In the article “Lena Dunham's 'Girls' Navigate New York City Life,” David Bianculli reviews a new comedy series on HBO entitled “Girls”. The show is already being called the next Sex and the City and Bianculli gives it an excellent review. He calls the writing “complete,” “very funny,” and “brilliantly clever” (1).
Bianculli is a guest host and TV critic on NPR’s Fresh Air. From 1993 to 2007, Bianculli was a TV critic for the New York Daily News.
Context: The show is premiering today, April 15. Reviews are often written a few days before a new show airs to inform people on whether or not they should tune in.
The purpose was to convince the audience to watch the show because of its excellent and realistic writing and acting.
The audience intended for this article is listeners/readers of NPR and those interested in the show.
Rhetorical devices used: detailed summary and comparison. Bianculli paints a clear picture of what to expect without giving too much information away. Instead of going into too much detail, he just explains how much he loves the show: “And it's during this opening scene, when Hannah realizes she's about to be launched into the next phase of her life, that I fell in love” (2). He goes on to compare this show to others that share a similar plot, which gives the audience a better understanding of what to expect: “The first episode's opening scenes remind me as much of Sex and the City as they do other, earlier single-working-woman TV comedies. The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the '70s, with Mary Richards landing a job at a Minneapolis TV station…” (3). Bianculli is charmingly honest and his high praise has convinced me to watch the show.
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/13/150505453/lena-dunhams-girls-navigate-new-york-city-life
