Thank Gen Z for the ‘Girls’ Revival

Using their native tongue: the internet, Gen Z proselytized the show through memes, clips, and podcasts, and now, as if by collective manifestation, it’s being rebooted for five episodes, which HBO announced Wednesday.

When Girls first aired in 2012, it was cataclysmic. Rave reviews were usurped by the relentless onslaught of sexism and misogyny, which commented on Dunham’s body, the kind of sex depicted onscreen, and the nepo baby allegations against the show’s stars—as well as the series’ lack of diversity. There was endless backlash and backlash to the backlash; it became everyone’s favorite show to both fairly criticize and willfully misunderstand, and creator Dunham was the one stuck grasping onto the lightning rod of so much ire, as she began to stand for everything wrong with millennial white women.