Who would have thought that watching the police raid a home to arrest 13-year-old boys would become a familiar cliché? For those familiar with it, that's how you could describe the opening sequence of the hit Netflix series, Adolescence. However, I now have the (dis)honor of saying that I've seen two series that start the same way, though one is much better than the other, and I'll leave it to you to guess. Imagine, at 13 years old, finding yourself in a juvenile detention center because your mother called the police, and then growing up to become a stand-up comedian, writing material based on your trauma. That's the basic premise of Bad Boy, a new Hebrew-language series on Netflix that has apparently won a ton of awards. Despite having watched it without prejudice, I can't help but admit that I found it tremendously disappointing and utterly incoherent.
In theory, this story definitely sounds intriguing. Just as we were eager to see the consequences of a 13-year-old boy being interrogated while watching Adolescence, we felt the need to understand the whys and the whos of this story. But the thing is, every time something seems to make sense, we're hit with a new comedic routine that seems endless. I won't talk much about the stand-up itself, because I've always been a little wary of people making fun of their acquaintances in front of hundreds of people to make jokes, but I think this might be a case of humor lost in translation, because literally none of it worked. I guess you could say this show has the same problem many detective shows have with trying to write great characters: you can't write a stand-up comedy without knowing how to write comedy (oops!).
Stars: Daniel Chen, Guy Manster, Havtamo Farda
In Bad Boy, Dean Shaiman finds himself in a terrifying situation when the police burst in to arrest him. He's then sent to juvenile hall, where he meets terrifying people and fears immediate death. To top it all off, he's forced to share a room with the scariest kid on the block. Twenty years later, Dean is still alive and kicking, but he also goes by the name Daniel Chen. New identity, new life, can you imagine? Not exactly. It's a new life, but assuming the role of his old one. I know, by now you're thinking: this sounds pretty cool. However, when you watch it, it's basically a mess. I know, having a non-linear timeline can be fun, but in this series, even the flashbacks are jumbled up, which completely frustrates us with this tasteless shrimp cocktail.
Guy Manster plays the protagonist, an anxious but humorous young man who just wants to make people laugh. To be fair, Guy does a great job bringing Dean's dilemma to life. One second, he's scared to death for his life, the next, he's joking about being invited to be a stripper because he's not wearing any clothes (I thought he delivered that pretty well, despite a 13-year-old doing it). But this charm isn't enough to sustain the show's interest, because the co-writer and co-creator—that is, the man on whom the entire series is based—Daniel Chen, who plays himself, constantly interrupts, monologuing for large chunks of the show. It's tedious, sometimes repulsive (there's a pedophile joke that left me wondering why; I can't even pretend to like it), and sometimes also comes across as juvenile. I suppose embellishing it with its own laugh track can help, but it just didn't work for me. Perhaps if the two entities had been treated separately, rather than as a single narrative incorporating two styles, it would have been much more appealing to an audience unfamiliar with this story.
The only thing that really works in the show's favor is the relationship Dean develops with a boy named Zorro. He's the only character who seems well-developed, despite so much mystery surrounding him. But, once again, everything falls short, like a slice of pizza with only the crust (the best part) left. It's the chemistry between the two boys, with a very obvious undertone of homoeroticism, that really brings the show to life. I mean, she calls him "Rabbit," but don't get excited; that's not what it's about, although the Heartstopper-style doodles will definitely confuse you. The rest of the characters are basically cardboard cutouts. It definitely feels like the headmistress is a woman just because there needs to be a woman in the show besides the mother. The same goes for the drama teacher, who really contributes nothing to the narrative. There's one character who appears as if she's about to traumatize the adult Dean, but literally nothing comes of it, and it's completely forgotten that it happened in the second half of the show. So what was the point? It deviates from a typical cliché in these stories involving the mother.
As with the writing, the visuals are also quite confusing, leaving very little room for breathing. Still, I don't understand why the series had to last 8 episodes, because the story could have been wrapped up in half that time, even if we hadn't omitted the comedy and simply opted for a more coherent narrative style. In case you haven't noticed, what I'm getting at is that I felt this series was a huge waste of time and didn't entertain me at all. Ultimately, I didn't see the point because whatever it was trying to say wasn't conveyed very well in the chaotic preamble to the final act, which is actually quite good. I'd give Bad Boy 1.5 out of 5 stars and would like my hours back. I wish it didn't live up to its title so much.
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