There is a plethora of television series that showcases the sometimes tumultuous and complex relationship between mother and daughter. But very few of them explore the dynamics of the relationship, like Ginny and Georgia.
Many people have likened the Netflix Series to the CW Gilmore Girls, which followed the rather charming life of Lorelai and her daughter Rory. In fact, in the first episode, Georgia yells out, “We’re like the Gilmore girls, just with bigger b**bs.” However, the similarities between the two series end with the central characters; a young mother and her gauzy teenage daughter.
Overview
The show follows Ginny (played by Antonia Gentry), Georgia (played by Brianne Howey), and her son Austin (Diesel Torraca). When Georgia’s husband passes away, she decides to uproot her family and move across the state. They move to a small wealthy town in Massachusetts, which makes sense because she’s dead broke. For Ginny and her brother, the move means new beginnings, but for her mother, it’s a desperate attempt to escape from her dark past.
Ginny is a fifteen-year-old girl that’s on a journey of self-discovery. She is struggling to navigate a new high school and her relationship with her mother. Ginny often describes her mother as a strong presence, dragging everyone around her into her troubles. But Georgia doesn’t realize that her life choices have major repercussions, especially on her children.
Throughout the show, Ginny and Georgia explore together serious topics such as Ginny’s sex life, her struggles as a biracial girl in a predominantly white town, and friendships. Even though Georgia would do everything for her children, she somehow misses out on her daughter’s struggles. That’s why Ginny constantly tries to detach herself from reality, especially from her mother. But as much as she tries to, she can’t escape it. It’s Georgia’s world, and others are just living in it.
Is Georgia A Bad Mom?
Credit: Ginny & Georgia
Throughout the show, Georgia constantly faces rejection and judgment from others. She gets accusations that she’s a bad mother from her love interests, fellow town mothers, and at times even her own daughter. While Georgia’s parenting skills are a bit unconventional, it’s clear that she has unconditional love for her children.
One thing’s for sure, she’s willing to do anything to protect them. And as season 2 uncovers, Georgia is truly capable of doing anything to protect her family. One example of her unconventional parenting style is when Austin is sent home from school for having stabbed a classmate. The classmate was bullying him, so he decided to react to it. But unlike typical parents, Georgia gives Austin a high five since she thinks of this as an act of defense.
She’s also very opposed to her children attending therapy, making the viewers doubt her parenting choices. Eventually, when Ginny decides to seek therapeutic help, she doesn’t tell her mother. But when Georgia finds out, she is not happy about it at first. But then she decides to join her daughter at her sessions and support her in her own way.
Regardless of her parenting style, Georgia is a good example that human beings are deeply flawed. Parents are not perfect, and they are all just living life for the first time too.
Ginny And Georgia’s Relationship Is Filled With Tension
Ginny and Georgia’s relationship is rife with tension, mainly because of the secrets that Georgia has kept from her daughter. While all parents have their reasons for not disclosing everything to their children, Georgia’s secrets can’t be classified as such because they are just outright harmful lies. For instance, for years, Ginny has always believed that her mom didn’t have any living family members.
When her mother’s sister comes into town with her son in tow, Ginny is shocked to learn that she actually has an aunt, and she can’t understand why her mother would lie about having a sister. Georgia eventually tells Ginny about her pedophile dad, that molested her and her sister. When Georgia escaped, she left behind her sister and wanted to forget that her family ever existed. Ginny feels a measure of sympathy for her mother, but she also wonders what else she is hiding.
Ginny and Georgia’s Relationship Is Dysfunctional
In some aspects, Ginny and Georgia are more like friends than actual mother and daughter. Georgia doesn’t really discipline her daughter, and she even allows her to have boys in her room, which eventually backfires, and it becomes an issue for Hunter’s mother. Georgia’s failure to put her foot down at times diminishes her authority, and this is one of the reasons why their relationship is dysfunctional.
Georgia has a tendency to latch on to men, and she looks to them to “save” her in a sense, at least financially. When she moves to Welsbury, she has her eyes set on the mayor. So she lands a job in his office and concocts a plan for him to fall in love with her, which works. The way she relates to men isn’t the best influence on her daughter, who’s also starting to explore the opposite sex. Georgia isn’t the best example for her daughter in this aspect.
Credit: Ginny & Georgia
As previously discussed, Georgia has a lot of secrets that threaten her relationship with her children. When Ginny is confronted by a private detective who believes that her mother is a murderer, Ginny begins to put the pieces together.
She begins to doubt Georgia and questions whether she really knows who her mother is. Georgia murdered her last two husbands. She married her first husband, who also happened to be her boss, when she was really young so that she could regain custody of Ginny when she was a baby. He took advantage of her and was extremely controlling. So Georgia poisoned him and ran away. She caught her second husband molesting Georgia and ended up poisoning him as well.
Georgia has a good reason for the things she has done because her actions were an effort to protect her children. However, her secrets are quickly catching up to her. She’s a good example of how the road to hell is sometimes paved with good intentions. She loves her kids but is constantly hurting them and causing potential trauma. But the future will tell what Ginny and Austin will take out of their childhood.Gilmore Girls
