Ginny & Georgia
By Sioph W. Leal
Following last season, Georgia (Brianne Howey) was arrested for murder during her wedding to Mayor Paul Randolph (Scott Porter), ruining their fairytale ending and putting Georgia and the rest of the Millers in the spotlight like never before. Now, Ginny (Antonia Gentry) must manage her world falling apart while trying to find herself and feel some sort of happiness and normality. It’s always been Ginny and Georgia against the world, but Ginny needs to come to terms with this and if it’s what she genuinely wants.
Ginny and Georgia is known for its mother-daughter duo, while promising that the cunning and calculating Georgia will be taking centre stage in a murder trial. Unfortunately, the trial seems like it’s a forgotten element of the show that is only truly present later on in the season but filled with a lot of the teenage character’s issues. The episodes tend to peak at the start and end of the episode, with the middle filled with recycled drama that focuses on Ginny’s teenage life. There are few interesting plot points such as Gil’s (Aaron Ashmore) return or even Paul starting to take on more of a decisive role, but these are unfortunately fleeting and overshadowed by the teenage turmoil.
Fans of Ginny and Georgia love Georgia’s southern charm and bluntness and how her lines often added a bit of levity to the series, but this season feels as though it’s drastically reduced Georgia’s involvement in most scenes. Her once refreshing humour has been diminished and instead Ginny and Georgia tries to find its levity with teenage trauma bonding and teasing each other about fairy smut books. Georgia spends most of the time isolated, on her own, but even so Howey manages to pull off all of the complexities of Georgia that we were promised, just with a reduced screen time.
This season was a wonderful time to show Georgia’s past and how it had influenced so many of her decisions. Instead, it is something that is teased throughout this season while Ginny’s continued struggles with self-harm, identity but mostly her teenage love triangle dominates the screen time. Once again, there is a whole episode dedicated to the school musical to only give Max (Sara Waisglass) her time to show how everything within her friend and family group has affected her. While this is important for Max’s character arc, we didn’t need musical numbers to set up this.
Ginny and Georgia is meant to be a show about the complexities of motherhood and that mother-daughter relationship, instead the show has fractured Georgia’s storyline, unnecessarily trying to stretch it over ten episodes while Ginny’s emotionally taking outbursts take centre stage. The storyline is frustratingly one sided, and while it is interesting to see the effect of Georgia’s actions, we didn’t need Ginny’s melodramatics and teenage friendships absorbing the spotlight.
Had Ginny and Georgia kept to what was so compelling in the first season, this would have been a more interesting watch. The adult storylines stand out as the most compelling part of the series, especially when Georgia’s manipulation is on show. Unfortunately, with Georgia being overlooked and overshadowed by the never-ending circling back to Ginny’s feelings and complicated romantic relationships, the episodes feel repetitive.
Reducing Georgia’s involvement in Ginny and Georgia and focusing on the teenage trauma bonding reduces the comedy and levity of the series. The long-awaited murder trial often takes a back seat to whatever emotional trauma Ginny is experiencing, making season three of Ginny and Georgia difficult to watch. Luckily, the series has Brianne Howey to save it, which she does no matter what scene she is in.