User reviews

This is the show that taught me to look at TV shows for what they are: writers' impressions of what life "somewhere" for "someone" is like. No, this show doesn't portray all of my personal experiences as a Black woman, but it also doesn't portray what I think my life is going to be like as an attorney, either.

If it's funny, then it's funny - and 'Girlfriends' is funny. Just because the stars are Black doesn't mean that it is necessarily there to represent the "Black" experience. Nor does it have to. No more double standard for me. I recommend this show to everyone - not just Black women.

This show is really funny but sadly underrated. The lead actors are good though the changing supporting cast is not fantastic. I'll be very sad if this show gets cancelled because I stay up till late to watch it and its definitely worth it.

The show lasts about 20 minutes minus ad breaks and tackles some real-life issues like children, marriage, career aspirations, therapy. I wouldn't compare it to Sex and the City though that may have been how the concept for the show began.

I await its move from late night television show to prime time sitcom but doubt it will be happening too soon. All four female leads are quite beautiful...contrary to previous comments.

Great except for the cliffhanger, I want answers. I feel like twenty years is a long time to make viewers wait. Enough is enough. Answers please.

I REMEMBER WATCHING GIRLFRIENDS AND FEELING GOOD AFTER EACH EPISODE. WHILE IT WAS A COMEDY, THERE WAS A SOCIAL MESSAGE AS WELL. THIS WAS CERTAINLY A DIFFERENT STYLE OF COMEDY BUT IT WAS FUN TO WATCH AND GROW WITH EACH RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS' DEVELOPMENT.

I LAUGHED; I THOUGHT DEEPER ABOUT LIFE AND I SAW BLACK WOMEN HAVING TRUE FRIENDSHIPS AND STRUGGLES. IT WAS A PLEASANTLY UNIQUE AND BOLD STATEMENT COMING FROM THE MOST UNLIKELY OF PLACES: COMEDY. BRAVO!

I love this series way back in 2000 still wholesome 22 years later. I kinda find Joan controlling, bossy, judgmental, thinking she's better than everyone else, lowkey narcissistic. Everything had to happen at her house or she wouldn't attend or it wasn't as good as it would have been if it was to be at her house. Then turns around and make everyone feel like she's always there for them. She's that bourgeois friend with the money, status, right family and money connections, who's always there to help her friends out but later uses it to gaslight them about how good she always is to them. She's a victim of her very restricted/protected privileged conservative upbringing.

Toni is the insecure girl who tries too hard to breakfree from poverty and the smalltown countrygal image, she ends up materialistic, self-centered, selfabsorbed narcissistic, but in reality all that is just a front for her fears, insecurities&low selfworth. I feel the others ganged up on her most of the time, they're just plain mean to her, made her the ass of jokes, I can see why "she" left the show. The show lost it's pepper after Toni keft, Jill-Marie nailed that role, it was never the same after she exited.

Lynn was the typical Aquarius. She's over-educated, whimsical, philosophical, but lots of talent&potential. She's hopelessly incapacitated by her identity crisis. She's the open-minded, sexually liberated and artistic woman, very smart, intelligent, acting lazy, spoilt brat, hoochymomma airhead as a way to fit in, deal with her identity crisis and fit in. She seems to have fear of rejection, using sympathy to sponge on her friends. She is the one whose easy to talk to and you can turn to because she's not judgmental.

Maya, the typical ghetto fabulous teen mom, who married too young, yet grounded with some solid values. She's ambitious and determined to rise above her past mistakes and follow her dreams, nonetheless. She's the levelheaded, wiser one among the four.

Girlfriends is an EXCELLENT show which expresses how some friends can truly help to change your life in a positive way. The main characters are Joan Clayton, a 30-something year old entrepreneur, Maya Wilkes, a sassy author and mother, Lynn Searcy, a free-spirit woman who shares many passions, and Toni Childs, a single mother who has changed her wicked ways for the new baby in her life.

All four of them have different personalities but that is also what makes their bond so strong. This show expresses the love that they all share. The four of them lift each other up when they are down and are always willing to lend a hand in each others lives to make it a little bit better. This show is definitely one that will be remembered, this show shows what the true meaning of friends is!

