Girlboss Premiere Recap: Will You Stick With This Nasty Gal?—Grade It!
How does a young woman who believes that “adulthood is where dreams go to die” become a self-made millionaire?
Netflix’s new series, Girlboss, adapted from the #Girlboss biography of Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, stars Britt Robertson as the free-spirited, fashion-forward, rug-stealing protagonist. The 13-episode series from Kay Cannon (30 Rock, Pitch Perfect) follows Sophia’s journey from eBay entrepreneur to professional fashionista. Netflix released Girlboss‘ first season in its entirety Friday; read on as we recap the premiere.
In the first few moments we are introduced to Sophia, whose story starts in 2006 San Francisco, a city of picturesque trolleys and storefronts. She drives up one of the city’s notoriously steep hills, only to run out of gas at the top, and makes quite the first impression — opting to throw the trolley driver her middle finger as she attempts to push her car up the hill.
Sitting on a park bench, Sophia stares into the camera and states, “Adulthood is where dreams go to die.” We very quickly get it: She’s a pessimist, adamant in her decision to stay young.
Later, Sophia meets up with her friend Annie (played by Ellie Reed, 2 Broke Girls) at the bar, where Sophia eyes the new drummer, Shane (Klondike‘s Johnny Simmons), who is coincidentally the roommate of Annie’s new hookup, Dax the bartender (The Middle‘s Alphonso McAuley). After gazing at each other and exchanging shy greetings, Sophia and Shane fall into bed together. A few moments later, Sophia claims she’s “done” and explains that she doesn’t do one-night stands. Shane, who is completely fine with this turn of events, allows Sophia to crash even though they just met and know absolutely nothing about each other.
The next day begins with Sophia strolling half an hour late into the shoe shop where she works. She sasses her supervisor and pushes every button imaginable: surfing the web, taking a personal phone call from her father and eating her supervisors’ sandwich. Sophia clearly doesn’t take her job seriously and is fired on the spot. She tells BFF Annie that she “quit again,” before pausing and confessing, “Oh, Annie. S–t. Why am I such an a–hole?”
Quickly shaking off her unemployed status, Sophia visits a vintage store where she finds an original 1970s East/West calfskin motorcycle jacket. She scams the salesman (Community‘s Jim Rash, in a cameo) into a $10 deal and advises him, “Know what your s–t’s worth, ’cause you just got played.” (“Nasty Gal” sounds about right.) Outside, Sophia checks herself out in the reflection of a storefront. Her new jacket makes her feel so powerful that she approaches a storefront, picks up a rug and walks away with it, all while the store clerk watches.
After falling asleep in the park, Sophia runs across the city to a super fancy restaurant where her Dad is waiting for her. (It’s Dean Morris from Breaking Bad!) Her father is worried and expresses his desire for her to come home. When he points out that Sophia has never indicated that she has dreams, she picks up her rug and leaves.
At home, there’s an eviction notice on her apartment door, and Sophia manages to fall in the hallway and split open the crotch of her pants. Her neighbor walks out (It’s RuPaul!) and delivers a hilarious warning: “Unless you want to get HPV, you better close your legs, girl.” When Sophia finally gets in her apartment, she checks out some vintage clothes on eBay and stares in the mirror some more. Her eyes widen and… eureka!
Quickly, she nails the rug to her wall, messes with her hair and puts on some dark makeup. She takes a picture of herself donning the jacket and posts it to eBay. Soon after, the bidding prices are steadily rising, already climbing above $170. Smiling, she says, “Bring on adulthood, motherf—er.” Looks like this Nasty Gal is ready to grow up.
What did you think of Girlboss’s premiere episode? Will you binge the rest of the season? Grade the series premiere in the poll below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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