TV Review - Generation (Genera+ion)

Lena Dunham made a splash with her HBO series Girls (2012). It was like Sex and the City (1998) but for Millennials. It pushed a lot of boundaries for stories told about young women in their 20's. Now, it seems she wants to continue pushing boundaries but this time for characters who are even younger. Sam Levinson beat her to the punch with his Emmy-winning series Euphoria (2019), which won an Emmy last year. Also, last year, we got a Generation Z teen drama called Grand Army (2020), which similarly delved into modern-day issues of sex, sexuality and identity. As would be expected for a series on cable or streaming, they were provocative. Euphoria was provocative in terms of its depiction of drug use for teenagers, as well as graphic nudity involving teenage characters. Grand Army was also provocative in its exploration of sexual assault among teenagers. This series seems like it wants to be provocative but less in an authentic way and more in a performative way. That tone is probably due to the fact that as opposed to Euphoria and Grand Army, this series by Daniel Barnz and Zelda Barnz is more of a comedy.

Justice Smith (Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) stars as Chester, a young Black and biracial, openly gay teenager in a high school in southern California. In a series about LGBTQ youth, he's the most flamboyant. He dresses inappropriately, often in a gender nonconforming fashion, often time showing too much skin. He even walked around the schoolyard shirtless. He's very sassy, not only dressing inappropriately but at times saying inappropriate things. He's not as rude as one might imagine. He's brutally honest but not cruel. He's unapologetic in who he is. Unfortunately, his character is saddled with an eye-rolling story line. If anyone saw Hannah Fidell's A Teacher on Hulu, then this is the Black queer version of that, except this series doesn't fill out Chester as a character beyond the fact that we see one scene of him playing water polo. We get practically nothing of his family life or much of his back-story at least not in the first eight episodes.

Haley Sanchez co-stars as Greta, a Latina lesbian whose mother was deported to Mexico. She currently lives with her aunt and her little brother. She likes to play basketball. She volunteers and helps elderly people. Yet, she's shy when it comes to expressing her sexuality and her same-sex attraction. She's not exactly closeted but she's not as open as Chester for example. Her sister is very supportive and always encourages her to be happy and pursue her lesbian crush. I'm not sure her apprehension or her shyness is explored with sufficient depth but Sanchez certainly gives a good performance.

Uly Schlesinger also co-stars as Nathan, a white teenager who comes out as bisexual. It's not clear though if he truly is bisexual or if he's simply saying so because of his domineering and conservative mother, played by Martha Plimpton. He most likely is bisexual but he has a strong crush on Chester and that crush is overriding any feelings he might have for any potential girl. He's shy or reserved when it comes to telling Chester his feelings. However, he doesn't seem to have any problems hooking up with his sister's boyfriend and her best friend. The series doesn't properly establish his sister's boyfriend, so Nathan hooking up with him feels hollow and there only to inflame the sibling rivalry between Nathan and his sister.

His relationship with his sister's best friend is a bit more established. The sister's best friend is more of a character in the narrative than the sister's boyfriend who is dismissed after the first episode. The reason that the sister's best friend is more established is because her character and her family is the proxy for the real-life family of the creators of this series. Daniel Barnz and Zelda Barnz are father and daughter. Daniel is a gay man who is married and Zelda is his teenage adopted daughter.

Nathanya Alexander plays Arianna, the aforementioned best friend to Nathan's sister. She's the proxy for Zelda Barnz. Arianna is similarly a teenage adopted daughter to a married gay man. Thankfully, I suppose, Daniel and Zelda Barnz aren't so narcissistic that they make Arianna and her family the center of this series. Instead, Arianna is pushed to the side. This is probably for the best, given how the shtick for Arianna starts off as a bit vile and perhaps too sardonic. She says homophobic things and tosses out homophobic slurs despite having gay dads. One of whom is played by J. August Richards.

It's unfortunate though because in real life, Zelda Barnz is a queer girl. Her real-life brother is also queer. Both children have themselves gay dads. To the Barnz family, it might not seem like a big deal, but that's something that doesn't often happen. To have an entire family that is queer or all people having same-sex attraction. That's a rare thing that often doesn't happen or really never happens, even in LGBTQ media. Yes, a common theme in LGBTQ media is chosen families or families that aren't determined by blood or legal obligations, so the idea of a seemingly nuclear family or traditional family but everyone is gay would have been more compelling than this series about moody and horny teenagers.

Finally, the structure of some of the episodes is probably worth mentioning. It starts with the first episode that has a circular shape where the narrative keeps coming back to the exact same moment. Basically, we see the same day depicted three different times from three different perspectives. We see the day from Chester's perspective, then Greta's perspective and then Nathan's perspective. It's almost like Rashomon (1950) in that we're seeing how three different people perceive a singular moment. Subsequent episodes though ditch that circular shape or Rashomon-like technique. Nothing happens in the narrative that would warrant such a technique, but from a wedding to a school field trip, the show could have still utilized that technique if it wanted.

Instead, the series employs another gimmick where the opening of each episode is actually a flash forward that depicts the teenage characters dealing with a pregnancy. It's wrenched for the most comedy possible with a lot of pratfalls and high anxiety. Ultimately though, I don't get what the point of all of it was.

Rated TV-MA.

Running Time: 30 mins.

Available on HBO Max.