To me this show is completely message driven. If you watch this thinking that you are going to see something wild action-packed and crazy, you are going to be disappointed.
Although there are a lot of flashbacks, I think it helps immensely to build the character and it helps to understand why she is the way she is and why she ended up where she ended up.
You have to look beyond the details of what is going on in the movie and pay attention to what drives this girl, step-by-step as she survives her own battles with her upbringing and her mother leaving them.
It makes total sense to me that characters who she didn't know for a long time would play a part in her getting through things.
The message to me is strictly about determination and the will to survive, letting go of the past and not allowing the past to destroy you, and it could be surviving the tragedy that she survived, or really any tragedy.
Others want to pick apart the show and gripe about how inaccurate it would be in a real life situation, and if that is what you do while watching a film, then you definitely will not enjoy this. In my opinion this show was inspiring, and brilliant in its own right.