Because we love Ginny and Georgia

It has the vibes of our favorite shows from the 2000s

Created by Sarah Lampert in 2021, John & Georgia begins with the arrival of Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey) in Wellsbury, a small town in Massachusetts. This colorful young single mother from Texas moves in with her two children, Ginny (Antonia Gentry), 15, and Austin, 9.

Resourceful, but also obsessed with her past, she must establish herself in a bourgeois universe al Desperate Housewives. Surprising Marcus, a crush on Ginny climbing her window, Georgia exclaims: “Where do you think you are in a 90s teen drama? To Dawson? » ActuallyGinny and Georgia takes us back to the good old days of teen and family drama, with a twist of soap to keep us going.

Explore mother-daughter relationships with skill

The series presents itself as the worthy heir of Gilmore Girls. Ginny and Georgia are as close-knit and close in age (just 15 years apart) as Rory and Lorelai, but their relationship is portrayed more realistically, with bonding moments and painful settling of scores.

In the voice-over, they express, each in turn, their moods. This allows us to understand both her points of view: on the one hand, that of Ginny, who needs to emancipate herself from her mother and from her unconscious pressure on her; on the other that of Georgia, who has forged so much with her daughter (“it’s you and me against the rest of the world”, reminds him) that she can’t stand having to give him room to grow. The series delicately analyzes all the complexity of their codependent bonds.

A rare representation on the screens

Have you ever seen a mixed race teenager with a white mom in a series? mainstream ? John & Georgia it fills in a missing representation in pop culture, and it does it well. She faces double culture: Ginny rarely feels out of place and lives with this nagging feeling that she’s not black enough, or white enough depending on the context.

While she may share her questions with her black father, it’s not the same with her white mother. This is a source of great anxiety, which she ends up expressing during a movement therapy session in season two. Confronted by her mother who doesn’t want to see their differences, Ginny explains that she needs to be able to tell her when she’s hurt. , for example, seeing her disguised as Scarlett O’Hara (the heroine ofGone With the Wind).

The series features other successful minority portrayals, such as Max (Sara Waisglass), Ginny’s lesbian best friend and drama queen, leader of her gang of girlfriends. In Season 1, Ginny dates Hunter (Mason Temple), a Taiwanese-born teenager who also experiences racism. Their argument after a teacher sneakily pits them against each other is one of the strongest scenes in the series.

Sensitive topics, handled with care

Self John & Georgia looks like a series comfort food he also knows how to deal with sensitive topics, such as self-harm or teenage depression. Faced with a world full of injunctions whose codes they discover, teenage girls are subject to mental disorders.

We speak of “adolescent crisis” as a necessary step, which tends to minimize the suffering experienced. John & Georgia it depicts this malaise at the peak of adolescence, in all its desperation and devastating complexes (think of Abby, who suffers from dysmorphophobia). Through the character of Georgia, the series also deals with the taboo theme of domestic violence and the lack of support women receive, isolated and forced to find a way out on their own.

Georgia is a complex anti-heroine, the way we like them

“A woman’s life is a struggle. And her beauty is a fucking machine gun. I’m not going anywhere without my war paint. » Always dressed, smiling, rock solid, Georgia regularly flips the sexist trope of the not-so-smart blonde beauty. Over the course of two seasons, we learn under what circumstances she forged this shell and a philosophy of life that drives her to seek a man to elevate herself socially.

But what exactly is blamed on women like Georgia, defined as “venal”? Simply to try to get out of her social class. But, if her initial motivations—to protect her family from patriarchal violence—make her endearing to us, are her actions still justifiable, she asks the season 2 finale? Let’s wait for Netflix to green light a season 3, to discover the rest of the adventures of this tasty anti-heroine.

A photo credit: Netflix.