Available on Netflix, the two seasons of Ginny & Georgia never cease to top the platform’s Top 10. Analysis of a deserved success.
She has vibes from our favorite 2000s shows
Created by Sarah Lampert in 2021, Ginny & Georgia begins with the arrival of Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey) in Wellsbury, a small town in Massachusetts. This colorful young single mother from Texas moves in with her two children, Ginny (Antonia Gentry), 15, and Austin, 9.
Full of resources, but also haunted by her past, she must impose herself in a bourgeois universe at the Desperate Housewives. Surprising Marcus, a crush of Ginny climbing her window, Georgia exclaims: “Where do you think you are, in a teen drama from the nineties? In Dawson? » EffectivelyGinny & Georgia takes us back to the good old days of teenage and family dramas, with a touch of soap to keep us going.
She explores mother-daughter relationships with aptness
The series presents itself as the worthy heiress of Gilmore Girls. Ginny and Georgia are as close-knit and close in age (just 15 years apart) as Rory and Lorelai, but their relationship is portrayed more realistically, with moments of bonding and painful settling of scores.
In voice-over, they deliver, each in turn, their moods. This allows us to understand both points of view: on the one hand, that of Ginny, who needs to emancipate herself from her mother and the unconscious pressure she puts on her; on the other, that of Georgia, who has forged so much with her daughter (“it’s you and me against the rest of the world”, she reminds him) that she can’t stand having to give him space to grow. The series finely dissects all the complexity of their codependent links.
A rare representation on the screens
Have you ever seen a mixed-race teen with a white mom in a series? mainstream ? Ginny & Georgia fills in a missing representation in pop culture, and it does it well. She tackles the double culture: Ginny rarely feels out of place and lives with this nagging feeling of not being black enough, or white enough depending on the context.
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If she can share her questions with her black father, it is not the same with her white mother. This is a source of great anxiety, which she ends up expressing during a moving therapy session in season 2. Faced with her mother who does not want to see their differences, Ginny explains that she needs to be able to tell her when she is hurt, for example, by seeing her disguised as Scarlett O’Hara (the heroine ofGone with the wind).
The series features other successful minority portrayals, like Max (Sara Waisglass), Ginny’s lesbian BFF and drama queen, leader of her gang of girlfriends. In season 1, Ginny dates Hunter (Mason Temple), a teenager of Taiwanese origin who also experiences racism. Their argument after a teacher sneakily put them in competition is one of the strongest scenes in the series.
Sensitive subjects, treated with accuracy
And Ginny & Georgia looks like a series comfort food she also knows how to tackle sensitive subjects, such as self-harm or adolescent depression. Faced with a world filled with injunctions whose codes they discover, teenage girls are subject to mental disorders.
We speak of a “teenage crisis” as a necessary passage, which tends to minimize the suffering experienced. Ginny & Georgia depicts this ill-being at the height of a teenager, in all its despair and its devastating complexes (one thinks of Abby, who suffers from dysmorphophobia). Through the character of Georgia, the series also addresses the taboo subject of domestic violence and the lack of support women receive, isolated and forced to find a way out on their own.
Georgia is a complex anti-heroine, as we like them
“A woman’s life is a struggle. And her beauty is a fucking machine gun. I don’t go anywhere without my warpaints. » Always dressed, smiling, solid as a rock, Georgia regularly overturns the sexist trope of the not-so-smart blonde beauty. Over the two seasons, we learn in what circumstances she forged this shell and a philosophy of life that pushes her to look for a man to rise socially.
But what exactly is blamed on women like Georgia, described as “venal”? Quite simply to try to leave his social class. But, if her initial motives – to protect her family from patriarchal violence – make her endearing to us, are her actions still justifiable, asks the season 2 finale? We are waiting for Netflix to give the green light to a season 3, to discover the rest of the adventures of this tasty anti-heroine.
One photo credit: Netflix.