Hartley, cœurs à vif

I expected this to be another one of those poorly produced Netflix dramas that try to seem relatable to teenagers, but miserably fail at it. But I was surprised in many ways. Sure, it's still a pretty unrealistic portrayal of teenagers, but it had some nice parts. There are a variety of different stories in this series, some of them are pretty interesting. The characters themselves very interesting as well. The acting was surprisingly good too. Some of the comedy fell a little short and won't probably work in a few years, but nothing too bad. Sometimes I think the series was even making fun of today's teenage culture. I wish it had leaned more towards that, because it would have been a more interesting take. All in all: a good binge watch!

Season One: 9/10

Themes: High School, Drama, Friendship, Romance, Lgbtq+, Gay, Lesbian, Non-Binary, Asexuality, Sexual Assault, Autism, Sex Education, Police Violence, Parties, Popularity, Troubled Teens & Australian.

Review: I was very pleasantly surprised with this series and I can honestly say I was invested. I thought the acting was great, the storyline was well-crafted and the writing was pretty ace too. All around, it was well done! The characters were also well-developed and they were all interesting in their own way. Almost all of them annoyed me in some way or another, but that also made them seem more real, I guess. I definitely have characters and storylines I prefer over others, but generally the whole series intrigued and entertained me! It was fun, emotional and surprising.

Top four characters: 1) Darren Rivers, 2) Harper McLean, 3) Douglas 'Ca$h' Piggott and 4) Quinni Gallagher-Jones.

I don't often write reviews, but I felt this series needed some serious vindication.

Firstly, I've never seen the original so this was completely fresh for me.

Secondly, I think the comparisons to 'Sex Education' (which I'm a huge fan of) are just lazy; Sex Education did not invent the archetype of hormonal teenagers, I mean come on 🙄

The acting is solid, the stories are entertaining and reasonably unique and the inclusion, at least for me, did not feel tokenistic in the slightest; Australia, particularly in inner city suburbs, is hugely diverse, and this show provides an 'accurate' (as much as a tv show can be) and entertaining portrayal of modern teen life.

Give it a go, and if you can spare yourself the unfair comparisons to other shows that strike a passing resemblance, you might actually enjoy yourself.

As a gen z teen who watches all the latest I find myself cringing at a lot of teen shows nowadays. It's too 80s with the whole vibe, or painfully older than teen years. I wanted to hate this show but I think it's the best gen z rep I've seen. It just has so many true aspects to it of being a teen nowadays and even how they presented romance in the show for teen years. Wish we could have seen more to be honest, it's a show I would watch a few seasons worth if they came out but still loved it even without the extension. Good show and felt like someone from my generation helped write it , very relatable.

Finally, autistic actors are being casted to play autistic characters. This series was the first time I've ever seen myself authentically represented on-screen, the first time I've seen myself shown as anything other than a punchline or a cause for pity. I hope this is the start of change for representation of autistic people in media.

As an Australian teenager, a lot of the media I come across is heavily Americanized and not at all relatable, so this was definitely a welcome change. This is an incredibly candid and funny look into what modern adolescence in Australia is really like, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.