Ginny & Georgia review: a story as messy as life itself

Express Tribune

29-06-2025

Life, as the flamboyant and charming Georgia Miller puts it in her ultra-Texan drawl on Ginny & Georgia, is 'always either a tightrope or a feather bed.' She's sharing this famous quote, attributed to American writer Edith Wharton, with her fiancé, Paul Randolph, the mayor of the show's fictitious town of Wellsbury, Massachusetts, where the story is set. The imagery illustrates the contrast between two aspects of life: the challenging, risky, and potentially rewarding path of "the tightrope," versus the comfortable, safe, and potentially less fulfilling path of "the feather bed." But Randolph doesn't quite understand the gravity of her words, nor does he realise that nothing could describe Miller's life better. Admitting to herself and her kids who are the closest to her, that she is a monster and never wants them to become like her, is almost always thrown out of the featherbed to land on a tightrope, and that is exactly where Sarah Lampert, the creator of the show, wants the viewer to be.
The storyline of this supposedly 'comedy series' is around an unsettled, awkward 15-year-old daughter, Ginny Miller, who often feels she is way more mature than her 30-year-old mother, the gorgeous, irresistible and dynamic Georgia Miller, known in the series as a 'force'. After years on the run, Georgia desperately wants to settle down in Wellsbury, and finally provide her daughter and son with a normal life, which is something they have never had.
The first season came out early in 2021, and was watched by more than 52M subscribers in its first 28 days. The series made the Top 10 list in 87 countries around the world and hit #1 in 46, including Australia, Brazil, Kenya and the US. Those were the lockdown days as the pandemic had hit the world. People watched it as decent trash, easy watching, pleasant on the eye. But as the season progressed, one began to realise that this 'comedy' genre should more aptly be described as 'dark comedy.' By the time the second season came out in 2023, audiences realised that the show was actually exploring a lot of important themes such as self-harm, sexual identity, having a deaf person in the family isn't a challenge or a stigma, and ethnic and gender inclusivity besides the curious relationship between a mother and a daughter.
Why do I use the word 'curious' here? While on one side, the use of the terms "mother cell" and "daughter cells" in science are used to describe the relationship between a cell that undergoes division and the new cells that result from that division, on the other Freud points out that mothers and daughters do not share the same bond as daughters and fathers. I feel that the mother-daughter relationship is uniquely biological and special, even irreplaceable yet it has its own wavelength, frequency and increasing or decreasing pull. Lampert makes sure she amps that current between Ginny and Georgia from time to time. There are situations where Ginny doesn't want to know her mother, while Georgia always has her arms open for her children.
Some mothers and daughters get on like a house on fire, some don't, depending on time, situation, and circumstances. This is primarily what Ginny & Georgia (G&G) delves into. Although the show is compared to Gilmore Girls, I feel that this is dark and deep, despite Lampert's mastery of weaving the darkness and depth with wild, fun, bouncy stuff that entertains to the core.
Lampert, created the show to be 'a peculiar mix of mystery, intrigue and suspense laced with modern, soapy, coming-of-age storytelling.' 'It needs to be entertaining,' she said in an interview. 'We want people to care about the characters and take them on a wild ride. We gave ourselves permission to be messy as soon as we gave the characters permission to be messy.'
Interestingly, Lampert wrote the pilot during a class she was taking because she was frustrated with herself for not writing enough to spur herself to become a writer with some solid deadlines. 'I wanted something productive to come out of what I was feeling. It's an amalgamation of shows that matter to me.' The shows's audiences must have included tens of thousands of mothers and daughter, reflecting on their relationships with each other, the contribution, the grey areas, the secrets, the unsaid words, and the said ones. A daughter usually sees a mother after the woman who is her mother has been through some 20-30 years of her life. There are often ghosts from the past that many daughters and sons don't know how to accept or deal with but they cannot be written off. A mother is a person, at the end of the day. G&G could be an adventurous tutorial for mothers and daughters to learn about each other, accept and love each other not just for the biological relation but for the people they both are.
As the show explores Ginny and Georgia's complicated and troubled mother-daughter relationship, Ginny struggles to settle in school where students are predominantly white, while she is half black and half white. From the moment that they arrive in Wellsbury, Georgia tries desperately to provide her kids a stable life. Ginny and Georgia's characters are interlinked ofcourse, sometimes the relationship is fun, and other times it is toxic and dangerous. At times they are best friends, while sometimes they are worst enemies. But it is heart-breaking to see how Georgia Miller wants to protect her kids, yet the daughter fails to see beyond the optics. They love each other deeply, yet hurt each other insanely because loved ones hurt the worst, but mostly they are learning about each other and trying to understand each other to their best abilities.
Along with mother-daughter dynamics, the show beautifully portrays identity issues, several marriages/husbands, past traumas among teens, as well as relationships between older people. G&G cannot be lumped into a single genre convention. One wonders if it is a comedy or a drama? Comedy in a dark hood? One tends to agree with Lampert that the show is every genre for it seriously handles some grave topics. For one, it was an eye-opener for me that in the first world, a girl-child and a woman can be exploited and abused to such an extent in the first world, and that the social and cultural pressures and patriarchy is next-level, but completely relatable in our culture. Lampert had the show's writing team partner with Mental Health America, so that a licensed therapist was on call to read the scripts for an accurate depiction of issues like self-harm and depression explored in the show. Responsible entertainment, now that's a new genre!
Brianne Howey who plays Georgia is an extremely talented actor. On the face of it, with her devastatingly fabulous looks, wide charming smile, and rich Texan accent, you may initially feel that 'anybody that good-looking can do this role.' But it is in season two and onwards that Howey stuns you as the multi-layered character begins to shed. Howey makes sure that what you see as Georgia is an impenetrable shield for her cunning mind when it comes to her own and her family's well-being; she could kill for her kids, and she does. Her fear of being discovered for what she was in the past in a fleeting look in her eyes, that is quickly replaced by her dazzling smile. In season 3, Howey excels in her craft. Every mother has a bit of Georgia in her. She does unbelievably good stuff and insanely bad stuff, as a survivor as she wades through difficult choices that life handed out to her. Is she a villain, or the heroine is for you to decide. 'It's us against the world,' she tells her kids, often enough.
Lamperts packs in loads of characters, young and older, but they are all colourful, unique and real. There are surprises within the arc of each character. Plenty of flashbacks of the past lives of the Millers are cleverly woven into a pacey story that allows easy binging. Lampert's favourite tool is voiceovers when the characters speak what is going on their heads — things they think and do not or cannot express. You will find your own favourite characters. Initially I thought Ginny played by Antonia Gentry was flossy, later I realised Gentry's worth as a young actor. I fell in love with all of the Baker family and how their deaf father is so involved in everything the family goes through because they all speak in ASL.
The music score in the three seasons and particularly in the third season accentuates every scene and nuance. They are actually great songs available on YouTube as G&G playlists.
Watching the latest season 3, I realised that the first two seasons are an intricate build up for season 3 which has major juice. It cames as the reward for putting up with the frills and flounce of the previous two seasons. This one is pure, intense drama. I actually clapped at one scene, yelled out a loud 'Nooooo' at one and while watching another, my mouth opened tonsil-wide but no scream came out!
Those who watched seasons 1 and 2 earlier had to wait two years for season 3. Luckily, I got to watch them all together and there was an addictive pull. And yes, there is a season 4 in the making. Soap, chaos, entertainment doesn't get any better than this.