Asia Dofat

I’ve been putting off writing this review because I needed to process my thoughts. I still don’t think I will be able to adequately describe my opinion of this show. So, to begin, I only started watching this show because I needed something else to watch while I was at work. I really enjoyed the original, but I didn’t have high expectations, or any expectations really, for this show. The only positive thing I have to say is that there is a lot of diversity. But other than that, this show was bad. That being said, let’s get into it. I’m going to start with the two main characters, Zoya and Julien. They are both really forgettable, but J is the most annoying. Z is the only character I’m rooting for. I’m rooting for her to get tf out and go back home to buffalo. J is supposed to be the “it girl” but I can’t help but not care. The writers of this show didn’t give any of these characters any dimension. It’s feels so out of touch from reality. I’d friends (the two “mean girls” are SO ANNOYING. Their dialogue is so cliché and dated. No one talks like that. You can tell this show was not written by people who understand youth. The writers think that the solution to every problem is to throw a party. They also try to make these characters so self aware, but it does the show such a disservice. There is no character development and pettiness. The love interest Obie is so toxic. They try to make you sympathize with him but you can’t. He is awful. Max Wolfe is one of the side characters. He is a very poor imitation of chuck bass from the original. His character is unbelievably cringe worthy. Now let’s talk about the teachers. They are “gossip girl”. This whole angle was awful. Like who approved of this? Why are 20somthings-70somthings targeting little kids just to make themselves feel good? What the heck. The borderline sad. They create so much drama for no reason. NO REASON. Not only that, but all the teachers are white who purposely target and try to shame the two main characters who are black. This may not have been intentionally racist, BUT IT IS SO PROBLEMATIC. Again, WHO APPROVED THIS!? This show does an awesome job at trying to be deep and failing. It feels so out of touch with reality. I understand that this is supposed to be how the “elite” teens live. But the dialogue and the use of social media and everything else about the show that is supposed to make it “modern” was impressively bad. I’m upset that I’m invested and I want to see how bad it gets. I’m not looking forward to season 2. Will I watch it? Yes. Just to torture myself.