#FIRSTLOOK: “BOO BITCH”

By Mr. Will Wong

Lana Condor has propelled herself into this generation’s official Stream Queen, finding tons of success with the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before Franchise. And now she branches into the dark side, yet still managing to be light in another Netflix venture in darkly-comedic Series BOO BITCH. She even serves as Executive Producer.

The eight-episode Series centers on Helen (Condor) who is agreeable, but barely noticed at school. In fact year after year, despite demanding a correction, her classmates still confuse her as “Helen Who”. Determined to get noticed, she and her best friend Gia (Zia Colletti) devise a master plan to live their best lives, taking on new personas, and Helen becoming Erika! But much to her demise, she discovers that she might now actually be a ghost!

While BOO BITCH falls into some of the similar “disregarded teen girl who blossoms” tropes as others before, its choice to have Erika ponder mortality, life and regret, adds an element of meaningfulness to it. The Series explores consequence to action and atonement, and this helps Erika win us over despite her intentions on the surface being superficial. If there’s one thing beneath all the teen drama and politics that you can take away here, it is that you too should be living your life to the fullest!

Condor as always is an engaging lead and has about of fun with it. BOO BITCH‘s biggest revelation though, is Aparna Briell who plays Queen Bee Riley, who is threatened by the arrival of Erika. She possesses some of that energy of Euphoria‘s Maddie and makes bad look investing! These episodes fly by rather quickly, a perfect, breezy weekend binge!

BOO BITCH streams July 8, 2022 on Netflix.