For the first season I would genuinely give this an 8/10 as I thoroughly enjoyed it. The core group of young actors were brilliant - particularly Leah and Toni, I thought they were both outstanding.
I love 'survival on an island' and 'social experiment' type shows, so the concept was right up my alley. It's an interesting idea and had so much potential to go in many different ways. I thought the back stories of the girls were done tastefully and genuinely, addressing the issues well. I know Leah was not the most popular character, but as a teenager I had very similar issues and fell very hard in love. I thought the writing and the actor who played Leah captured the agony of young one-sided affection and untreated mental health issues very well.
I was excited for the second season as there was so much left to be told!
Then I watched the second season. What on earth happened to the writing?? The young actors stayed as talented as ever, but the plot and writing felt chaotic, and almost simultaneously lazy. There was at least another two seasons worth of milking the girls' stories and slowly unravelling everything they had set up in the first season. But instead they immediately brought in the boys group, and left most of the things I was wondering about from the first season, unanswered. An example being that they had set up a huge plot line when they said that Shelby had Dissociative Disorder...then never followed up. Yes she was in the closet and didn't really want to be who she was previously, and she would have angry outbursts when panicked...that's not enough evidence or explanation for me.
The first season barely touched on the girls' lives, there was so much more I wanted to know!!
And then the plot holes, oh lord the plot holes. I can overlook little plot holes if I'm enjoying a show, but the second season went too far.
Gretchen Klein and the entire project is one giant plot hole. I have too many things to say about it. They could have put in so much more effort to explain how the whole thing was functioning (legally, money, etc). The reasoning behind the whole project was also lazily explained. Yes go female empowerment! But Gretchen actually has the power and influence to change the world with this? How? What's the plan? Traumatise teenage girls into ruling the world? Is Gretchen just a rich lunatic with good ideas, but terrible plans of action?
This is just touching on the plot holes, I could go on and on.
So for the second season I give it a generous 4/10, only for the acting. It's such a big shame! But I still recommend the first season as a thoroughly entertaining watch.
Would have loved a third season, but after the second, I have no hope that it would've redeemed itself.
I love 'survival on an island' and 'social experiment' type shows, so the concept was right up my alley. It's an interesting idea and had so much potential to go in many different ways. I thought the back stories of the girls were done tastefully and genuinely, addressing the issues well. I know Leah was not the most popular character, but as a teenager I had very similar issues and fell very hard in love. I thought the writing and the actor who played Leah captured the agony of young one-sided affection and untreated mental health issues very well.
I was excited for the second season as there was so much left to be told!
Then I watched the second season. What on earth happened to the writing?? The young actors stayed as talented as ever, but the plot and writing felt chaotic, and almost simultaneously lazy. There was at least another two seasons worth of milking the girls' stories and slowly unravelling everything they had set up in the first season. But instead they immediately brought in the boys group, and left most of the things I was wondering about from the first season, unanswered. An example being that they had set up a huge plot line when they said that Shelby had Dissociative Disorder...then never followed up. Yes she was in the closet and didn't really want to be who she was previously, and she would have angry outbursts when panicked...that's not enough evidence or explanation for me.
The first season barely touched on the girls' lives, there was so much more I wanted to know!!
And then the plot holes, oh lord the plot holes. I can overlook little plot holes if I'm enjoying a show, but the second season went too far.
Gretchen Klein and the entire project is one giant plot hole. I have too many things to say about it. They could have put in so much more effort to explain how the whole thing was functioning (legally, money, etc). The reasoning behind the whole project was also lazily explained. Yes go female empowerment! But Gretchen actually has the power and influence to change the world with this? How? What's the plan? Traumatise teenage girls into ruling the world? Is Gretchen just a rich lunatic with good ideas, but terrible plans of action?
This is just touching on the plot holes, I could go on and on.
So for the second season I give it a generous 4/10, only for the acting. It's such a big shame! But I still recommend the first season as a thoroughly entertaining watch.
Would have loved a third season, but after the second, I have no hope that it would've redeemed itself.
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