A whole generation of college students (born in the 1980s) swore by the cult
Hartley, Cœurs à vive
, an Australian success exported to 70 countries and perceived as revolutionary in its way of dealing with adolescent issues.
Its subversive aesthetic, its slightly disproportionate mortality rate and its verbal crudity contrasted viscerally with the
Beverly Hills soap, 90210
then broadcast on the competing channel.
Even today, we remain a little nostalgic for the adventures of Costa Bordino and his slicked back curls, Anita Scheppers and Nick Poulos, whose tragic death during a boxing match left us inconsolable.
The song
Outside These Walls
by Jodie Cooper (played by Abi Tucker) perhaps resonates as the anthem of this smart generation, full of dreams for the future which only wanted to get out of its disadvantaged condition.
On video, Abi Tucker,
Outside These Walls
in
Hartley, raw hearts
It is therefore not without a certain enthusiasm that we received the news of a reboot of this mythical
Heartbreak High .
, currently available on Netflix.
We're back at Hartley High School, whose students now have active sex lives and smartphones.
The (fictional) public school in Sydney's eastern suburbs has a bad reputation and its pass rate ranks among the lowest in the region.
Instead of trying to mold new Drazic, Rivers, or Anita, this 2022 release centers on Amerie (Ayesha Madon), whose social ambitions are turned upside down when she and her best friend Harper (Asher Yasbineck) tear each other apart due to a mysterious grievance.
Amerie then becomes persona non grata and befriends the high school outcasts, Darren and Quinni.
She soon makes an act of humility and learns that there is more to life than being the star of her school.
That is.
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During these eight episodes, creator Hannah Carroll Chapman, a fan of the original series, tried to capture its spirit while trying to shake up the conventional image of a white and Anglo-Saxon Australia.
The cast brings historical diversity in terms of ethnicity, sexuality and neurodivergence (one of the characters has autism), and this is a credit to this production.
In video, the trailer for Do Revenge, the colorful thriller from
Netflix
If Australian slang is still very present in the series, it is however difficult to make the link between the two versions that almost thirty years separate.
We do not see any direct filiation;
the new series resembles the now very conventional
Sex Education
or
Riverdale
, leaving a feeling of deja vu.
The topics covered, regaining a tarnished reputation, asserting oneself in one's sexuality, are hackneyed to say the least.
The first images are also quite vulgar in the comments made, the way of approaching sex heavy and insistent.
But it is perhaps the general tone, this false distant irony, specific to the series of teenager which tires a little.
The characters look slightly insufferable and ultimately smooth.
Or maybe we've aged without realizing it since Drazik, his shark tooth necklace and his wool vests?