Season 1 |
Episode Guide
Episode 1 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 2 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 3 – | Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 4 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 5 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 6 – | Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 7 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 8 – | Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 9 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 10 – | Review Score – 2/5
Ginny & Georgia feels like five TV shows crammed into one. It’s a bloated, busy, boisterous series with a mean-spirited edge, sharpening and cutting through some of the more intimate and interesting moments.
With strong ideas about race and equality, Ginny & Georgia undermines its own strong foundations by championing two protagonists that lie, cheat, murder and blackmail their way through life. The result is a tonally confused series that starts off as a Gilmore Girls 2.0 before quickly moving beyond that into much murkier and disturbing waters.
Despite the simple opener, there’s an awful lot of story going on here. One can’t help but feel this busyness is a deliberate ploy to gloss over some of the more questionable elements of Netflix’s latest sure-fire hit.
At its core, this Netflix series revolves around young mother Georgia and her two children, Austin and Ginny. This family set-up is turned upside down by the death of their stepfather, Kenny. Deciding they need a fresh start, Georgia relocates her family to Massachusetts.
Ginny starts school, bemoaning the fact that she’s only one of seven black children there. However, she quickly settles into her own clique, complete with boyfriend Hunter and a tight-knit group of lovable friends with their own quirks and tropes. However, there’s trouble in paradise in the form of mysterious Marcus, the next door neighbour whom Ginny takes a fancy to. Is this a love triangle? You bet!
Georgia’s story runs parallel to Ginny’s. She has a very dark past that she’s running away from. With a Private Investigator hot on her heels, Georgia manages to cozy up to the Mayor and get herself a job at his office. As the series progresses, Ginny and Georgia find their relationship strained as they descend down this spiral of deceit, pushed to breaking point by numerous faces from the past returning.
Alongside these two storylines are a fair few half-baked sub-plots that never get the screen time they deserve, consequently ending with a season finale that fails to wrap anything up. Like Oliver with his bowl of gruel, hopeful glances now turn to the Netflix gods of cancellation, pleading for more.
Any and all comparisons to Gilmore Girls going into this are superficial at best. Much like fantasy shows were reported on by using the tagline “the next Game Of Thrones”, Ginny & Georgia has very few things in common with GG. Going into this expecting a tonally similar show will almost certainly leave you disappointed. Instead, Ginny & Georgia is a much different proposition, one that layers on as many plot twists and ideas as possible to disguise from the lack of compelling and resolute character arcs. And that is ultimately the biggest disappointment here.
For a show so adamant on portraying diversity, it’s ironic to see a sheer lack of it in the writing. Not only are there some really tired and obvious clichés strung out, it’s also done so at the expense of showing two protagonists engaging in questionable behaviour with no comeuppance for their actions. Stealing money, blackmailing, cheating on partners and even shooting a rabbit in cold blood all go completely unchecked.
This lack of resolution ultimately makes Ginny & Georgia feel like that cake scene from Matilda. For those unaware, a boy called Bruce is forced to eat a sickly chocolate cake while Miss Trunchbull watches gleefully from the wings. Miraculously he does it, breathing heavily with sticky cheeks as everyone cheers his accomplishments. Until another cake is wheeled out. Then he realizes all his hard work and effort was for nothing. And that, dear readers, sums up what it feels like to watch Ginny & Georgia.
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