'Grand Army' Review: Teen drama series makes all the right noises but ends up as a cacophony of representation
You can't blame 'Grand Army' for not being ambitious. In the original play on which it was based, the main storyline revolved around sexual assault and slut-shaming. In the show version, it is so much more. So much that even nine one-hour episodes feel like they are rushing over some really important issues — calling out things while not really giving a nuanced picture of all the dynamics at play.
We keep wondering what a series like this could have been in the hands of someone like Katori Hall or David Simon. The premise is brilliant — examining the life and times of teens locked together for X amount of hours in a public school building, as the dynamics of race, gender, class and generational wealth play out in that melting pot called Brooklyn.
Like any teen show, the challenge is to look and feel like it is au courant — which means everything from the songs that end up on the soundtrack to the issues it takes up and the slang words has to have a right here right now feeling while also revealing something universal about the teen experience.
In a bid to retain its relevancy, the show is set in 2020. But maybe, it should have stuck to the period of the play's genesis or undergone even more extensive reworking. It would also have helped to possibly stick to fewer storylines. This is because the show feels like a hastily put together classroom project, rehashing and recycling ideas, stereotypes and issues that feel a little dated. Its bulky but its quantity over quality.
Out of all the storylines, it is Joey and Dom who will hold your interest possibly because the most amount of time is devoted to them. Other times, who just here phrases like "school to prison" pipeline thrown around without actually investigating the depths of how this plays out — from within homes and schools and outside it.
While Joey and Dom will make you empathize with the characters, first-time actor Amelia Yoo, who plays Leila, also deserves a shout out. Her character is possibly the most real. She is self-centered in a way a lot of teens are, adrift in the high school habitat since she isn't Chinese enough or Jewish enough. She belongs to no tribe but desperately wants to belong.
So she creates imaginary zombie-horror landscapes in her head where she is the lead protagonist as a form of self-defence about being nearly invisible (and bullied) in school. Her Asian looks make her an object of sexual fetishzation by the boys.
But unlike Joey or Dom or even Jayson, her rebellion is all inwardly directed. She is tearing herself apart as she tries to figure out who she is beyond being a "Jewish Asian Princess pussy". Leila seems to have some form of attachment disorder -- a less commonly represented cluster of mental health problems than say depression and anxiety.
She continously takes an internal recon of her feelings while having rapid changes in her mood and demenor. She is simultaneously hyper aware of what she is being labelled as by others (often modulating her behavior to fit these labels) while being curiously removed from reality as she lives in her own head. 'Grand Army' is defintely worth a watch for what it is attempting to do. We can only hope that Season 2 takes it time developing characters and their storylines.
'Grand Army' premiered on Netflix on October 16.
