I was sick when I started watching the first episode. But what upsets me is not the drug use, sex, violence, but the method of filming and the artistry of the character's makeup... it's so beautiful. Beautiful to worry about. I am worried that the real audience of this show, teenagers, will associate these behaviors with "beauty" because of this aesthetic stimulation, thinking that this is cool and youthful. That's too bad. Some might say I'm thinking too much, but as the New York Times podcast "The Rabbit Hole" enumerates how YouTube gradually limits one's horizons and information choices through a series of algorithmically recommended videos, the show's effect is very likely It will also be a catalyst in this series of steps. I'm worried about the sixteen year olds watching this show.
But aside from that worry, I think it's a fine work. Because for me, who has completed a closed-loop growth in adolescence, it is more like a psychological healing by revisiting old things. I have seen many traumas that I have neglected in my past experiences, the pain of many friends around me, the confusion and growth of teenagers. Moreover, the director's shooting method is so beautiful and depressing, but it brings a huge sense of comfort, like a friend with strong empathy spanning time and space using this work to pay tribute to "The Process of Adulthood" . I think the audience moved by this work more or less saw the shadow of their past in a certain character or a certain plot. Our stories and traumas are presented in a dramatic and entertaining way, feeling "cool" and bizarre, and at the same time feeling that "adolescence" is rarely respected without sarcasm come out. It's so rare, so it makes me feel grateful.
From my personal experience, I can understand Rue's drug addiction. Because of his own disease, part of his life has been controlled by a fixed melody of taking medicine. However, the rebellious and unwilling heart of adolescence wants to make a little choice and change for his life, even if this choice will hurt himself, even if this change will hurt the person who loves himself, at that moment, we can't control that much anymore. Just want to set myself free. Because the grief that fate had been controlled at that time even brought hatred for our own life, so the rebellious heart just wanted us to do the opposite. I have to do whatever is not good for myself, because I already hate my own body so much, it is better to vent my resentment towards my body. Rue actually knew all about the downsides of taking drugs, but at that moment she just wanted to fall. This betrayal of one's own body's regularity has a sense of one's own recapture of freedom. Freedom also brings self-liberation, so you can escape the pain of illness and the loss of your father in that instant. Other characters too, Jules often YP is to escape the social shackles brought by the process of "becoming a woman", Kat chooses to be an Internet porn anchor also to escape the pain caused by body humiliation... And so on the story lines of the characters in the series All represent a kind of "growing pains". It's just that the show is narrating the process and doesn't give any answers. But that's enough. The screenwriter did not arrogantly judge and despise the choices of teenagers from the perspective of past people, but seriously told stories that seemed to be bizarre and cool, and handed these things over to the audience, so that the audience could interpret and digest them by themselves (this one). The process also brought up the concerns I raised at the beginning), which is good.
I especially liked the last episode of the show. Love how the writers wrote Rue's new choice. For the first time, she took responsibility for her life and the people around her, even at the cost of giving up "traveling the world" with Jules. This is growth. The unbearable, painful, funny, brave road to adulthood.
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