Reviewed by Tracey Paleo, Gia On The Move

What happens when the fantasy gets too real?

The ABCs follows one girl, Dakota, on her quest for achievable perfection and fantasy fulfilled in a Snapchat world that tells her that all of it is possible.

Adriana, Bella, and Caity are the perfect 10 high school teens. Emulating everything Kardashian, they go to the best parties, wear the best clothes. They have all had minor cosmetic procedures to ensure their status of the highest order amongst their peers. Bella even has a cosmetics sponsor that keeps her in couture and her mom in an expensive car.

When a slightly shady Dakota arrives as a transfer from another school, she is befriended by the group. But as it turns out, only because her house is available for meetings. And the pressure is on to fit in. Problem is, the girls put so much pressure on Dakota, that she becomes willing to do more than just take over in a vicious coup.

Deceivingly, intelligent. It would be easy to dismiss this show at the onset as bubble-gum pop or just plain bubble-headed millennial milieu. Don’t be fooled. This is some of the smartest writing and storytelling you’ll see about life for teens in the modern world.

Not frightening per se. They are normal teens and although acting like the sky’s the limit, they actually are morally intact. There are lines they don’t even think about crossing. But for the ABCs the visual is everything. And everything is about status. If you don’t have it, you’re no one. Hence, unfriendable, unattractive, undatable and unlikeable. These girls are living in a pressure cooker that has been created not necessarily by them, but for them. It’s the dilemma facing young people today more than ever who are being pressured to live up to far higher standards than any past generation has ever had to face. In other words, the struggle is death-defyingly real.

It’s quite brilliant and actresses, Ashley Nicol, Lauren Henning, Josetter Canilao, and Diane McNulty along with Dakota’s secret friend played by Lani Engstrom and spot on direction by Sarah Cho, are ‘on the nose’ with every vapid dialog and picture perfect moment.

Recommended

Written by Monica Trash

Directed by Sarah Cho

Produced by Elisabeth Rogge and Benno Rosenwald (Creative Producer)

Featuring: Josette Canilao, Lani Engstrom, Diane McNulty, Ashley Nichol and Lauren Henning

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