Girls5Eva

Not sure how this show slipped under my radar for so long but Girls5Eva is amazing. We have talked about how women seem to have an expiration date in Hollywood. They are either young and hot, this normally caps out around 30. Or they are old and bitter and this doesn’t really start until 50+. So there is kind of this dead space for actresses where if they don’t create their own work, they don’t work. It's wildly upsetting because there isn’t anything even remotely comparable for men. So the casting and message of Girls5Eva is needed on so many levels. Let’s get into it.

The show itself is about a 90s girl group whose fame and friendship has faded. The girls reunite after several years apart and they decide to try and put their group back together. Sarah Bareilles, Renee Ellis Goldsbury, Busy Phillips and Paula Pell are incredible.

First of all I love that at least half of this girl group can actually sing, like Tony and Grammy awards abound. So whatever music we get during the course of this show is at least gonna sound decent. In the first few episodes there is actually very little music. But Sarah Bareilles’ character is also the songwriter of the group so I anticipate that we will have lots of good music to listen to. I can’t believe that my love for musical tv shows never led me to this until now.

Second of all it was written, directed and produced by WOMEN. Which of course is always preferable when telling stories that are specific to women. The story very much leans into the fact that the entertainment industry doesn’t have any love for women over 30 and it is even harder if you are a mom, or you don’t look the way the general public would like you to. I love that there is a whole show that centers on that.

When the women finally write their first song, we really get to see character growth from all of them. They are letting all the things that weigh them down go finally. Dawn stops being a people pleaser, Gloria stops working so hard, Summer starts to do things that take some level of thought and Wickie pays her friends back. They all break through some sort of wall and the song is actually really beautiful.

The entire first season focuses on the ladies trying to get enough traction to get invited to Jingle Ball and they don’t exactly get invited but they do sing at the event and it was adorable.

Season 2 is all about the women making their first album since they got back together and season 3 is them going on tour. These seasons are so well thought out and very well structured. Each season is self-contained but they pick up right where the last season finale ended, so their pacing is better than most mainstream shows.

This show is incredible and if you haven’t seen Girls5Eva yet, you definitely need to. Very rarely do women in the film industry have the space to be over the age of 30 and this show not only allows them to exist and work but it allows them to be celebrated. We need more projects like this and we need them to be ongoing and sustained. The world can not afford any more amazing projects being canceled. Girls5Eva is a brilliant piece of media and it doesn’t ever try to be more than it is. It’s campy, it's funny but it is also heartfelt and it does all of those things well.