There are few shows I care more about than Girls.
So when, last night, show creator Lena Dunham reunited with the core cast of the hit HBO show to confirm five brand new episodes are coming almost a decade after it ended in 2017, I was ecstatic.
But one character was noticeably absent from the announcement – Hannah’s odd on-off boyfriend, Adam – played by Adam Driver.
And I’m glad – he should have been written out a long time ago.
On top of that, it’s hardly surprising he wouldn’t be attached to any new episodes given the unflattering details about the actor shared in Dunham’s recent memoir, Famesick, in which she recalls him being so verbally aggressive that he once threw a chair at the wall when she forgot her lines in a rehearsal.
So she has a valid reason to keep him out of the reboot, and I don’t think fans want to see him either.
I’ve binged the entire series more times than I can remember, yet I still hear every line as if it’s the first time. Turns out there are a surprising multitude of depths in which to appreciate the show.
It’s remarkable account of four self-absorbed women navigating life in New York in their early 20s, through break-ups, weird sex, a shrinking job market and trying friendships.
It’s messy, raw and satirical – everything I adore about comedy.
Dunham made stars of her entire cast, but she, undeservedly, became one of the most divisive figures of the 2010s. With her public weight gain, off-the-wall sense of style and unfiltered opinions, she proved too much for the tabloid media, and they regularly targeted her.
Co-stars Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet all went on to huge success, while Christopher Abbott steadily became one of the most credible and sought-after actors in film.
But no one experienced quite the level of stardom as unlikely heartthrob Adam Driver.
Since Girls, his films have made more than $5 billion at the box office, largely thanks to the most recent Star Wars trilogy, where he played iconic villain Kylo Ren.
Up Next
He’s earned two Oscar nominations, and is still one of the most fascinating and enigmatic actors of his generation, having totally surpassed anything anyone could have imagined when he was introduced to Girls fans.
So when Dunham made the announcement, the fandom assumed either he had snubbed the revival or the revival had snubbed him.
Either way, that can only be a good thing.
In Dunham’s memoir, she says she felt intimidated and confused by his violent behaviour, and that they haven’t spoken since filming, even though his last words to her were: ‘I hope you know I’ll always love you.’
I can’t imagine welcoming someone back into your workspace after that.
But more than personal tensions, Driver should have been written out of Girls long before the show first ended.
Hannah and Adam’s peculiar and often dark romance was in many ways the most accurate depiction of love in a post-university chapter I’ve ever seen.
At first it was just young love, until they broke each other’s hearts and cracked them open to discover there was so much more to their magnetism than lust. They loved each other more than they realised they could.
What do you think about Adam Driver potentially not being part of the Girls revival?
-
It's good he won't return.Check
-
I think he should have been included.Check
-
I have no strong opinion on this.Check
In the earlier series of Girls, it was so refreshing to see love be volatile and more authentic than anything I’d ever seen on television.
They eventually split when Hannah moves to Iowa to join a Writers’ Workshop and Adam takes it as a rejection. In her absence, he begins dating someone else and Hannah returns home to find a strange woman has moved into the life she left behind.
Their relationship is over, and that is when Adam should have been written out of Girls for good.
Instead, he strikes up a totally unbelievable relationship with Hannah’s close friend, Jessa, that feels like its only purpose is to keep Driver in the show. I suppose they made sense for a one-night stand; but they did not work as a couple and there was not a single moment I enjoyed or was even interested in watching them together.
More often than not, exes are supposed to remain in the past, but on television, they tend to be inescapable.
The Sex and the City reboot – And Just Like That – had a similar issue. There was a glimmer of promise when they killed off the main character Carrie’s love interest, Big, in the very first episode. There was no way he was returning from that.
It would have been interesting to watch Carrie navigate dating in the clutches of grief, but instead Aidan Shaw miraculously returned to rekindle a relationship that barely worked 20 years ago.
It felt unnatural, and was another decision of many that made no sense whatsoever other than to serve a nostalgia that isn’t always necessary.
The recurring ex serves no purpose.
Maybe the only exception is Chandler Bing’s on-off fling Janice, who made such an impact through Maggie Wheeler’s performance alone that it didn’t matter that their connection was inconceivable.
I loved Adam when Adam was great: difficult, often appalling, but always lovable, even at his worst.
However, by the end he felt completely redundant and would feel even more so if he returned.
The Girls revival should be all about Hannah, Marnie, Shosh, Jessa and Elijah – which, given they all appeared in the video confirming the new episodes together, suggests that’s exactly what it will be.
I can’t wait to catch up with them as they, and I, enter our 40s.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments below.