I watched series over a longer period of time than I usually do series of such length. This was due to other circumstances and was nothing to do with its innate qualities or lack of engagement. Indeed, it was to its credit that I was as involved as |I was with every episode even after lengthier-than-usual gaps between episodes.
As the heading of this review suggests, the essence of the series is not intrinsically new but the thoughtful way in which the characters’ issues/concerns/uncertainties were examined was relatively unusual for a series of this nature. The characters were nuanced and one found out more about them as the series developed. New situations revealed new aspects of their natures which enrichened the viewing experience.
The obsessive nature of film-making was very well captured and this dovetailed in well with the spectrum issues from which the main character suffered. For all, not just her, the creation of the film acted as a form of therapy – for their personal lives and issues, many of these focused on the adults in their lives (parents, the coach) but not in a clumsily didactic way. The balance between the emotional lives of the teens and the adults in their lives was explored in a refreshing way, in that these different lives and experiences necessarily interacted all the time with each other.
It was an equally important part of their lives whereas with many such teen-oriented series, the teen characters can seem to exist in an isolated world of their own that does not always relate to the other very important people in their lives.
The climax of the series – the bulk of the final episode and not just specific events, important though these were like the championship basketball match – was very fine indeed, emotionally and dramatically and it was their intertwining that provided much of the dramatic energy of the film.
By the end, all of the characters, adults and teens, had learnt much about themselves, others and the world and this was achieved dramatically in a maturely effective way.