Beware of spoilers.  

You may be asking yourself why I would write about it here.  Well, mostly because of the largest problem the show has, and that's teaching young girls to pine after boys who don't like them that way, but also who are distant, and mean to them when they feel bad.  I don't know if the book follows this bullshit-ass storyline, but if it does?  What is wrong with these grown ass women who are writing about "bad boys" and the girls who can change them?  Are they that stunted in real life that they can't see just how damaging that is to their audience?  Or do they even care?  It reminds me of Bella in Twilight.  The relationship she had with Edward was sick and twisted, and she (I think in the 2nd movie?) was so obsessed with him that she couldn't eat or even breathe without thinking about him.  It was so wholly messed up.  And while this story wasn't as bad as that, in a way, it was.  

The main charter loves a boy.  The boy's brother is her close friend and deep down, he loves her too.  The boy she loves has been nice to her her whole life, but this year he's dark, and broody and his hair falls into his eyes (what is it with "bad boys" and shaggy hair??) all the time.  And he drinks too much and when he drinks too much, he says mean things to her.  But she still is in love with him.  Sure, he's dark and broody for a good reason...BUT, this story does not show that in a healthy way.  Instead, it shows him acting out and never telling her the truth and letting her into his life, like a healthy normal person would.  No, he shuts her and everyone around him out.  Now, maybe he would do that in real life, since they weren't super close.  But does that make it okay to act that way?  To call her names and shame her and pick on her when he's feeling bad?  Good people don't do that, even when they're hurting.  So I found that part of the story to be stupid.  If he's angry and mad that his mother is dying (told you, spoilers), then why not scream at his mother?  Why not at least tell the girl he may or may not be crushing on?  A good guy would to that.  So, it's like the writers want to take a good kid and make him bad, to give us some drama, but only to make him turn back good again.  WTF?  That's not real life.  And no, fiction is fiction, I get it, but young girls take stories like this and let it dictate their real life choices.  If you say it's normal that you can take an angry, mean, hurting boy who's acting out and just love him hard enough, he'll come around to you and turn good?  Then they will believe it.  But it's a fucking movie trope, not real life.  Bad boys don't turn good.  And good guys can do bad things, sure, but they don't act like total assholes because they're hurting.  Not all the time, anyways.  

So, the brother tells the girl he has feelings for her, and she realizes she has feelings for him, too.  Becuase fuck that bad brother!  He's mean!  Good choice, right girls?  Well, if only she stayed that way.  Bad boy then apologizes and tells mother that he knows she's dying and they all have a chat and mother decides to take the treatment and now the bad brother turns good again.  

And he apologizes.  

Oh yay!  And now the main character girl is all like "Well, who cares you were horrible to me, let's kiss and break your good brother's heart!!"  And she actually thinks this is a good idea and is happy!

End season.  Yup.  That'll teach young girls how to act in real life.

Let's then talk about what else is wrong with the show.  Because it doesn't end here. 

It's also teaching girls that they can do horrible things to one another and the main character girl who had the horrible thing done to her should then bow down to the idiot girl who put her and her friend danger.  Yes, I am talking about the "other" girl leaving the main character and her BFF skinny dipping in a lake over two miles away from home without any clothes.  And then, instead of apologizing or saying what a horrible thing that was to do to them (it could have gotten them both raped or even killed, not to mention the utter humiliation of having to walk home naked had there not been a tarp nearby--PLUS I am thinking that this should be classified as a sex crime), the victim is the one apologizing and nothing was ever said about the heinous act on the perpetrator's part.  They act as though it was just a misunderstanding (over the bad boy) and nothing is ever said about it again.  

What.  In.  The.  Holy.  Fuck.  

If you drove me out to go skinny dipping, then grabbed all my clothes and drove away, leaving me there to fend for myself to walk two entire miles home?  I'd call the police and press charges on your horrible ass.  And I'd not only never speak to you again, but I'd follow through with those charges and hopefully you would serve jail time.  Because how is that cute or funny?  How dare this show make light of something so horrible?  Especially to children?  That's not a fucking prank.  That's a child sex crime.  Those girls could have been arrested and charged with indecent exposure and if there had been children nearby?  They could be labeled as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.  Why does TV make such jokes out of such serious crimes and then play it off as though it was funny?  I can't even wrap my brain around this one.   And it kind of makes me pretty angry.  Even more so than the whole "I can change the bad boy if I just love him hard enough" TV trope.  Though that's pretty bad in itself.  

So, this show?  Is not only teaching young girls to victimize each other (and for the victims to be okay with it), but to put young girls in the path of narcissistic and toxic boys (sure, this boy wasn't a narcissist, but this isn't reality) and to pine after their love and to shove away the good boys who are actually good.  Just like all other shows and books out there.  

When we will start making content that roots for young women and men?   When we will start creating a blueprint that young people can model their lives after that are healthy and kind?  And make that the freaking norm instead of this bullshit?  

The world is full of narcissists.  Can we please stop putting them in our stories as the main characters our young people fall in love with or become friends with and instead create a world where we choose healthy and nontoxic people to share our lives with?  The 80's were full of the nerds (oh there are narcissistic nerds out there, but I am talking about the good guys) winning and the girls realizing that the good guys were who they really wanted.  But then something changed.  We became obsessed with the bad boys turning good, as though that happens in real life.  And it just doesn't.  We're setting up young people to get hurt.  And the TV writers/execs, and book writers just don't give a fuck.  They want to sell their stories.  That's it.  

This show is a pile of trash.  It has bad writing, and sometimes bad acting and the storylines are just awful.  And yes, I am going to watch season two, but only so I can bitch about that one, too.