I was resistant to the show at first because I was overwhelmed with shows like Moesha, the Parkers, and I didn't like the way they portrayed black people. But This show is different. These women and especially Reggie Hayes show strong successful Black people who worked their way up to their positions. You can see a bit of your self in all the characters, and William is non stop funny as a momma-loving, republican, success oriented lawyer.

There are other characters that you learn to enjoy, but the friendships between these women is stronger than anything thrown at them; including man troubles.

This show started out good, and has gotten better and more assured throughout its run. Comparisons to "Sex and the City" and "Living Single" are fair, but only tell half of the story. As the show has developed, it has made such comparisons necessarily reductive: "Girlfriends" combines the best of both of those predecessors and throws in other elements to make a series which is both thought-provoking and one of the most raucously funny projects on TV today. Its location in UPN's Monday night "ghetto" is both a blessing and a curse: it gives "Girlfriends" a firm foundation within the target African-American audience, but it limits the show's ability to reach out to other audiences. I wish more people would seek it out; I'm pretty sure they'd love it as much as I do. During the third season, scripts have continued to tackle serious subjects with greater and greater success, while keeping the laugh count as high as ever (much higher than 90% of comedies on the air). The performances remain strong as the characters are taken through much more than usual sitcom paces. This show actually has the nerve to tell real stories, rather than growing stale out of fear of change. The producers have managed to keep the viewers laughing while becoming the leading fictional forum for racial issues and simultaneously earning its feminist bona fides (including an A+ rating from NOW).

Finally, there is a sitcom that allows people to see that we as black females do and can have a productive lifestyles. It is funny, refreshing and the women are attractive. I think all the women on this show are beautiful and I just want to thank them and hope that they continue to be a part of my Monday evening line up, that I love to watch. I pray that they do have a new and wonderful season in the fall. We need more shows like this, I really appreciate the show, if I am not home to watch, I tape it. Maya oh hell yea, and Toni and perhaps she could give her little husband a little more time. My favorite Joan and her freeloading buddy with the "degrees" are a joy to watch. I love William too, and I want to wish you all much love and thank you for your show. You have our support and hope that you can continue to be a blessing to the black community.

I completely connect with each of these characters in different ways. You'll laugh, cry, and get lost in this show. The actors are amazing and have a true and real relationship with each other. Truly a fan! This show has been my therapy since Covid started. Thank you for bringing it back!!

I truly have been enjoying all the characters featured on Girlfriends. Their talent is so deep and rich that I have to remind myself they are actually actors and not real life characters. Having said that I know you will agree with me that it is because of their true talent which is so convincing, compelling and genuine to life that I can almost believe in the reality of the characters as true to life.

I look forward to "many" more seasons of "my" Girlfriends! Congratulations "Girlfriends" for your success of the past and the future with "CW".

Debbie

It's unclear who led Girlfriends' formation, whether Kelsey Grammar rounded up a bunch of African-American heavyweights to build a show, or whether the heavyweights leveraged Grammar's success to get their show aired. Either way, Girlfriends operates at the peak of Hollywood production, with a VERY richly talented team of actors, writers, producers, etc.

The result seems much like Frasier, blending stereotype, caricature, and "comedy of manners" humor with delicately woven stories of challenges contemporary audiences will see as "real" and relevant. That's a tightrope walk. The humor is an established art, in accomplished hands; but the right compromise between humor and realism is far less certain, even for such a skilled group.

Though I might personally prefer to tweak the compromise a bit more toward realism, that would make it a different show. I really like Frasier -- familiar eccentricities/caricatures and all. But I find Martin Lawrence, Tyler Perry, and Eddie Murphy far too silly/campy/ghetto. I did, however, notice that they continue to make more money and garner more fame than certain others. The very-accomplished-but-not-as-famous crew behind Girlfriends surely notices that too.

Creators for HBO & Showtime craft shows to build on the networks' reputation for more weighty/intense/realistic programming. (e.g. Soul Food) Girlfriends' creators must likewise craft the show for the very different market positioning at UPN.

