HBO is loving the lady comedies. Following a second-season renewal for the extremely low-rated Laura Dern comedy Enlightened, the network has renewed freshman comedies Girls and Veep for second seasons.

Veep premiered last week with nearly 1.4 million viewers. The show follows a do-nothing, foul-mouthed vice president played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It's genuinely funny, and I'm quite excited that HBO has given the show a second term.

I'm less excited about the renewal of Girls, which premiered with less than one million viewers and its second episode was nearly the same. Despite early critical buzz (not from me), there was a sizeable viewer backlash against the unlikeability of the show, particularly its star and creator, Lena Dunham.

For me, the problem isn't just that the character is unlikeable, it's that she's painfully boring and pathetic. She thinks her life is worthy of a memoir, but the truth is that her completely ordinary life isn't worthy of a book or a TV show. The character's inflated sense of self worth is mirrored by the closing credits, where Dunham's name appears so many times you assume you're watching a film student's home movie where they credit themselves for catering and costume design.

Either way, renewing both of these comedies, along with Enlightened, shows that HBO is all about female-centric comedies. This is a huge departure from the network's recent history, as male sitcoms like Entourage, Hung, Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down dominated HBO.

Both Veep and Girls will have 10-episode second seasons sometime in the future. They currently air Sundays at 10pm and 10:30pm on HBO.


(Image courtesy of HBO)