Rating: 9/10
Spoilers ahead.
After almost a year of lying in wait, Sarah Lampert delivered the second season of her hit show, “Ginny & Georgia,” starring Brianne Howey as mother, Georgia Miller, and Antonia Gentry as daughter, Virginia Miller, also known as Ginny. The second season is currently ranked No. 1 on Netflix among TV shows.
The end of season one left viewers wondering where Ginny and younger brother Austin were headed next. Ginny and Georgia may appear as the perfect mother-daughter duo, but newly revealed secrets of Georgia’s murderous past drives Ginny to go ghost. As the first episode of season two opens, the clear opposition between the two grows and their relationship takes an almost irreversible turn.
While Ginny wrestles with the reality of her mother’s criminal history, she grows closer with her dad, Zion Miller, who attempts to better her mental health through therapy, and also introduces her to poetry, helping her better express and navigate life and her identity as a biracial woman.
The discussion of Ginny’s race is seldom had. In season one, Ginny is referred to as being “too Black for the white kids, but too white for the Black kids.” Season two dives deeper into the topic of Ginny’s race, as she grows more confident in her identity.
After falling in love with Marus, her best friend’s brother, Ginny is estranged from her friends Max, Abby and Nora, leaving her to grow closer to Bracia, an acquaintance from the first season. Since Bracia is a black female, and able to relate to Ginny’s struggles in a way, time with her opens Ginny’s eyes to know more about who she is. She becomes more bold in calling out the microaggressions of her friends and mom. During episode five, at Joe’s Open Mic Night, Ginny performs a poem on how her mom walks a different life than she’s able to. Her walk through life as a biracial woman is anything but simple. As a white woman, Georgia never acknowledged their differences until she decided to join in on a therapy session with Ginny, showing her that Ginny’s life will never be synonymous with hers.
The awareness of Ginny’s race results in her feeling a lack of belonging. Growing up without the Black side of her family, Ginny was never capable of fully learning her identity. Through the fictional story of “Ginny & Georgia,” viewers get to see first-hand the struggles and reality of biracial children, feeling as though they’re incapable of fitting into one single category.
Through Ginny’s past of self-harm, and Marcus’ severe depression, mental health is a prevalent theme confronted in season two. After a long time of harming herself, Ginny is put into therapy by Zion, hoping to relieve the frequency of her self-harm and improve her mental health. Marcus’s debilitating depression and lack of ability to do simple tasks show the unfortunate reality of many young adults and teens. The prioritization of mental health is essential to proving how important the maintenance of one’s emotional well-being is.
Saturated with drama, “Ginny & Georgia” is an intense but insightful series that provides an inside look at real-life struggles for many. Not only those who struggle with mental health, but also individuals who struggle with topics of race and identity. This has become a fairly new staple to films with iconic mother-daughter duos. However, this one contains twists and turns, with viewers not knowing what to expect next.
And for those who insist on comparing “Gilmore Girls” and “Ginny & Georgia”, don’t, because comparing the two is an injustice toward them both. Though both shows are built upon the same storyline of a mother who had her daughter as a teenager, the ‘Gilmore Girls’ series remains more lighthearted while ‘Ginny & Georgia’ presents heavier topics, setting a different tone and slightly conveying to a different type of audience. The plot of both is created to portray two different tones towards the audience, making it unfair to compare the two.
