In 2017, Jia Tolentino lifted a series of restrictions on her life. She started putting half-and-half in her coffee instead of drinking it black. She started using emoji instead of forcing herself to communicate in words. And, finally, she watched Lena Dunham’s television show “Girls,” which had premièred on HBO 5 years earlier, in 2012. When “Girls” was on television, some critics lost the ability to distinguish it from real life. Many treated the show as though realism were its ultimate goal. “I don’t need to feel either disturbed by or painfully grateful for seeing women my age rendered in full-blooming imperfection,” Tolentino counters. “Nothing is a direct reflection, other than a mirror: not a friend, not a story, not an auteur, and definitely not a television show.” Read her reflection on “Girls," which Dunham recently announced would see a five-episode revival: newyorker.com/culture/jia-to…