Seriously, try to watch Ginny and Georgia and not fall in love with the show’s characters. It is utterly impossible. They are all so charismatic, lovable, and dangerously human.
Ginny and Georgia is an upcoming Netflix series. It contains ten episodes, each around an hour in length. In its simplest form, the show follows the mother-daughter duo, Georgia and Ginny Miller.
However, it is much more than that.
While seemingly-perfect and flirtatious, Georgia (Brianne Howey) has a terrifying backstory that slowly unfolds as the series progresses. She is a picture-perfect femme fatale who had to resort to dangerous resolutions to solve her past conflicts, which threatened her and her daughter’s livelihood.
But her daughter, the awkward Ginny (Antonia Gentry), is where things really get interesting. Ginny is a half-Black teenager whose life has just been uprooted to move to the predominantly white community in New England — Wellsbury.
Instantly, she finds herself thrown into an addictive love triangle with the mysterious boy-next-door Marcus (Felix Mallard) and the popular study bug Hunter (Mason Temple), who “has a ponytail instead of a personality” — as put by the other boy.
“Instantly” is not an exaggeration — this show consistently avoids fluff and instead chooses to dive straight into the good stuff.
In a complete surprise, it was refreshing to find that Ginny and Georgia expertly skips the typical high school courting process and the slow build-up of tantalizing storylines and instead digs way beyond the surface.
While some aspects of the Millers’ lives remain a mystery until the ending, it’s done entirely purposeful and artistically.
Other things like minuscule drama and long-winded love confessions are pushed to the back as Georgia finds herself stalked by a private investigator hired to inquire about her husband’s recent death, and Ginny finds herself in the midst of a racial identity crisis.
“Passion, power, money, sex”
As Ginny says in a voiceover describing her mom, this show is all about “passion, power, money, and sex.”
Georgia quickly finds herself embraced into her new community.
She ends up charming her way into a job with the local town mayor, Paul Randolph (Scott Porter) — much to the dislike of the PTO moms who oppose his progressive stance on drug legalization and his lack of a conventional lifestyle.
The two began a steamy relationship, despite the disapproval of Georgia’s two children as they find themselves tired of jumping from relationship to relationship with their mom.
However, Paul is Georgia’s way into acquiring power in the community and money — she hustles at town events, stealing hearts and wallets.
Ginny also explores the idea of power and sex and a whole lot of passion. As a growing teenager, she finds herself navigating the new world of relationships and sex.
After engaging in a secret affair with her best friend’s brother, Ginny feels cheated and ignored. She takes a page out of her mom’s book and finds herself constantly teasing and engaging the boy — making sure she consistently holds the upper hand.
She also faces the issue of power in her newfound friend circle, MANG — Maxine (Sara Waisglass), Abby (Katie Douglas), Norah (Chelsea Clark), and Ginny.
The young girl masterfully weasels her way into this friendship group changing it from MAN to MANG. But, when she finds that she isn’t everybody’s number one pick, she discovers a way to get to the top by exploiting other people’s weaknesses and taking a few pages out of her mom’s book.
Ginny is quick to ensure that she stays grounded and empathetic. In one scene, she comes to the realization, “I think you only want passion when you’ve been burned.”
The solution to oversexualized teen dramas
Ginny and Georgia is the perfect solution to oversexualized teen dramas which have increasingly become more and more of a conversation. Viewers are finding themselves dissuaded from teen dramas that feature unrealistic images of being a high school girl.
In Ginny and Georgia, the main teens, while clearly trendy and wealthy, are young-appearing and wear clothing appropriate for their setting and lifestyles. There has not been a single stiletto insight in the halls of Willsbury High.
The show also adopts an adolescent look into the couple’s relationships. The MAG of MANG is open about their virginities and their insecurities and fears regarding starting a sexual relationship with their partners.
In one scene, they are all gathered on Maxine’s bed, watching porn and criticizing it for its obvious male gaze. Norah, who is more experienced and is subtly in a relationship with one of Hunter’s friends, opens up about her experience and the girls find themselves having a healthy conversation on the topic.
It is wholesome and adorable but doesn’t steer clear of coming-of-age topics. It just respectively doesn’t contain explicit scenes of underage characters — which should be a given when it comes to teen dramas, but sadly, it isn’t.
The showrunners achieve this with convenient cuts and by focusing on intimacy rather than nudity.
A million spin-offs, please
Ginny and Georgia has an insanely lively and diverse cast. While the show revolves around Ginny being in a predominately white town, the show has an unexpected diversity in many different forms.
Maxine is a proud lesbian, and she finds herself in a new relationship with another out-of-the-closet high school senior. The character is spunky and energetic and is the queen of long-winded tangents; she’d send Lorelai Gilmore running for her money.
Then there’s Hunter, one of Ginny’s love interests. He is Taiwanese and finds himself battling ethnic norms throughout the series.
During a heated argument with Ginny where she dismisses his cultural background and accuses him of being more white-passing than her, he attacks back with his own troubles. Hunter asks her, “Do you want to play oppression wars?” before angrily stalking off.
There’s also Maxine’s brother and Ginny’s other love interest, Marcus. While at first, he seems like a total standoffish black sheep, it is revealed that he is battling his own demons. He has serious doubts about his self-worth, and his friend recently committed suicide.
What’s most admirable about Ginny and Georgia is that the show accomplishes giving each of its supporting characters their own backstory and flaws.
There’s a constant theme of “everybody has something going on” throughout the series, and Ginny and Marcus seem to be the only ones to notice it.
The young characters face issues of self-harm, eating disorders, divorced parents, and panic attacks, yet they put on a great facade for their friends and families — always coming out with a smile… until it gets to be too much.
Ginny and Georgia does great justice to its teen characters which is destined to transition well into forming a steady fanbase— and with steady fanbases likely comes season two.
Hopefully, that wish is granted, as there’s still so much left to explore in this shady town and the lives of the Millers.
Ginny and Georgia arrives to Netflix (globally) on February 24.