GIRLS: A Sneak Peek at HBO’s New Series

Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna are trying to figure life out. Theyʼve been living in New York for a couple of years, but theyʼre still not sure what they want – from boys, from each other, from themselves. And things arenʼt getting any clearer.

Created by and starring Lena Dunham (“Tiny Furniture”), who also directed half of the episodes, the new HBO series Girls takes a comic look at the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of girls in their early 20s. Dunham, Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner executive produce the show, which kicks off its ten-episode season Sunday, April 15 at 10:30/9:30c on HBO.

So who are the Girls? Meet Hannah (Lena Dunham): a unique mixture of self-entitlement and self-loathing. She believes she has the talent to be a successful writer, but forgets she has to write first. She wants to have a boyfriend without the obligations of a relationship, and a job without having to work. Sheʼs ultimately good-natured, with a spirited sense of humor. But every time Hannah is about to improve her circumstances, her cluelessness undercuts her.

Marnie (Allison Williams), Hannahʼs roommate and best friend, is a Type A personality with strict rules about friendship. She seems like Hannahʼs opposite, because sheʼs got an actual job and a serious boyfriend. But while sheʼs more together on the surface, her unwillingness to admit how lost she is may mean that sheʼs the most lost.

Jessa (Jemima Kirke) is a live-and-let-live bohemian whoʼs allergic to anything she views as bourgeois. She wants a life less ordinary and has travelled extensively. Sheʼs had lots of different jobs and lots of different boyfriends, but her apparent lack of fear belies her own kind of insecurity. Jessa is apt to put crazy ideas in Hannahʼs head that are easier for a gorgeous British girl to pull off than they are for anxious, rumpled Hannah.

Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet), Jessaʼs roommate and cousin, aspires to the “Sex and the City” lifestyle. Sheʼs an NYU student obsessed with “womenʼs issues,” gluten-free foods and sexcentric self-help. The others tend to underestimate her because sheʼs suburban and innocent, but Shoshanna can be a surprisingly incisive source of wisdom.