Emily Hiatt

If you are a parent, please do not let your teens watch this show. It’s not the sex or alcohol, it’s the desensitization to serious trauma and manipulative masculinity. As a long time teen drama lover, I was excited when I saw this pop up on Netflix. I found the first episode pretty depressing, but hung in there thinking the writers and producers would eventually weave some relatable storylines and life lessons in. I’m pretty sure they didn’t even try. Jackie has experienced severe trauma that her 15 year old mind is not developed enough to process, yet there is not a single adult in this series that gives her any attention beyond a pity smile. If this was real life CPS would be my first call. Even the guidance counselor writes her off when she has a break down about the death of her family. The parents clearly have lost complete control of their household, the last two kids they took in are acting out due to their repressed trauma that no one has helped them with, all of their own children are having identity crises, and one of their teenagers is having sex in his bedroom on the regular with his little siblings next door. Yet, somehow they thought they had the parental capacity to take in a recently orphaned 15 year old who just had her life turned upside down?? Cole is suppose to be the classic “heartthrob” character whose heart makes up for his toxic traits… but no, it doesn’t. He actually thinks his life is worse than Jackie’s because he lost his high school football career, while she has lost her ENTIRE family! As the show progresses, no solid relationships or character arcs form to make up for the severe lack of empathy and morality of the entire cast. In my opinion, this show is clearly desensitizing its audience (teens) to trauma, supporting toxic male self righteousness, and setting an extremely poor example of family. I don’t currently have a teenager, but I would extremely discourage them from this show. P.S. the bleach in the shampoo bottle?! And then Jackie is guilted for snitching?! Not only is the bleach dangerous, but ruining a teen girl’s hair, let a lone a girl of color?! The writers are blatantly out of touch with how traumatic this would be.