As you know, children, especially teenagers, are cruel creatures. Today’s teenagers are no exception. Their ways of demonstrating cruelty are becoming more and more sophisticated, in their world there are all means for this – primarily technical ones, and adults often have absolutely no idea how to help a child who is in trouble under these conditions. About this – “Repost”, a new feature film on HBO.
However, by “trouble” they rather understand some external force. An element against which we are powerless, an unfortunate set of circumstances. What happened to high school student Amanda, Mandy, is clearly not to blame for rock, but for a very specific person. Only she can not restore in her memory who exactly and what exactly happened to her.
All Mandy remembers is how she woke up in the morning on the lawn near her own house: a terrible hangover, bruises and abrasions on her body. Mandy is an ordinary teenager: close-knit family, studies, training, boys, rare parties, girly chatter. This familiar world is cracked when a compromising video flies around the school: someone captured Mandy in complete unconsciousness.
Parents see the record, then it gets into the news, and the real persecution begins. Mandy tries to fight, but society, represented by the school, answers her with a total ban – suspension from classes, which means social isolation. This is her punishment for having had a drink at the party, and now, after what happened, “distracts” the others from their studies.
Repost, which explores roughly the same territory as 13 Reasons Why before it, may lack the originality of the latter, and yet the theme itself raised in it makes it a must-see – perhaps even a family one. Because for fathers, as it turns out, such events often become an even greater blow than for mothers. As Mandy’s mom admits, “It happens to someone every minute, every day. But he didn’t know. Why is he doing this?”
How to convey to the child that he should not take advantage of the weakness of another. Never. Never. Under no circumstances
Any parent, regardless of gender, “Repost” leaves with a whole set of questions – those that we would rather not ask ourselves.
How to behave with a child so that in a difficult and terrible situation he turns to you.
How to warn him against mistakes in a world in which we ourselves have never lived. This world is like the area where we once grew up: it seems that the area is familiar, but built up in a new way, and it is completely impossible to navigate in it, and even more so – to teach this to children. In this new reality, there are different rules, and someone else’s life can be destroyed at any moment with a couple of clicks. Yes, always, at all times, one could start an unpleasant rumor about a person, but gossip is not the same as a picture or video.
How to convey to the child that he should not take advantage of the weakness of another. Never. Never. Under no circumstances.
How to raise a son who will not only not harm the girl, but also will not leave her in trouble. How not to break completely what is already broken, how not to let the child start blaming himself for what happened.
Perhaps, if you try to find answers to all these questions in time, one day you won’t have to justify yourself to others for your child: “I didn’t raise him like that.”
Three more series about teenagers and their problems
- “13 Reasons Why” (2017-…). The first season was based on the novel of the same name by Jay Asher. The main character, Hannah Baker, commits suicide, but before that she leaves audio cassettes on which she describes in detail why and because of whom she did it. Despite the terrible “beginning”, the series turned out to be very bright, in places – warm and lyrical, in places – poignantly sad. Shown to those who have forgotten what it’s like to be a teenager.
- “Sex Education” (2019-…). One of the main hits of this year, to the delight of the fans, has been extended for a second season. Teenager Otis Milburn has a hard time: his mother is a liberated sexologist and a specialist in the psychology of relationships, and he, let’s say, is a little behind his peers in this regard. And yet, by chance, Otis becomes … a school sex therapist. Despite the name, the series is, of course, not only and not so much about sex, but about the whole range of problems that modern teenagers face.
- “Riverdale” (2017-…). This comic-book-based teen drama certainly lacks the depth of 13 Reasons or the humor of Parenting, and yet it’s a great way for adults to revisit a difficult, painful, yet beautiful “tender age.”