During the first episode I feared this was going to be another rather cliched ‘USA-urban-high-school’ setting but it did not take long for some episodes and character and relationship arcs a to be dealt with in a thoughtful and involving manner.
The drama unfolds effectively slowly, plausibly and grippingly with the Episode 3 sexual assault (which turned out to be a central event) being darkly well done. One reason it was so effective was that visually all very unclear and non-visually explicit. This made it even more disturbing and powerful as well as putting us, (uncomfortably) in the centre of the action as an unwilling onlooker who could do nothing – and which was also a parallel to the situation of one of the boys (Tim) in the scene.
There was something of a common theme with characters each starting to find their own identity as well as the difficulty of making good and bad decision e.g. Leila. She was an adoptee from China and not accepted by the Chinese-speaking students at the school who did not regard her as authentically Chinese. I thought that the use of the apocalyptically violent manga-style episodes where she is the sort of person she wants to be and totally rules the world although by the end this took an extremely dark turn.
I greatly liked and admire the way it was so well written in that our feelings and responses to the characters changed as events are unfolded and the characters make their decisions – some good, some bad, some admirable, some contemptible etc.
Stylistically too, there were some smart creative decisions – particularly in the final episode where a very pain fully long silence between Joey and the assault boys wonderfully conveyed the unbearable tension.
However, with the cancellation after only one series, there were a number of crucial plot and character developments, which were left hanging. I would love to know if any attempt is ever going to be made to at least conclude these story arcs at least.