The Society's survival game is one that the women characters fare better at than the men
If there is one thing about Netflix's young adult mystery show 'The Society' that we are absolutely sure of, it's that the women make for far better characters than the men on the show.
To give you a fair understanding of this – and prove that we are not just claiming this out of thin air – men versus women was one of the first themes that the show explored.
Netflix's young adult mystery show 'The Society' follows a group of teenagers who are transported to a facsimile of their posh New England town under strange circumstances. Apart from this group, there is no one else around – no parents, no relevant code of conduct. So this group must now figure out how to live cooperatively, form alliances for survival and figure out a way to get home.
This survival game is one that the women on 'The Society' are much better at. At the beginning of the show, after the teenagers descend into chaos, there is a dire need for someone to take over how their new civilization is working. At that time, Cassandra Pressman (played by Rachel Keller) a natural leader is the best option – she is smart and essentially knows how to handle a bunch of rowdy teenagers.
But a woman taking charge upset a lot of male characters on the show: Harry Bingham (played by Alex Fitzalan) and Campbell Eliot (played by Toby Wallace) are the first ones. Harry is pretty much the most annoying character on the show – he is that person who has very little knowledge regarding how to best go about things but believes to be an expert on the subject. It is the classic case of an incompetent person under the impression that they're the best.
In one of his locker-room conversations, he also expresses how he despises the fact that Cassandra has been put on a mantle, a "queen", and how the power has gotten to her.
Truth was, it really hadn't. For the limited amount of time that Cassandra was on the show before being shot dead on the sidewalk, she was dedicated to the cause of getting all of them back home and in the meanwhile protecting them while they're in the strange land – she had ideas and she had things under control.
Unfortunately, while she was in charge, the male members of the new civilization were brimming with ideas of inequality that didn't even exist in theory. It was these very ideas that led to her murder.
We also need to talk about how Allie Pressman (played by Kathryn Newton) took over the reign from her elder sister Cassandra. For someone who is skeptical of herself and her caliber, Allie's character arc is pretty impressive.
She doesn't just secure the situation in the new society but also flourishes - she instills a committee to figure out how they can go home, she sends a group into the forest to find agricultural land and food. She makes rules, rations food and supplies to ensure that everyone is fed. Under Allie, the new society also gets gun regulations after she confiscates as many guns as she can.
Helena, on the other hand, is a leader of another kind, a religious leader who understands peril. Played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo, the most religious person from among all the teenagers in New Ham. At the beginning of the series, we were trying really hard to figure out if Helena is a friend or a foe – while she was on board with several of Cassandra (played by Rachel Keller) and Allie Pressman's (played by Kathryn Newton) ideas and policies for the town, she wasn't quite so sure about others, specifically gun control.
The women on the show hold their ground. And that's what makes them not only endearing but also worth rooting for.
Netflix hasn't revealed a release date for the second season as of now, but have promised the show comes back next year in 2020.
