As a teacher, visual aids have been an instrumental delivery system for demonstrating core content in lessons for my sixth form students. Over the past term, I've actually used clips from PREMature to assist my psychology lessons in the area of childhood trauma.
This series is a particular standout drama because of the mental frailty that is demonstrated through the writing and the performances. Now the show was made back in 2015 at the cusp of an entire generation diving fully into the realm of social media and all of the positives and negatives that come with it. PREMature was a frontrunner in the sense of bringing substantive and paramount issues in one of the most realistic depictions of teenhood that I've seen in a non-documentary.
The impact of divorce on a child can be so damaging throughout adolescence that it curbs our adulthood in ways that can be self-harming. This theme of divorce runs through the 6 parts but it is the bullying theme that is so visceral. It was actually this that pushed me to include clips of the show in my class because how the bullying storyling was packaged and made digestible for a classroom full of teenagers who could perhaps build a new understanding of trauma and its effects in a way that a textbook couldn't. (Sorry for the long sentence.)
I saw first-rate performances by unrecognisable actors bringing to life very recognisable characters and circumstances in such a natural way. The complexities, which were the basis of my using clips in classes were interwoven into this series by means of an organic reality - what i've come to learn as world-building.
The music is different and moody and uplifting at points. The camerawork is documentary-esque with most shots looking like photographs where many of them hold onto the close ups to the point where it borders on intrusive.
It might not be the lighthearted bingewatch that many might prefer but PREMature is a powerful piece of storytelling and for me, a teaching tool in classes.
