(Jamie here in my phone I can't make my writing pink)
So I said awhile back I may randomly review shows so here is one!
First let me start by saying this show is on MTV. I want to start this by addressing the thing I hear often from people in my generation. Yes MTV used to be music television and it evolved. Music television 24/7 doesn't make sense anymore. I know it makes you all nostalgic and fuzzy on the inside thinking about how simple and wonderful everything used to be, but things evolve and change so get over it.
Yes, MTV sucked for along time. It went almost all reality and that's great if you love reality, I do not so for me it sucked. They have start adding scripted shows and every time a show starts on MTV the Gen Xers come out in force...aww why MTV that's so bad waaahhhh. Here's the thing though...the scripted shows on MTV are good! I could use the excuse that I have children in the age demographic they aim at, but truth is I enjoy the shows on there, even if they are aimed at a 13-30 demographic...suck it. So that's my Pro-MTV disclaimer, onto the actual show!
Finding Carter is about a girl who was kidnapped when she was 3 and raised by her kidnapper until she was 16. She thought that woman was her mother until she got in a bit of trouble and they returned her to her birth family, including a twin sister.
This show is excellent at a lot of things. The characters don't instantly deal with things nor does the plot drag on. The actors are great are portraying the aggravation and situations that would happen. Carter, the kidnappee, is the main character, but its really about this whole family and analyzing things like what makes a family? Nature vs nurture? People in your life who do terrible things. Good influences vs. Bad. A lot of the things you'd expect to see on a show aimed at milennials and what the name of the generation is after milennials, but handled differently and that brings me to why I wrote this review.....
So the storyline they just did/are doing is a big deal and something they would have NEVER done in the 90s without it going very badly. Carter has never liked school or gone. Her kidnapmom was super free range and friend like. Her bio(ish)parents not so much (moms a cop). So even since going back home she has ditched a lot of school on the show. Unlike other teen shows that never really address this or joke about it and then the students suddenly graduate with honors (I'm looking at you Pretty Little Liars, them chicks never went to school and if they did they left quick!), Carter is turned into truancy and told she will have to repeat her grade.
She tells her parents she is miserable at school. She doesn't learn like that. She is better at self teaching and she learns through action. You find out as a child she learned math by cooking with kidnapmom. She wants to drop out and get a job.
Bio(ish) parents are like oh hell no. Like I think most parents would be.
She is miserable. I kept waiting for her to suddenly learn her lesson. Yay school is valuable and important and she will work harder and prevail! That's how these shows usually go huh? Or something dramatic she runs away or does a bunch of drugs or something reckless.
None of those things happened. Yes she made an uncool choice, but then she backed down and told her parents she wants to drop out more than anything ever, but she wants to do it right with their support. Then...they let her!! She has to get GED and job etc, but they allow it.
I am sure there are parents all sorts of mad at the message this is giving, but those mad parents need to watch the episode again because this episode is aimed at parents not at the kids. Thus episode is about listening to your kids and what they really need! It's also a broader statement about our public education system and how the archaic one size fits all approach is actually failing a lot of people who could learn better other ways.
I am a HUGE fan of education! Ask my kids I turn everything into a learning experience if possible. But FORMAL education only goes so far and is useless for some people and only serve to make them feel useless, dumb, and incapable.
This show telling parents its okay you aren't failures and kids the same thing is amazing in my eyes. I spoke in another post about how irritating it is when parents say "I just want my child to be happy" when they don't really mean it, but on this show these parents chose their child's happiness over how it looks to others, their own expectations, societies expectations, etc. That is a very powerful statement in my opinion.
Finding Carter is halfway through its 2nd season on MTV.
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