Arrested Development

Arrested development is a term that refers to a maturation process which has ceased to progress. In “The Girls,” the title characters are in their early thirties but still live with their parents as if they were teenagers or younger. They do not hold down jobs, they do not have friends or boyfriends, and they are not attending college or in any way pursuing a life beyond the circle of their immediate family. This arrested development is a detriment to the girls themselves and the quality of life they lead, and in this case, it is also makes the girls a nuisance and occasional terror to their parents’ summer houseguests. The direst result of the girls’ arrested development is the drain on their mother. Because the girls have never broken away from their parents, they are in some mysterious way still drawing on...