Ruth Feldman Sharp

I thought this show did a wonderful job at depicting a coming of age story of two troubled teenagers and how they dealt with their feelings for one another, sometimes not very well, especially on the part of Connell. Kids in high school don’t know how to express themselves. They’re so vulnerable and confused. They want to fit in with their peers, to not bring negative attention to themselves that they end up being hurtful to the ones they truly love. That’s why they need their parents to help them. Our family dysfunctions will almost always hinder the development of our childhood. The show depicted a normal response of how teenagers who don’t know how to deal with their feelings run towards people they think they deserve, like Marrien did, until circumstances bring her back to the person she truly loves. It’s called growing up. By the time she and Connor finish college they both realize that they have been through a lot with each other and they have grown individually and as a couple that they are able to let themselves be happy independently. The best thing you can do to have a healthy relationship with someone is to first have a healthy relationship with yourself. People who found this show boring or fixated on the class distinction or on the harassment simply don’t get what the book is about. You have to look at the characters from beginning to end to see their growth. I’m sorry those people couldn’t do that. They’re missing out.

Overall I thought this limited series was awesome, mainly because they didn’t just end the series after the death of one of the main characters, which is often the case in these kind of psychological films. Yes, it was very soft porn-ish and yes, it was extremely immoral but it also sucked you in immediately. Sex has a way of doing that. Richard Armitage has been dissed for not giving his best performance in this series. But I think his character reacted pretty realistic given that he led a very straight and narrow life style up til that point. Just because his character is highly intelligent doesn’t mean he’s highly emotionally intelligent. His character is not likable, for sure, but a lot of people are unlikeable. It’s a movie. It’s suppose to entertain us. I like limited series because you can binge watch most of them in one or two evenings. This one was only four episodes and it could have been eight episodes easily if the producers wanted to delve deeper into each character. For me, the show gave me enough character development to draw my own conclusions about the deeper issues of the characters. Sometimes I think viewers want the director/writers to explain everything to the us. What’s wrong drawing our own conclusions? Plus, thinking independently makes for great discussion on the bigger issues. Not everything needs to be spoon fed to us.

Feel good typical Hallmark movie you can count on entertaining you on a Sunday night. However, I thought the acting was horrible, especially from Andi McDowell, whom I just loved back in the eighties. But it was light-hearted and predictable. Sometimes that’s what people need these days.