Does Gen Z Lack Empathy or Is This Just Bad Writing?

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A few thoughts on Netflix’s latest limited series, ‘Boo, Bitch’.

Does Gen Z Lack Empathy or Is This Just Bad Writing? A review of the Netflix limited series 'Boo, Bitch'. The image is a picture of a man with his feet on the table, the Netflix logo on the television in front of him.
Photo by Mollie Sivaram on Unsplash

Let’s Dive In

Since finishing the fourth season of ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Virgin River’ not coming back for another week and a half, I was left with mainly my books for entertainment. This isn’t a complaint, but sometimes after a hard week, you just want to veg out on the couch and get lost in a bunch of episodes of something mildly interesting.

‘Boo, Bitch’ is a new limited series on Netflix that centers around two best-friends Erica and Gia, as they gear up to graduate from their senior year of high school. They make a last-ditch attempt to be a little more popular. But when one of them becomes a ghost, she realizes she is on borrowed time, and it’s now or never to finally live it up.

Or as the kids say, “living my best life”.

This show is categorized as a supernatural teen comedy and for the most part, it comes off that way. The humor is a bit on the dark side, think ‘End of The F**king World’ type humor.

Though I didn’t find myself laughing as often as could have. I think it’s tricky to balance grief and humor and this show definitely struggles in that department.

So what’s the problem?

I could look past the weird, over-the-top fashion and the jokes that weren’t really funny. But what really had me scratching my head when I finished the series, was why these two characters were written as best friends who only looked out for one another, yet one dies and the other doesn’t acknowledge it until the last ten minutes of screen time?

Is this a generational thing? Does Gen Z lack empathy because they live in a world completely overrun by screens to the point where empathy is a foreign concept?

Or is this simply bad writing? Writers who are older, maybe Millenials or Gen X trying to emulate the cheesy teen rom-coms of the early 2000s.

Personally, I think it’s the latter. I have Gen Z siblings and they can lack empathy because they are young, not necessarily because of the generation they belong to.

I would have liked to see more empathy from the living friend, instead of getting lost in the superficiality of being popular. Although, I had to remind myself this was a “teen” series. So what is more in line with being a teen than being self-centered?

What is more intoxicating? The rush of a thousand likes on social media or the sobering afterthought that your best friend is dead?

Beats me when it comes to this series.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this limited series was nonetheless entertaining. It almost fits the bill for what I want when I am in the mood to roll myself up into a human burrito and plop down on my living room couch.

There are a handful of one-liners that fit into scenes perfectly. Lana Condor (who plays Erica) and Zoe Colletti (who plays Gia) have fantastic chemistry and play so well together on camera.

I am still kinda curious as to why there were so many characters named Jake, but that’s a problem for another day.

Overall, I did enjoy the series. It was mind-numbing to temporarily make me forget about the crappy week I had and entertaining enough to finish it in less than 48 hours. So if you’re into weird comedy, weird outfits, and weirdly named characters, consider giving ‘Boo, Bitch’ a watch.


Did you watch this? What are your thoughts?


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