A teenage acquaintance of mine developed a minor obsession with the Netflix series Outer Banks. Evidently it's quite popular with teens so in an effort to be the World's Dopest Boomer I did a quick binge.
It's a standard Romeo & Juliet variation. Instead of Montagues and Capulets we have the Pogues, who are the poor folks, and the Kooks, who are the rich folks. It is unclear where those labels came from, I suspect they are just made up words. (Insert Thor meme: "All words are made up.") The Pogues and the Kooks fight and rage against each other, while the Pogue boy and the Kook girl start at odds but eventually become a couple. Their first kiss was named "Best Kiss" at the MTV Awards. Because teens.
Interesting to me is that the Capulets and Montagues were equivalent families (IIRC). An R&J rehash from the 20th century, West Side Story, featured whites and Puerto Ricans, both equally stupid and racist. In contrast, the factions in Outer Banks we have clear good guys and bad guys and, as you can guess, the rich Kooks are the bad guys. There is a think-piece to be written about how the earlier opposing sides have a rough moral equivalence, whereas this current one clearly has a bad guy and it's The Rich. I will not be the one writing that think piece.
Still you have the proven star-crossed romance theme coupled with a Scooby-Doo level missing treasure mystery as the McGuffin. Pile on more teen targeting: The adults have little effect on the teen scene, they don't understand them, they just want control. The teens want nothing more than independence and to pursue their lives away from the pesky grown-ups. Yup. Another timeless theme.
Apart from the class warfare thing, it's not overly wokey. It's a pretty solid teen fantasy aimed mostly, but not exclusively, at girls. If your teen is obsessed with this, it's probably nothing to get too concerned about.
Three further observations:
First, I don't know if the soundtrack is a good source for understanding what music teens are listening to. I don't recognize the songs so I guess it's possible. One exception was at the high point of the season when we got an episode closing to "Police On My Back" from the Clash. Straight out of the late 1970s. Yes, I did think it was better than anything else on the show, by miles.
Second, there is absolutely no reason for this show to be called Outer Banks. It is not shot in the Outer Banks -- evidently the producers disagreed with the politics of North Carolina on woke grounds. There are no Outer Banks locations referenced. The show-specific vocabulary -- Kooks, Pogues, The Cut (where the Pogues live), Figure 8 (where the Kooks live) -- is entirely made up. Literally the only thing related to the actual Outer Banks (a place I love) is the name. I supposed they started by hoping to really create a locally flavored show, but when they needed to cancel the State of North Carolina, they decided to keep the name because it's so cool sounding. It's actually shot in South Carolina near Charleston. I guess "Hilton Head" wouldn't have gone over so well. Hmmm. There's also a Folly Beach nearby. That would have been more apropos.
Third, everything I said about the show only applies to Season 1. Season 2 is abysmal by any standards. Just astonishingly bad.
