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chuckro“Is it fucked-up to wear his clothes?” “I think the fucked-up thing was murdering him.”
Two extremely unpleasant British teenagers make friends and go on a bad-life-choices road trip, where character development takes its toll on their unpleasantness.
James isn't a psychopath, he's broken. Alyssa isn't a bad person, she's abused. This is a fairly by-the-book coming of age story, when you get right down to it, it’s just a particularly absurd and black humor-laden one. And kinda like the more “serious” episodes of Glee, you’re willing to forgive the young protagonists a lot because they’re young and stupid—especially since this show doesn’t even try to humanize the monstrous adults. (The two cops are decent people. James’ father is genuinely trying to be a good parent, he’s just kinda dumb and woefully underequipped for the job. Alyssa’s father is a burnout with no attention span and no sense of responsibility; he talks a good game but gets distracted very easily. Alyssa’s mother is a useless twit and her stepdad is about half a step from being a molester. And don’t get me started on the trucker guy.)
I’m glad this was done on Netflix with short, variable-length episodes, because the only other good option would be to compress it into a movie—there isn’t enough material and the dialogue isn’t witty enough to carry much more than they have here. I’m kinda curious about the graphic novel it was based on, though.
Overall: It's a fast watch, as the eight episodes are collectively less than three hours, and there are some fun lines. If you’re feeling an urge to re-watch Heathers, this might also be your speed.
Two extremely unpleasant British teenagers make friends and go on a bad-life-choices road trip, where character development takes its toll on their unpleasantness.
James isn't a psychopath, he's broken. Alyssa isn't a bad person, she's abused. This is a fairly by-the-book coming of age story, when you get right down to it, it’s just a particularly absurd and black humor-laden one. And kinda like the more “serious” episodes of Glee, you’re willing to forgive the young protagonists a lot because they’re young and stupid—especially since this show doesn’t even try to humanize the monstrous adults. (The two cops are decent people. James’ father is genuinely trying to be a good parent, he’s just kinda dumb and woefully underequipped for the job. Alyssa’s father is a burnout with no attention span and no sense of responsibility; he talks a good game but gets distracted very easily. Alyssa’s mother is a useless twit and her stepdad is about half a step from being a molester. And don’t get me started on the trucker guy.)
I’m glad this was done on Netflix with short, variable-length episodes, because the only other good option would be to compress it into a movie—there isn’t enough material and the dialogue isn’t witty enough to carry much more than they have here. I’m kinda curious about the graphic novel it was based on, though.
Overall: It's a fast watch, as the eight episodes are collectively less than three hours, and there are some fun lines. If you’re feeling an urge to re-watch Heathers, this might also be your speed.
