Ginny & Georgia, a 2021 series that reminds us of our favorite series from the 2000s
Created by Sarah Lampert in 2021, Ginny and Georgia opens with the arrival of Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey) in Wellsbury, a small town in Massachusetts. This vivacious young single mother, all the way from Texas, moves in with her two children, Ginny (Antonia Gentry), 15, and Austin, 9.
Full of resources, but also obsessed by her past, she must assert herself in a bourgeois universe Desperate Housewives. Catching Ginny’s crush Marcus coming through the window, Georgia exclaims: “Where do you think you are, in a 90s teen drama? In Dawson? » Actually,Ginny and Georgia takes us back to the good old days of teen and family dramas, with a twist soap to keep us in suspense.
The mother-daughter relationship: a topic treated with care, at the center of the series
The series presents itself as the worthy heir of Gilmore Girls. Ginny and Georgia are as close in age (just 15 years apart) as Rory and Lorelai, but their relationship is represented in a more realistic way, with moments of complicity and painful settling of scores.
In the voiceover, each of them, in turn, reveals their moods. This allows us to understand both of her points of view: on the one hand, that of Ginny, who needs to emancipate herself from her mother and from the unconscious pressure she exerts on her; on the other that of Georgia, who has grown a lot together with her daughter (“it’s you and me against the rest of the world”, reminds him) that she can’t stand having to give him space to grow. The series finely analyzes all the complexity of their codependent bonds.
Rare inclusiveness on screens
Have you ever seen a mixed-race teenager with a white mother on a show? mainstream ? Ginny and Georgia fills a missing representation in pop culture, and does it well. She addresses dual culture: Ginny rarely feels like she belongs and lives with this nagging feeling of not being black enough, or white enough depending on the context.
If he can share his questions with the black father, it is not the same with the white mother. This is a source of great anxiety, which he ends up expressing during a shocking therapy session in season two. Confronted by her mother who doesn’t want to see their differences, Ginny explains that she needs to be able to tell her when she’s hurt. , for example, seeing her disguised as Scarlett O’Hara (the heroine ofGone With the Wind).
The series offers other successful representations of minorities, such as Max (Sara Waisglass), Ginny’s lesbian best friend and drama queen, leader of her group of friends. In the first season, Ginny dates Hunter (Mason Temple), a teenager of Taiwanese descent who also experiences racism. Their argument after a teacher subtly pits them against each other is one of the series’ strongest scenes.
Sensitive topics, handled with precision
Self Ginny and Georgia It looks like a series comfort food », he also knows how to deal with delicate issues, such as self-harm or adolescent depression. Faced with a world full of injunctions whose codes they discover, adolescent girls are subject to mental disorders.
We speak of “adolescent crisis” as an obligatory passage, which tends to minimize the suffering experienced. Ginny and Georgia recounts this unhappiness at an adolescent level, in all its desperation and devastating complexes (think of Abby, who suffers from dysmorphophobia). Through the character of Georgia, the series also addresses the taboo topic of domestic violence and the lack of support that women receive, isolated and forced to find a way out on their own.
Georgia is a complex anti-heroine, just the way we like it
“A woman’s life is a struggle. And the beauty of her is a fucking machine gun. I’m not going anywhere without my war paint. » Always dressed, with a smile on her face, solid as a rock, Georgia regularly upends the sexist cliché of the unintelligent pretty blonde. Over the course of two seasons we learn under what circumstances she has built this shell and a philosophy of life that pushes her to look for a man with whom she can elevate herself socially.
But what exactly do we reproach women like Georgia, defined as “venal”? Simply trying to get out of your social class. But, if her initial motivations – protecting her family from patriarchal violence – make her endearing to us, are her actions still justifiable, the season two finale asks? We wait for Netflix to give the green light to a season 3, to discover the rest of the adventures of this tasty anti-heroine.
Listen to Apéro des Daronnes, Madmoizelle’s show that aims to break down taboos on parenting.
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
