HBO announced today that Lena Dunham’s original series, Girls, will take a bow after six seasons on the network.
Similar to last year, HBO has gone ahead and renewed Girls ahead of its season 5 premiere. The news follows some speculation surrounding Lena Dunham’s pull towards other projects in recent months.
Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming stated in his announcement, “Lena Dunham and her brilliant collaborators, including Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner, have given HBO a signature series of rare wit and intelligence. They are exceptional talents, and I can’t wait to see what Lena, Jenni and Judd have in store for the final seasons of this unique show, and look forward to working with them on future projects.”
Dunham complimented the network on allowing her to plant her idea and watch it grow. She said of the final renewal, “I can’t imagine a more fulfilling creative experience than Girls. The freedom and support that HBO has given Jenni, Judd and me is something rare and beautiful. The commitment and originality of our actors has been stunning, and our crew is truly my family.”
Get ready for season 5: Watch the Girls season 5 trailer: It’s time to grow up
Since Girls‘ conception, Lena Dunham has written a best-seller, started the podcast Woman of the Hour, and executive produced an HBO documentary about Eloise illustrator Hilary Knight. Dunham continued to speak about the inevitable end of the series saying, “I conceived of Girls when I was 23 and now I’m nearly 30 — the show has quite perfectly spanned my 20s, the period of time that it’s about — and so it feels like the right time to wrap our story up. We look forward to creating a sixth season that will honor our amazing cast, crew and fans. And in the Girls universe, nothing ever ends too neatly.”
To be fair, Girls has enjoyed a great run on television. But, plenty of truth exists in that last line. In season 4 Dunham shifted the focus more tightly on Hannah’s journey as she packed up her life and stole away to Iowa for a few weeks. Her return to New York City did not necessarily facilitate a grand reunion, nor did it widen the scope of the series to include compelling narratives for the other lead cast members. The ending was neither satisfying nor neat.
Season 5 begins in a few weeks where, hopefully, Marnie’s singing career is put on the back burner, Soshanna is given an entire episode to catch the audience up on her life, Hannah and Fran’s relationship is not burnt to the ground by Adam trying to win Hannah back. Maybe working towards a resolution will capture some of the magic that existed in season 1 and season 2.
[socialpoll id=”2321759″]
Girls returns for season 5 Sunday, February 21 at 9:00 p.m. ET on HBO.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.