' lives at forty. It also notes the show's enduring appeal and recent rediscovery.
HBO's Girls is returning, as announced by Lena Dunham and cast. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett recalls first covering it for this publication in 2012 during a placement, shortly after its debut, when she was in her early twenties and newly off benefits. The show sparked enormous online debate, though she believed its satire of privilege was often missed.
In recent years, the series has found a new audience among younger viewers, helped by podcasts revisiting episodes and TikTok. Dunham has suggested forty can look many ways: shared homes and nightly drinking, four children, casual sex, perimenopause, marital strain, late career shifts. Cosslett wonders how Hannah, Jessa, Marnie and Shoshanna have changed.
The revival may resonate with women approaching or at forty who grew up alongside the original, offering varied portraits of midlife. It could also reach younger viewers who discovered the series through social platforms, prompting discussion about friendship, work, parenthood and caregiving. Its influence may depend on whether it captures diverse experiences without flattening them into stereotypes. It could shape how television portrays women's later adulthood.