Kiss Me First

I enjoy British responses to current pop culture trends, when they react in their own unique way, even at the expense of grander scenes. So when Kiss Me First landed on Netflix, clearly referencing the successful phenomenon of Ready Player One, I was intrigued. It has been a whole decade since BBC responded to the supernatural wave of vampires and werewolves and dazzled everyone with Being Human, and more recently, the short miniseries Him appeared, shifting superhero themes into a civilian setting. And it was HIM that I most frequently compared to Shadowfax et al. while watching. However, it's not just the presence of Simona Brown in a key role that is to blame. Just like Him, Kiss Me First minimizes its most attractive aspect, only utilizing it in relatively ordinary scenes, and eventually even losing it in that grayness. But the problem is that in this case, that is the least of its ills. Out of all the technical, dramatic, or relational aspects, I only believed in the vulnerability of the main character. Unfortunately, most of the time, she is depicted as a suffering teenager, crying over her mother, friends, enemies, or loves, and throughout the six episodes, I couldn't figure out why that was the case when she was immediately depicted as a brave hacker. The central bond of Shadowfax-Mania changes its essence from love to hatred and back within a few minutes, the supposedly comedic character Jonty usually behaves like a bull in a china shop, the dialogue is convoluted and unconvincing, and when the antagonist comes in with his endless monologues, I lose the last remnants of my patience. Amidst the rush of genre fragmentation, there are occasionally completely unfitting jump scares, and other times emotional shouting to emphasize the relationships between characters that I didn't even have a chance to get to know. And despite all of this apparent inconsistency and variability, I kept hoping that something important (or at least somewhat interesting) would happen. This is not so much a missed opportunity as it is a series of bad decisions. (25.08.2018)