"Everything Now" Masterfully Conveys the Urgency of Youth

Nuanced and sharp, the British teen drama that carries elements of "Euphoria," "Sex Education," "Never Have I Ever" and "Heartstopper" stands out in the category

Everything Now is playing on Netflix

Grade: A (For fans of teen dramas with heart and substance, this show is a coup. Queerness and sexual fluidity is woven into the story in a normalized fashion. Trigger Warning: Eating Disorder (anorexia) story line is a dominant theme.)

Created by: Ripley Parker, who is 23 and whose mom coincidentally is Thandiwe Newton. 🤯 Starring rising star Aussie actress Sophie Wilde (Tom Jones)

Diving into It

With 8 episodes at nearly 60 minutes a pop, Everything Now which released on Netflix in October by way of the U.K., launched quietly onto the streaming episodic TV scene. It appeared edgier but more serious than the poppy fan favorite Never Have I Ever by Mindy Kaling and not quite as teenage awkward vibes as the wildly successful U.K. import Sex Education whose final season I couldn’t even make it through, but whose first few seasons were stellar. While I never watched past the first few episodes of Euphoria, I can see why the Everything Now comparison has been noted.

Like Euphoria, there are some heavy hitting topics. For these British kids in their 6th form (final years of high school equivalent in US), apart from their studies, there’s promiscuity (smart good girl Becca routinely hooks up with the rich poor boy Cameron without any protection) and the cool kid/nice guy Theo holds parties where drugs and alcohol are both rampantly and recreationally used. The sex and drugs are embedded in the lives of these teens in ways that are routine and don’t make you flinch but definitely make you want to hold your tweenage and teenage kids tight. Then again, the scenes are far less in your face in the gratuitous sense than the first 5 minutes of Dumb Money or interludes of Joy Ride, both films I saw over the holiday break, which curiously featured the same song - WAP by Cardi B. Incidentally, if I never hear this song again, I’ll be a happy gal.

The Serious Bites

The stuff that guts, no pun intended here, is Mia’s anorexia and how much space the eating disorder occupies for those in her orbit. It’s not just threatening to kill Mia, it’s destroying anyone who cares about her. In this way, the show really excels at showing its viewers the journey of those around her, who are living with the guilt and shame of what her disorder has and continues to do. The tension is always brimming beneath the surface, even at its funniest and wittiest moments, of which there are plenty.

The first episode anchors us to Mia’s return to her high school, after 7 months at a clinic where she was being treated for her ED by a doctor played by Stephen Fry, Gen Z’s kind-hearted therapist/sage adult figure answer to British queer-friendly teen dramas (see Heartstopper). Mia feels left behind as her close circle of friends, Becca, Cameron and Will, while well-intentioned and incredibly supportive of her return, have understandably continued to live their teenage lives in ways that teenagers are wont to do. As the show progresses, Mia makes it clear that she’s determined to catch up to her friends and check off items on her “Fuck it Bucket List” which include things like sex, drugs and rock and roll because apparently all her friends, save 1, have had sex.

Mia’s First Brush of Love

Mia’s sexuality comes to light as she sees Carli, the object of her affection, on the dance floor at a party, and in Heartstopper fashion, graphics of love explode, as Mia sees Carli for the first time. By the way, I’m a huge fan of this graphic effect. While the two girls get to know one another, bond over theater, and there’s clearly an attraction, the bulk of the season is a love match of another kind, between Mia and the popular girl, Alison. Similarly Carli gravitates to another member of Mia’s friend group.

As she’s in recovery from anorexia, the decision to have Mia so quickly enter into relationship(s) is a bold one and I applaud that the series didn’t shy away from this. It also doesn’t pull any punches in the way of how Mia’s continual struggles impact the family as a whole and Mia’s fractured relationship with her “perfect” mom. Her brother, Alex, is Mia’s supporter but has had to be the stable one in the family and not take up any space to balance out the collateral damage of the disorder. Her parents’ marriage is struggling and they’ve been paying a lot to afford her private medicine - a topic that comes up even while the series acknowledges their upper-middle class privilege.

Teenage dramas #inspo board - Clockwise (l-to-r): Euphoria, Heartstopper, Euphoria, Never Have I Ever, Sex Education, Everything Now, Sex Education

Mad Respect

I binge watched this show in a day. I don’t regret that. In equal parts, I hated and liked Mia. She’s annoying and self-involved at the worst times. She’s also suffering from an easily triggered illness that creeps into every aspect of her life so it’s easy to feel guilty for judging her. The best characters always make you stew in this dichotomy - they humble you.

