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The Hornet

The Hornet

Serving the Fullerton Community Since 1922

The Hornet

Between: Worth the Netflix binge?

Based in Canada, Netflix Original Series Between is the first of their productions to cut back our binge-watching style and go with a weekly Thursday night airtime. This was because Netflix co-produced with Canada’s CityTV, but amusingly, Netflix Canada won’t be adding season one to its Que for an entire year.

Premiering back in late May 2015, the drama starts off with a flashback to Adam Jones (Jessie Carere, Finding Carter) and his attempted escape from the quarantine. Episode one introduces Jones as a crazy-haired genius who seems to only be able to talk in a whispered monotone voice. His best friend, Wiley Day (Jennette McCurdy, iCarly) is “the Ministers fallen daughter,” having been impregnated by an undisclosed male.

Then there’s Mark, the stereotypical rich white boy who can get away with anything because his dad owns most of the town. There is pill-popping Ronnie. He and his family are known locally as “the Creekers.” They are, of course, on the poorer side of town and mentioned as the delinquents of Pretty Lake. Finally, the last most notable character is Gord (Ryan Allen). He is the moral-minded black dairy farmer that tries to keep peace between Mark’s jock friends and the Creekers.

Though the moderate sexuality and violence make it appropriate to watch with parents, the cringe-worthy and laughable dialogue between all the angsty teens would be the more embarrassing part of watching the show together.

With a population of over 8,000 at the start and more than half gone by episode six, Between must have killed off all of the good actors as well. Seemingly low budget, the script tends to stay flat, even through the car crashes and every adult causally dying around town. Unassumingly named Between, the show characterizes kids in between a fenced town and the outside world, it should be the definition of how much space is in between Gord’s front teeth.

Veteran actor McCurdy may be the only one holding the show’s popularity for a second season pickup. If only the writing wasn’t so cheesy, the audience could get behind yet another ‘pre-apocalypse’ scenario.

Show star Jennette McCurdy herself has already confirmed back in July that a second season will premiere in 2016 with another confirmed six episodes. Season two is bound to continue with bland Jones and sarcastic Day leading the rest of the group through the fence, but if viewers will be bored enough to watch how the gang infects the rest of the world? That will be the real question.

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