E“Everything Now” is a coming-of-age story with multiple twists and lots of angst, all of which it conveys more intelligently and stylishly than your average teen drama. 16-year-old Mia Polanco (Sophie Wilde, star of the recent cult horror film “Talk to Me”) has just been released from a private eating disorder treatment center where she was receiving inpatient treatment. She doesn’t so much walk away as storm out the door. She still has a lot to catch up on, but when she suggests going to the movies or bowling, her circle of friends has to tell her that her life has changed. Sex, alcohol and parties are the new bowling. “How can I have missed so much in seven months?” Mia asks, before creating a “Fuck It Bucket List” of activities, from a date and her first kiss to breaking the law, going to the club and more.
Mia’s anorexia is the main character here. Everything Now is responsible, but not toothless. Her illness fades into the background and then roars back again. It is neither rational nor linear. An episode later in the series, her brother Alex’s perspective takes over, emphasizing how consuming her experience was for everyone who loves her. Netflix was criticized for its 2017 film “To the Bone,” which also told the story of a young woman undergoing treatment for an eating disorder, but with significantly less sensitivity and nuance. “Everything Now” is sometimes sad and often stressful – not least because teenagers would actually save themselves a lot of trouble if they had a simple conversation about what they’re thinking – but it’s also funny and defiantly blunt.
Mia’s doctor is played by Stephen Fry, who may be looking for a new career as a queer teenager on television after Heartstopper. For us older millennials (this is clearly aimed at teen viewers, but that hasn’t dented the popularity of “Sex Education” or “Heartstopper,” so we’re assuming the audience will be broader) and those of us who Having gone to school in the last few days from Section 28, this is a whole new world. The characters have same-sex relationships that go beyond the claim to any identity. There is a constant undercurrent of queerness that is never discussed as queerness, but is merely wordlessly understood and absorbed by supportive parents, friends, teammates, and siblings. Maybe this is completely unobtrusive to younger viewers, and maybe that’s a good thing.
Mia lives in north London in a huge house. Her mother Viv (Vivienne Acheampong) is a semi-famous interior designer who struggles to connect with her daughter. There’s a tendency for teen dramas to exist in a colorful, gently fantastical world, and Everything Now lives in that too. This is clearly a middle and upper class country. One of their favorite places is an organic food store in Kentish Town, although some of the children at least work there. However, there is another point: Mia’s health care is private and expensive. The purpose of the show is to acknowledge this.
“Mia’s Fuck It Bucket List” compresses her teenage experiences into a small time frame, which gives the whole thing a real dynamic and energy. She has to make up for what she missed, and she does so primarily at parties that range from dangerous to beautiful to disastrous. One of the best things about the show is its exploration of awkwardness. Mia is relentlessly awkward, especially when a situation calls for her not to be. She says the wrong thing at the wrong time, fixates on the wrong person, lashes out at people who don’t deserve it, and makes a mess. “Just be yourself,” one of her friends tells her. “But I myself made sure that I had to be in the hospital for several months,” she says dryly.
But what is a teenage life if not completely embarrassing? Mia’s illness dominates, but she’s also about discovering who she is beyond it and redefining herself beyond it. These children are simultaneously wise, sometimes able to see the deeper truths behind Mia’s self-centered behavior, and also absolutely terrible to each other. They have the language for big conversations, but not quite the maturity. As the season progresses, they begin to find it, but the path to enlightenment is filled with half-empty vodka bottles and misguided make-outs. “Everything Now” is very well acted, beautifully shot, funny and biting, but for all its attitude it is also very sweet and, in the end, quite sensible. Although I’m sure the teenagers would hate that.
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