Like Sex Ed’s Milo Otis, Mia’s awkward and says the wrong thing all the time, gets pissy and lashes out at those who love her the strongest. She hides and yells at others for not being honest, while her anorexia is at its very essence, the thing of dishonesty. The duality of being a teenager, or an adult at that, and knowing how to balance it all, is a continuous trapeze walk. Mia stumbles and falls. Her friends are often there to catch here but they still berate themselves when they are unable to alter the outcome.

“Just be yourself,” one of her friends tells her. “But myself got me hospitalized for several months,” she says, in a self-aware moment ripe with vulnerability.

Moreover, for all the weighty topics of Mia’s illness, never does the show broach a backstory of what the catalyst was for her disorder. There doesn’t appear to be trauma, at least in the physical sense. Her family adores her and looks after her. She has a good circle of intimate friends. The average recovery time for anorexia is seven years, the show tells us in the final episode. Faced with this vast period of what feels like endless time or a ticking bomb, Mia runs as far away from recovery as possible to be as reckless as she can. Translation: She’s acting the part of a teenager.

The truth about any disorder is, as this show brutally addresses, that there will always be backslides and it’s one day at a time with the small stuff. The small stuff is what her friends try and encourage with Becca, especially her friend Will who suggests adding karaoke to “Islands in the Stream” alongside other teenage hurry up and get there milestones. Unfortunately, this concept of small, atomic habits coupled with internalizing a whole future ahead of you is often entirely oppositional to the teenage brain, as Mia learns throughout the first season.

I’m Just a Teenage Dirtbag Baby

Here are some BEVP teen drama recos, some noted above. You can assume that while these are “teen” focused, they aren’t necessarily for teenage audience, unless you do some research ahead of time.

• Heartstopper - Based on the novels by Alice Oseman and also doesn’t shy away from eating disorders. Features a gay, teen love story in the U.K. between a jock and a nerd.

• Sex Education - Reclusive wiser-than-his-years Otis starts a counseling service alongside Maude, the rebel smart girl, to help the high school students with their love and sex lives. Seasons 1-3 are recommended.

• Derry Girls - Group of high school gals and one guy in Northern Ireland in the 90s. Hilarious. Definitely for adults.

• Never Have I Ever - Mindy Kaling at her finest. High school over-achiever Devi wants to hook up with school jock Paxton. All seasons are recommended.

• What are some of your favorite teen dramas of the past ten years?

• Studies have determined that: 2.7% of teens will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime. 13% of adolescents will develop an eating disorder by the age of 20. 3.8% of female, and 1.5% of male, adolescents will struggle with an eating disorder. (Eating Disorder Hope) Overall, 9% of LGBTQ youth ages 13–24 stated that they have been diagnosed with an eating disorder, with an additional 29% stating they haven’t ever been diagnosed but suspect that they might have an eating disorder. (The Trevor Project) Takeaway for me is how much higher the % is for LGBTQ youth to have an eating disorder and explains ED representation in queer teen shows like Heartstopper and Everything Now

• I just started watching Industry on HBO about a group of Gen Zers at a cutthroat finance firm. Lena Dunham is attached to it and it’s a few years old. I can’t quit it. Perhaps it’s the Jan 1 “get back to work” vibe at full volume going on, but I’m sold.

• I’m watching Fargo Season 5 though with episode 3, we get some weird supernatural biblical folklore narrative introduced. Beelzebub. That said, I’m committed to seeing this season through. Jon Hamm’s nipple piercings are nothing to write home about though Noah Hawley, the show’s writer/producer/director seems to be fixated on them so I’m thinking they must be linked to his demise. If you’re compelled to read more about the latest season, this Slate article is worth a gander. This quote in particular is enjoyable:

  While the Coens were still making movies together, Hawley’s mimetic riffs stirred an uncanny feeling of not-quite recognition, faithful to the originals’ surfaces—deadpan violence, funny accents, and the like—but lacking the Midwestern sensibility central to the brothers’ ethos. You know the feeling you get when “Fast Car” comes on and you realize it’s the Luke Combs version? Multiply that by four seasons and 18 movies.

And finally…

Good Humor by CK Steefel

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