What exactly does Ginny & Georgia want to be? On the one hand it is obviously inspired on some level by my favorite live action show, Gilmore Girls. We’ve got a single mom who gave birth to a precocious teen, when she was a teen. They move to a small town in New England and the daughter is the more mature one on the surface. The show even goes out of its way to call out these likenesses. On the other hand it is also a hyper-modern teen show replete with all of the extreme metaness and seedy crime filed underbelly that has become a prerequisite in this post-Riverdale world. (Fuck Riverdale!) So with these two competing ideologies we must ask, is the show good? And more importantly is it fun?
In my opinion the answer is mostly no and also mostly yes. I can’t in good conscience say that this was a good, well constructed show, but also it somehow takes all of its conflicting concepts and kind of gets them to work. The writing swings wildly from mildly clever to so overwhelmingly cringe worthy it just makes you want to hit something. However there is always somehow one voice in the room that was always speaking for me, the audience member. This show somehow got me to hate a love triangle. Me, hate a love triangle I thought that was impossible, but lo and behold this show found a way. At the same time this show also has a scene where a kid stabs another kid with a pencil, so you win some you lose some I guess. But that’s the thing with this show, it always gives you just enough to keep you hooked.
The most important relationship on the show is, as you would expect, the one between Ginny (daughter) and Georgia (mother). I will say that I found Ginny very likable for the most part. Her problems are pretty relatable and it is easy to understand her motives and her actions all make sense because of that. She is a protagonist that you van get behind because of her plusses and her flaws. Georgia on the other hand is one of the more unlikable characters that a show has ever been infatuated with. She basically spends the entirety of the season either committing crimes or being a terrible parent, particularly to her son. They try to make you feel it is all ok because she has had a tough upbringing, but as with most shows that use this lazy trope it does not act as sufficient character development. We aren’t going to like someone just because her daddy sucked and her life was hard. That’s the first step of character building, but this show doesn’t want to do that hard work, so it skips it and hopes pity will suffice. In my opinion it does not. There just aren’t enough moments that show us why this is a character that’s worth our time. We spend a lot of time with her committing crimes and getting her son to punch a child, but there just aren’t counterpoints. They expect us to like her because she’s a protagonist and that’s just lazy.
I’m not going to spend much time on all the crimes because that’s all plot spoilers, but just be assured it’s not that interesting and it feels tacked on. That leads me to another problem, which is that the show feels like a hodgepodge of two ideas. On the one hand it is a slice of life, small town (maybe it’s unclear) show, but on the other it’s a high stakes crime show about a woman running from her past. The character that takes the brunt of this dichotomy is Joe. Joe is this show’s Luke. He owns the local eatery and has a flirty relationship with Georgia. Joe was probably the character that I was most pleased to see, but unfortunately his screen time is wildly erratic. For two episodes he’ll play a big part and they’ll build up his character and future storylines, then for no reason, he’ll disappear for two episodes. He’s not even in the last two episodes. You can’t set this guy up as a love interest for Georgia and a pseudo father figure for Ginny and then just ignore him in your two most important episodes. What is that?!?!?!
Another character the show has no idea what to do with is the little brother, Austin. (I think that’s his name, but much like the show I also don’t care about him.) All we really know about him is that he likes Harry Potter and his dad’s in jail. Also he has an intense anger management problem which Georgia pours gasoline on while ignoring anyone who tells her about it. In the first episode she gets him to punch a kid and this positive affirmation gives him the grand idea that it would be ok to stab that kid with a pencil. And he does! And Georgia’s reaction is to somehow be offended that the teacher would suggest the kid needs therapy. After his suspension he starts skipping school, which apparently doesn’t matter because at no point does the school inform Georgia or is a big deal made out of it. He also gets into homemade flamethrowers. This kid is a serial killer in the making.
I’ve done a lot of complaining but somehow this show is legitimately fun. The high school drama stuff works. Ginny’s school friends bring the right balance between supportively fun and devastatingly annoying and being the worst. Scott Porter is perfect as the overly bulky, lunkhead town mayor who is actually a nice guy. The neighbors that make friends with Georgia are great and they use the fact that the husband is deaf to have him and his wife roast people in secret in plain sight. While the love triangle sucks it does at least create good basic tension. And for reasons I can’t understand there seems to be one genius writer who is able to both make the tone work and have the characters voice the show’s many and I mean many flaws. This show is truly an oddly effective dumpster fire.
So is this show the next Gilmore Girls? Hell no! It doesn’t have the heart, humor, or characters of that far superior show. But is it damn entertaining? I can’t deny that.