🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐
There’s no denying it, peaches, things get real intense in Ginny & Georgia Season 2.
If somebody gave you a brief overview of the family drama — mentioning murderous housewives and teen angst — you might not immediately expect Ginny & Georgia to be the kind of show to deal with mental health and trauma.
But go beyond Georgia’s (Brianne Howey) theatrical flair and tendencies for melodrama, and the series explores some very real and very pertinent topics. Starring Howey as a single mom in her early 30s and Antonia Gentry as her teenage daughter Ginny, Season 1 sees Ginny deal with the chaos of her mom’s choices, turning to self-harm to cope with her overwhelming feelings of depression and anxiety.
“We take a lot of care in how we approach these topics,” series creator/executive producer Sarah Lampert tells Tudum, adding that a licensed psychologist weighs in on every script and that the nonprofit group Mental Health America also reviews scripts and content involving mental health storylines.
"Including mental health portrayals in media, when done in a responsible way, can help fight stigma around diagnoses and show viewers they aren't alone in dealing with similar emotions or challenges," says Em Skehill, Director of Public Awareness and Education at Mental Health America. "Netflix and the cast and crew of Ginny & Georgia have demonstrated that they want to get these characterizations right in a realistic, non-harmful manner for viewers. We hope those watching feel empowered to reach out for help if needed."
Early in Season 1, the Ginny & Georgia team worked with a psychologist Dr. Taji Huang. “She specializes in self-harm behavior and gave us this amazing insight to help us shape Ginny’s arc, and we also had members of the writer's room who [also] had this lived experience,” showrunner and executive producer Debra J. Fisher tells Tudum.
In Season 2, Ginny confides in her father, Zion (Nathan Mitchell), that she’s been self-harming. He immediately takes action and gets her into therapy with Dr. Lily (Zarrin Darnell-Martin), which offers her a safe space to talk about her tumultuous childhood, her relationship with Georgia and to work on helpful coping tactics. In showcasing these sensitive issues, Gentry hopes to empower people (especially young people) to reach out when they’re feeling overwhelmed. “I can use this platform to help signal that it’s OK to ask for help, it’s OK to lean on people in your life and be vulnerable, and seek out healthy tools to heal yourself,” she tells Tudum.
While Ginny makes progress with therapy, Georgia — whose style is less about working through issues than blasting past them — reads Ginny’s private therapy journal and is devastated to learn that her daughter has been self-harming. In a panic, she forces Ginny to reveal the burns on her thighs. “I don't know if there’s anything more gut-wrenching,” Howey tells Tudum of the moment in the script. “The second I read that scene, I was bawling my eyes out and had a pit in my stomach until we shot it.”
Determined to take control of the situation, Georgia bulldozes her way into one of Ginny's therapy sessions with her typical flair. Despite her skepticism and initial defensiveness, Georgia ends up speaking openly about her feelings and learns some hard truths about her lack of boundaries with Ginny. She even apologizes for her past missteps, like telling Ginny that vulnerability is a weakness. “I admire Ginny’s vulnerability this season,” says Gentry. “Georgia has these vulnerable moments, but it’s very much hidden behind this big grandiose persona that she uses as a defense mechanism. Ginny can’t really do that as well as Georgia can, and so I think a big part of her character is being vulnerable and being honest with herself. That’s very, very commendable because I know it’s deeply uncomfortable to be vulnerable.”
For Howey, the therapy session was one of the most critical moments between Ginny and Georgia who have had “so much tension” for a season and a half by this point. Realizing that her daughter’s vulnerability is in fact her strength is a groundbreaking moment for Georgia. “That’s not something Georgia has ever lived her life thinking, believing,” says Howey. “So it’s sort of a hallelujah, come-to-Jesus moment. Not only is Georgia admitting she was wrong — which Georgia never does — but it’s [realizing] Ginny [has] this beautiful power that I was telling [her] to push down but actually, she needs to lean into that. It’s her superpower.”
That kind of mother-daughter breakthrough was long overdue for Ginny and Georgia. “Part of Ginny’s arc and honoring this lived experience in mental health, was getting members of her family [involved],” says Fisher. “Ginny being in therapy was a big part of that, including having Georgia face her fears and uncomfortableness. At the core, Ginny & Georgia is about a mother-daughter relationship and a mother who doesn't really understand her daughter. [The therapy scene] was a unique way we could show that.”
Howey agrees. “Georgia’s worldview is oddly limited for a woman with all these experiences that are contained, unfortunately, in this trauma, this grief,” she says. “It’s hard for her to open her worldview and see and imagine that Ginny has all of these other thoughts, opinions, feelings, and beliefs. It’s almost ironic because that’s all Georgia ever wanted for Ginny; she wanted her to have more options and education, and choices in life. But then, because Ginny does have that, she can detach from Georgia and go, ‘Whoa, let’s take a beat, this is messy.’”
But Ginny isn’t the only one grappling with mental health this season. Her boyfriend Marcus Baker (Felix Mallard) finds himself in a deep depression in Season 2. “Coming from that place of not thinking that he deserves love, Marcus doesn’t have the tools or the resources or even the belief that people will care enough for him,” Mallard tells Tudum. “So he just goes into it himself. Hopefully, what these scenes and this storyline can do is encourage people. They’re not alone. That’s what I really love about the Bakers. You see this family that’s super tight-knit, super caring, and they’re there for each other when there are struggles."
While Ginny and Marcus try to continue dating as they work on confronting their respective traumas, it all becomes too much for Marcus. During their devastating breakup scene, Marcus tells Ginny, “I don't have room for anyone else’s pain right now.”
“It's heartbreaking to stand across from someone and tell them you think you shouldn’t be with them,” says Mallard. “These two people love each other so much and because of that love, he wants to let her go. He doesn’t want to put her through the pain that he’s going through.” The breakup leaves Ginny and Marcus distraught, but the authenticity of the moment is what makes it so impactful and, for Mallard, “hopefully validating for the people who watch it.”
“We all brought [something] to the page [from] breakups that we’ve all had in the past,” Fisher says. “Everyone has that first breakup, and it hurts so bad. We want to really shine a light on how hard it is to be human, which is one of our themes of the season. Everyone’s going through something, a battle you can't see.”
Watch Ginny & Georgia Season 2 now.
Additional reporting by Tara Bitran.
If you or someone you know is suffering from depression, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or go to www.samhsa.gov
