Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote an Op-Ed criticizing “Girls”

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:45:00 +0000

Did you know that retired professional athlete and NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is also an actor, a writer and a U.S. cultural ambassador? Yep. And now he's one of the many vocal critics of HBO's comedy "Girls."

Abdul-Jabbar recently wrote an Op-Ed explaining why the show isn't really "a voice of a generation." As he sees it, " 'Girls' wants to tell us something important about twentysomething females of the 21st Century." "And, as the elders of our society," he writes, "we should always be listening to those new voices crying out. But what are they telling us?"

What this "standard sitcom" is telling us, according to Abdul-Jabbar, is that this generation's world is full of "mostly white," "not that funny" girls whose guy friends are "more interesting." (He has a point).

His harshest critique, below:

Allison Williams explains the contentious relationship 20-somethings have with “Girls”

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 23:15:00 +0000

Since its inception, literary wunderkind Lena Dunham's HBO show "Girls" has been getting more than its fair share of publicity -- and that, only after one season. Sure, with its entitled, smug characters and reliance on indie pop culture references (Bushwick warehouse and pans of Twitter accounts galore), it's a show that everyone loves to hate on, and the haters have a point. But it's also a staggeringly honest depiction of what life is like for a tiny (albeit privileged) subset of college grads who are wafting through their 20s trying to figure out what's next. In an interview published today by Vanity Fair's Bruce Handy, actress Allison Williams, who plays the especially hard-to-like Marnie Michaels, hits the nail on the head when assessing why 20-somethings feel so drawn to, and yet so ill-at-ease with, the show:

Salon.com > 20-somethings

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote an Op-Ed criticizing “Girls”

Allison Williams explains the contentious relationship 20-somethings have with “Girls”