I expect the Girlfriends we see is a very deliberately crafted balance, adjusted to maximize ratings/earnings in a UPN context. The same could be said of Frasier; and I find both shows entertaining.

Male character construction in Girlfriends is an interesting side note. William is given more development & air time than any male on Sex & the City or L-Word, serving as a foil not just in interaction but in his parallel story lines. In making the story about the girlfriends, the writers have wonderfully shown no urge to regurgitate the standard set of negative black male stereotypes. Even more than with Sex & the City, Girlfriends mostly explores the leads' "issues" by contrasting with normality in its male actors.

That is free of race baiting and against victimization speech. So it's possible. The show aired twenty years ago, which is probably the reason for that. I'm only at season one, but I'm enjoying it so far. And if this light tone is kept throughout, I think I'm about to have a good time watching this series. The only real issue I have with it though, is the Lynn character. She's weird, but not in a funny way. Like the actress was on drugs, and it distracts me. Maya is my favorite, obviously. And I love how fearless the humor can get sometimes, especially for a CW series. And even though the show was clearly trying to be Sex and The City meets Friends, with colored women. It has its own appeal and sens of humor, and I like it.

When this show first came out it was considered the Sex and the City for the black folk, and while the premises of the show is smiler (withe the four female friends looking for love career and everything else in between) it's rather different as well.

it's incredibly witty in that Frasier type way and that probably has to do with Kelsy Grammar producing the show, and while they not afraid to talk about sex or in the case of Joan the lack there for every episode is not contaminated with naked torsos all over.

this show does not give the illusion that as a writer for a weekly column you can afford to stay in the heart of Manhatton (i come from South Africa and i know that is expensive) and afford Jimmy Choo's and Blonicks please, these women work hard to look as good as they do, and in Joan's case you might even make yourself broke trying to maintain the look.

This show defiantly found a way to touch on all subjects, broken homes (with out being stereotypical because daddy doesn't always have to beat mommy or be an alcoholic for the home to break up) in the case of Maya and her husband.

you have the Nimphomaniac friend who refuses to stop studding and get a job in the case of Lynn.

the up and coming Legal Aid in the form of Maya

the definite girls girl in the form of Toni Childs so this show def has something for us all....

Defnaitly something for the ladies but Gentlemen you more then welcome to join the fun....

This show is, in my opinion, a very funny well written well acted program. I find it to be sophisticated and not your typical "urban" comedy. The chemistry between the four actresses is wonderful and believable. I must admit that there is a familiar feeling to the format of the show but, so what there are many sitcoms that are "like" other sitcoms that doesn't necessarily mean they are bad. Girlfriends brings a fresh approach to a old format. I like the fact that all the characters are in different places in their lives and that they are different in their approach to life, I find most of the story lines to be very truthful and realistic. This show is worth your time!

This was a brilliant story about successful African American girlfriends. The writers took us through their valleys and their celebrations. Each character had a different personality. It was well received by professionals. It wouldn't be a show with out one male friend. Big Willie was the voice of reason for these girlfriends. His whit, logic, and a great level of success created balance to the show.

Each girlfriend had her own form of success. But, eventually they all found their true calling/success. They were all happy.

Unfortunately, the show was canceled during the writer's strike. Losing this show was a definitely loss. I wish someone would pick this up or give us a reunion show.

When I tell you I combine this with Martin and Living Single, that alone tells you my collabor of TV. I truly appreciate girlfriends for their timeless topics. I WANT TO SEE THIS UNFOLD. We have enough tv we didn't ask for but this is one that is wanted. The world thanks you in advance and the culture celebrates you.

You don't find that many shows involving four black beautiful successful women in LA so finding Girlfriends was a gem. This show is an inspiration to strive for your goals, do what makes you happy, don't settle, and friendship is important. I love how even though all the ladies have different personalities they mesh together so well especially when sharing their problems they all come together to find a solution and we even get insight from a male point of view too. Even though the subjects covered are educational, there will be frequent humor. You can accompany the girls as they go through many stages of life, such as Joan's desire to be married, Maya's transition from marriage to divorce, Toni's involvement in a committed relationship and her learning to compromise, and Lynn's development. It's very relatable and will open your eyes to different experiences and the outcome.