"Girls" greatest TV comedy

You’re probably in one of two camps. You either love HBO’s half-hour dramedy “Girls,” or you love to hate it. I have no qualms admitting I have always belonged to the former.

Since the series premiered in summer 2012, Lena Dunham has established herself as the voice of her generation as “Girls” creator, writer, director, producer and star. Now with two seasons in the books and a third one beginning its 12-episode run last Sunday, little has changed.

Dunham is still producing the deftest series on television, at once both a searing wake-up call to a generation of whiny brats and a celebration of friendship.

Season three begins right where things left off last year. Dunham’s Hannah is in recovery mode from her late season two OCD-induced breakdown and is happily dating Adam, played by the ever-phenomenal Adam Driver. Allison William’s Marnie, who is no longer with boyfriend Charlie after the series departure of actor Christopher Abbot, is as neurotic and miserable as ever, not to mention living with her mom. Newly liberated Shoshanna is letting her sexual freak flag fly, and her cousin Jessa, who ran off mid-season two, is in a rehab facility causing the same ruckus she’s been known for.

If you’ve enjoyed “Girls” bravery for not letting its characters get too genial in the past, then fear not. Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna are as unlikable as ever, and the series is better for it.

These aren’t four gals prancing around New York City, sighing out of Park Avenue apartments and waiting for Mr. Right to come galloping down the street on a white horse. They’re real, flawed, self-centered and agitating people. People that, I’m almost certain, we all see when we take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Because while these girls say basic things like, “I will never be bored as long as there’s Halloween,” they also offer insightful pearls of wisdom, like, “My only limitation is my own mind. Like, I hold the keys to the prison that is my mind.”

These characters created by Dunham feel so real because they place themselves up on such high pedestals while continuously self-criticizing every decision they make.

Season three begins on a rather somber note in a clear atmospheric shift from the beginning of the past two seasons. But weirdly enough, the show has never been funnier.

Even if you continue to be a hater, “Girls” remains a reminder that even our most horrendous experiences are prime comedic gold if we only remember to view our lives through someone else’s eyes.