Girlboss: The Birth of a Nasty Gal

April 30, 2017 9:19 AM - All Seasons

Produced by (among others)Charlize Theron and loosly based on the life of Sophia Amoruso and the creation of her fashion empire, Nasty Gal, this superfluous and addictive series features killer vintage fashion, boatloads of beautiful people, and the best representation of an ebay Vintage Fashion forum in the history of content streaming. If you watch nothing else, watch episode 10. It will ring familiar.

Found here on Netflix.

posted by Stanczyk (5 comments total)

Yeeaaaaahhhh..... I cut it off 1 3/4 episodes in, the main character is that unwatchable. I mean, there are unlikable characters that I've enjoyed watching (right off the top of my head David Lee, Howard Lyman on The Good Wife, Ben/Linus on LOST) but this one is actively repellent. I read on another forum to skip to Episode 4. Is that advisable? Because I am curious how she capitalized on a entirely unoriginal idea.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:15 PM on April 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

I loved this show! The trailer had me pretty excited (I sell vintage stuff, love the eBay angle) but it is definitely a different show than what it leads you to believe. The relationship stuff was kind of tedious to me - if Shane had any sense he would have ruuuun from her after that all-day date scene.

There was some great music throughout, and the Annie character!! She's the best part of the show. And I had never heard of nastygal.com (she has the domain now) but yes it is a fully-functioning web company, so kudos to IRL Sophia.

Oh, and Melanie Lynsky! I will watch her in anything, and she was at her slighty-unhinged-best here, the way she treats the clothes, wow. Love her.


On preview: Yeah, Sophia is an asshole. She has daddy issues, she has BIG mommy issues. She doesn't know how to treat people, or run a business. The scenes with her mom are so grossly wrong but ugh if you have a mom like that you can relate.
posted by polly_dactyl at 3:15 PM on April 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

It really annoyed me when she stole the rug and got away with it. She's also obnoxiously mean to her dad and I just feel hugely sorry for him.
I read a review of this show (on Lainey Gossip) that described Sophia as wildly miscast. The actress is good, but she's too sweet and likable to play a "nasty" character. I think that's a really good point. I actually like the show a lot more when I imagine Kirsten Ritter as the lead.
I'll keep watching because I love the fashion and so many of the side characters - RuPaul as the neighbor, Annie, Norm McDonald - they're all fun. Shane seems like such a wet blanket to me, I just find him really boring.
posted by areaperson at 10:48 AM on May 1, 2017

It took me a lot longer than I should admit to catch on that this was actually set in the recent past and that certain things were not just ironically outdated.
posted by sweetmarie at 9:38 PM on May 5, 2017

The degree to which the protagonist is unlikable was maybe my favorite thing about this. The problem for me was that the stakes are so low that it was hard for the series to carry off an antihero. Can we call her an antihero? I don't know. Let's say "Asshole They Want Us Rooting For."

It has Ru Paul though, giving a fun little performance. I sort of get the impression Ru Paul was handed a generic sassy queen role and instead came at them with I Am Too Tired for Your Bullshit instead. And it's fun.

But yeah... the stakes are hella low. An entire ep about naming an eBay account? Sheesh.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:16 PM on June 14, 2017