Early emotions, developing hormones, acne pimples and braces: The Mortified Guide revels in our most shameful teenage anecdotes.
This hybrid comedy docu-series, between stand-ups, animations and interviews, offers an original concept: reading the most embarrassing passages of your prepubescent teen diary in front of a crowd of strangers. The result is sometimes touching. Often to die of laughter.
The chaotic yet obligatory transition from childhood to adulthood is full of awkward memories, insecurities, and ridiculous obsessions. Many try to forget them, others keep traces of them. Mike Mayer, the director of the series, was interested in these vestiges of the past to bring them back to life for six episodes. Newspapers, songs, photos, essays for school and more or less successful attempts at artistic writing: everything goes there. And we are asking for more.
© Sundance Institute
The series, the official selection of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, is based on the stage performances Mortified , which also comes in books, podcasts and films. A huge hit in the United States. The delirium is not very young since the storytelling project created by David Nadelberg was born in 2002. A first film was also released in 2013 (available on Netflix) and if by the greatest chance you are currently in the States, know that several shows in the style are planned in May.
© The Hollywood Reporter
But back to the series. Each episode has its own theme. And it casts a wide net: from the first kiss to the irrepressible desire to integrate (even if it means using the most unlikely means) through survival within a neurotic family, you will feast. Here is a small anthology of what it gives:
a boy maintains a diary to survive a summer at his senile's grandmother's house;
A teenager from the 1980s writes an erotic fan-fiction that includes her favorite singer;
a high school student writes an ambitious musical after losing his friends;
a girl in love writes a song to seduce a classmate;
a 13-year-old pious Christian sends a letter to her idol in an attempt to convert her;
and many more.
It's awkward, exaggerated, naïve, sometimes cruel… But above all, it is blatantly true! We love it!
Reading these adolescent writings inevitably plunges us back into our own childhood memories. And that's why it works. We all have similar stories, we all took rakes and we all struggled at one time or another to be accepted. "We're all weird, we're all fragile and we've all survived."It has a very reassuring cathartic side. Basically, The Mortified Guide is a bit like therapy, minus the shrink's fees.
The Mortified Guide Trailer
The strength of this series is also the multiple forms it can take. The director does not hesitate to invite actors known to play the play of this teenager next to the plate, to bring musicians to accompany this ex-high school student or to read to this soap opera actress the letter written to him by a fan. In addition to stand-ups, the show is punctuated by micro-sidewalks, interviews with relatives, unflattering photos of the time (oh puberty…), family videos, very pictorial animated short films and other surprises! It has the merit of immersing us in everyone's story and giving rhythm to the program. The series is therefore very easy to watch, like a small treat, and defends itself quite a bit for a documentary format!
For those interested, the Mortified Guide team arrives at our home and organizes a few evenings in the capital. And for the more adventurous (and the least complex), producers are often looking for volunteers to participate in the French edition! So, are you ready to share the setbacks of your younger years?
Mortified Paris is looking for participants
Through this wide range of uncomfortable adolescent experiences, The Mortified Guide tells the story of how simply exposing one's past can inspire an entire room to "share the shame" of a person. This time with kindness, without judgment, without mockery and with the hindsight that we all missed during our high school years. This unique and candid series celebrates the awkward insecurities that have shaped us all. One would almost regret them.
