Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever. Netflix's new comedy miniseries is a mix of Everything sucks! and Very Bad Trip teen version. The scenario tells the story of three young people: Zed, Treece and Argo, all three fans of Star Crasher, a comic written by a certain H. L Cross, who stopped writing after episode 93. The arrival of Comic-Con during a weekend in their city, gives them the opportunity to meet their idol and present them their own creation of issue 94. However, the weekend will not go as planned.
The whole series is based on the notion of friendship and the transition to adolescence. The three companions want to spend the best weekend of their lives, together before going back to high school. They grew up and they built around this comic and a geek universe. The references are therefore numerous and the writers have exploited the event of Comic-Con to the end. There are pop culture references throughout the episodes such as when Argo and Zed find themselves stuck in a dumpster whose walls tighten like in Star Wars. This geek humor makes the first episodes more digestible, because the beginning lacks a little interest.
Characters based on clichés
The sequences are linked with difficulty with characters pushed to clichés. Zed is the leader who takes his friends into troubles, he always believes he has a great plan. Argo is the little bespectacled nerd who follows his companions and Treece is the "tomboy" girl, in love with her best friend. It is quite difficult to get attached to them at first because of the stereotypes attributed to them. This is also the case of the entire Comic-Con universe which is exaggerated: the writers have pushed the comedy to a parodic and sarcastic form, but this does not do justice to the series.
The characters are quite rude. Zed is annoying with the way he always wants to fix things when problems are created by his decision-making. It will be necessary to wait until the fifth episode to really understand that his will is to do well, because he is afraid of losing his friends at the entrance of the school. In the first episodes, he appears as an arrogant teenager who has little interest in the feelings of others. It is only towards the end that the viewer can understand Zed's attachment to the comic that was passed on to him by his deceased father.
Important themes raised late
Indeed, there is a shift in the last episodes with deeper topics that are addressed: the fear of growing up, the discovery of love, friendship and family tearing with Zed and his older brother who is in juvenile prison, as well as Treece and his half-sister Hallie and finally with Argo and his father. The three protagonists are faced with inevitable changes in their lives and the last three episodes reflect these upheavals.
However, these themes are only superficially addressed in less than an hour and a half of episodes combined. The emotion is palpable but very quickly evacuated, because these themes are not deepened. Unfortunately, Netflix has chosen to make this scenario only a mini-series, which gives little opportunity to go into detail. The choice to mix these important themes and comedy also creates an imbalance, as the majority of the series is devoted to humor.
This series is the perfect example of a desire on the part of Netflix to want to touch all genres without making real choices. This series allows you to have a good time like many others, however, it does not mark the spirits, because it remains only on the surface without deepening themes that would make the series much better.
Trailer: Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever.
