Being a teenager has always been complex. Now, perhaps more than ever, it seems especially hard to navigate. Raging hormones, social scenes that never make a lot of sense, and drastic bodily changes are hard enough. Pair these with the global shit-show that is our present reality, and you couldn't pay me to go back. Netflix is harnessing all of the aforementioned rough times in their new 10-episode series, 'Grand Army', which will be released to the world via Netflix on October 16.
The new series has been adapted from the play Slut by Katie Cappiello and will star Odley Jean, Amir Bageria, Maliq Johnson, Odessa A'zion, and Amalia Yoo, who play a group of teens at a large Brooklyn public high school, Grand Army High School.
In a first look teaser trailer, we are given a sneak peek at the messy teen drama, which feels like a modern-day Skins, but probably with more range and nuance. Opening with a saxophone rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner, the teaser walks us through scenes of what it's like to be a teenager in the USA today. Kneeling at basketball games, going into lockdown, having sex, forming relationships, getting into trouble, and so on. In the final moments of the teaser, Jean's character Dominique Pierre's voice can be heard stating, “I don't have all the answers, but to be honest, it matters who you talk to,” she says. "It matters who you're comfortable with. It matters who hears you, who says, ‘I understand.’ We need someone to hear us."
Likely less wholesome than the beloved Sex Education, but equally as politically sound, the show centres around five students in a coming of age style drama. It is apparently based off of conversations that executive producer Cappiello has engaged in with students while teaching as a theatre educator. Cappiello told Entertainment Weekly that "it's years of listening to my students talk, it's years of going to bar and bat mitzvahs," she explains. "It's years of having kids call you because they don't know how they're going to afford school, and can you talk through that with them, and try to help them figure out a plan? It's when they're struggling with their parents, who can they talk to, and can I recommend a course of action?"
Watch the teaser, below.
