It’s been one week since Netflix dropped its latest highly anticipated series, Girlboss, but already the hate mail and scathing reviews are coming in hard and fast.
In case you missed it, the 13-part show is loosely based (“real loose” according to the show’s opening) around the rags to riches story of Sophia Amoruso, a fashion mogul and author, who in her 20s launched Nasty Gal, a vintage eBay business that would eventually go on to become a multi-million dollar fashion empire.
And for the most part, Girlboss shows a woman in her 20s attempting to find her place in the world and pissing off everyone around her in the process.
It's a bit cliché, appears a little contrived, and the acting is - at times - cringeworthy. It shouldn't sound like a new story, but it is.
On paper, Sophia is one of the most unlikable TV characters ever created. She's rude, flighty, antagonistic, narcissistic, a know-it-all and more often than not, is completely uncaring towards the feelings of those who love her the most.
Listen: The Binge discuss the many great aspects of Girlboss. Post continues...
Naturally, viewers hate her.
She's not a character we would want to be friends with, work for or date in real life. We hate the way she treats her dad and boyfriend and best friend. The relentless "you just don't get my art, man"- type spiels are the stuff of our socialising nightmares. But that doesn't mean we should shun her character from our televisions. Because for every Sophia, there are a dozen one-dimensional nice girl characters that we've seen portrayed over and over and over again.
Women who don't break rules. Who don't f*ck up. Who don't treat people badly for no reason. Who don't live in fear about their career and verbalise it at every given opportunity. Who don't live dingy, dirt-cheap apartments. Who don't take horrible jobs to pay medical bills (or just regular bills).
Sure, they appear sometimes, but on the rare occasions that these very real-life scenarios do make it onto the screen, these existential crises are usually realised and resolved all within one short, sharp episode.
Incredibly, Sophia manages to go an entire season - a full 13 episodes of time - without mentioning babies or marriage once. And sadly, in 2017 that's still is a rarity for a female character in her 20s.
Disliking the real-life Sophia Amoruso - a woman who former Nasty Gal employees claim fired pregnant employees in a bid to avoid paying out maternity leave, and eventually filed for bankruptcy - is one thing. But hating a character who is an amplified version of many of us in our 20s seems seriously counter-intuitive.
So hate Girlboss it if you must, but for the love of progression, hate watch it.
What's your take on Girlboss? Do you love it or hate it?
Top Comments
I LOVED it. I just watched it on Netflix and I'm soooo sad there's only 1 season! Not cool Netflix. Not cool.
I hated the first episode but gave it another shot then it gets really addictive. She never gets more likable but her enthusiasm does and the other characters around her really grow on you.
I'd forgotten how much of a girl crush I have on Melanie Lynskey. Agreed that the internet forum episode was really funny!