Do people find the TV series Girls relatable?

I don't know about the current generation, but my husband and I were in grad school together in NYC in our 20's, in the late 80's and early 90's and we think the characters in the show are intensely realistic (and funny and often not very likable). The situations perhaps are more over the top, but what they depict about relationships is very insightful.

As a white male in his 20's I would say no. it is nothing like what my or the lives of most of my friends is like. I will say however the basic themes of searching for identity, loneliness etc are accurate but i would argue that those aren't unique to mine or any other generation. Girls focuses on a very specific 20something experience.

No. The characters are only relatable to a specific subset of 20-somethings from upper middle class to wealthy background who live in New York. A 20 year old living in, say, Savannah, Georgia would have a completely different experience. On a side note, I think that's why this show has attracted so much negative attention, there are way too many critics acting like this is some sort of Generation Y manifesto that applies to every single member and everyone should be able to relate to.

I don't live a lifestyle remotely similar to any of the characters, but I have watched one episode and the show falls into a large and prevelant contemporary category of entertainment. The aim of such shows is to have enough elements of real people and real life so you are hoodwinked into thinking "this is plausible and authentic". Once they have you believe that, they go to the old playbook of spicy over-the-top entertainment and infuse it with as much craziness (many times sex) as they can, so long as you still believe it to resemble genuine relationships and lifestyles. That was my first impression. I could be wrong but this type of formulaic approach works sometimes successfully (think The Office) and sometimes it doesn't. This could be a grossly ignorant opinion and it wouldn't be my first.

I enjoy watching "Girls" for oh-so-many reasons and it is consistent with how I experienced my 20's.  The eclectic group of longtime friends that are changing and headed in very different directions, yet cling to the safety of their friendships in spite of obvious cracks that only grow deeper.  The awkward sexual encounters and experiences.  Being overeducated and underemployed.  Trying to experience all of the "fun" and "free spirited adventure" you are supposed to in your 20's while the inevitable mental break from all of the stress is bubbling up in the background.  Learning how to relate to your parents and who they are.  Experimenting with drugs and with jobs and with hairstyles.  Living in places that your mother would call a "shitbox".  Getting back together with your boyfriend and then breaking up.  Again.  Wanting your parents to be proud of you and not caring if they are proud of you.  Having enormous ambition and equally enormous indolence.  Girls really captures what it's like to want to be who you are, but to always fall just a teensy bit short of the mark.

Someone loaned me the DVD of the First Season. They were  sure I was going to like it, and I didn't. I found the characters unlikeable. I could relate to some of the things they did, but it wasn't stuff I necessarily wanted to think about doing in my 20s, even though that was one of the most exciting times in my life.   I don't need to share the same SES, generation, economic status, or ethnic group to find a show relatable: I have related to many predominately female series: Sex and The City,  Living Single, Gilmore Girls, Call the Midwife, Orange is the New Black etc.   I can't quite articulate why the show didn't grab me. I find Lena Dunhams character self absorbed in a way that isn't at all endearing..much like Piper from OITNB. In fact, Piper could be written off that show and I don't think I'd miss her. But perhaps she is there to make the other characters more sympathetic.