You never forget your first love, or the unease that comes with being a teenager, and the new Netflix show Foreverdives into both of those shared concepts everyone can relate to, no matter the time period.
Based on the Judy Blume novel of the same name, two childhood friends Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) and Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) reconnect their senior year of high school and begin to fall in love, experiencing all the highs and lows that accompany a first relationship. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, Keisha and Justin navigate parental pressures, academic stressors and the awkwardness of intimacy as a teenager in the digital age.
Blume’s novel first released in 1975 to a wide array of controversy, with parents taking issue with the idea of teenagers having sex and candid conversations on birth control. Now, producer Mara Brock Akil has reimagined the over 50 year old book, bringing the universal experience of first love to 2018 Los Angeles and adding nuance to the original story with a mainly Black cast and 21st century societal challenges.
If you haven’t watched Forever yet, DECIDER gave it the STREAM IT stamp of approval, and all episodes are available now. If you’ve gotten through the season and are looking for more, here are 7 watches that explore love, loss, heartbreak and all the other bittersweet adventures that come with life.
Photo: Netflix
Keisha and Justin’s high school relationship may have been short-lived, but it’s clear they’ll be in each other’s lives, physically or spiritually, forever. One Day explores those pivotal life relationships you make with people, and how they follow you throughout the years. Emma (Ambika Mod) and Dexter (Leo Woodall) meet on their shared graduation night in 1988. After a failed hook-up and promise to stay friends, the pair oscillate around each other for 14 years, evolving as people and coming to terms with their true feelings for each other. If you’re looking for another show with all the miscommunication, angst and joy that comes with love, whether intimate or platonic, this is for you. Fair warning, tears will flow heavy.
Jason Segal leads this show, along with a stellar cast with top-notch chemistry, about another universal concept everyone can relate to in some circumstantial way: grief. After the loss of his wife, Jimmy Laird is overwhelmed, out of control and alienating his daughter and loved ones. He’s also a therapist whose job is to help people with these very instances. In an effort to turn life around, Jimmy starts crossing ethical boundaries with patients leading to personal ramifications for himself and the people around him. With a killer soundtrack and heartfelt performances, Shrinking explores complex emotions in an authentic and comforting way.
If you loved Mara Brock Akil’s interpretation of the classic, her other show Love Is has extremely similar elements. Enter Nuri and Yasir — two people coming from two different walks of life. Nuri is a successful sitcom writer balancing a few different men. Yasir is an out-of-work writer in an on-again off-again relationship with his girlfriend. Told from the perspectives of their older selves, Nuri and Yasir begin a relationship while chasing their dreams in 1990s Los Angeles, eventually having to balance their careers and love.
Love, lust and loss – three things everyone experiences, like Keisha and Justin, although it’s not just teenagers trying to understand their sexual identity. In this drama miniseries, Molly Kochan (Michelle Williams) decides to leave her husband to explore the full range of her sexual desires after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, reconnecting with her mind and body along the way. Based on a true story, the real love story here is between Molly and her bestie Nikki (Jenny Slate) who’s with her every step of the way portraying the best and most heartbreaking parts of true friendship.
Wanting more of the simplistic and awkward yet sweet and complex nature of adolescent love? Good news, everyone’s favorite summertime show is about to return for a third season, and if you’ve somehow missed the train so far, there’s two seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty to binge now in preparation. Belly has been friends with brothers Jeremiah and Conrad since childhood, vacationing at their house in Cousins Beach. But Belly isn’t a child anymore, and a love triangle cooks up between the three promising a drama-filled summer. We just can’t get enough of the teenage heartbreak!
Zoey Johnson is headed off to college in this spin-off of the hit show black-ish. Coming from her reign as a popular girl in high school, college should be a breeze, right? Leaving home and emerging into adulthood isn’t always as fun as it sounds. Bringing a perspective on the trials and tribulations of the college experience, the comedy focuses on that terrifying realization everyone goes through during that time: “Oh shit. I have no idea what I’m doing.” For more misadventures of baby adults figuring out life and themselves as they go, grown-ish is up next.
If you haven’t seen Sally Rooney’s TV adaptation yet, drop everything you’re doing. Starring two names we just can’t get enough of, the drama miniseries follows Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal) intimately and hauntingly orbiting around each other’s lives as they mature through adulthood. Marianne is a quiet loner from a family who wants nothing to do with her. Connell is a popular athlete, whose mom works as a housekeeper for the Sheridans. For another script-to-screen series with themes of class, grief, more grossly frustrating miscommunication and navigating sex and identity, these 12 episodes are waiting patiently. If you’ve already watched it…watch it again.
Claire Waheed is a recently graduated freelance writer currently based in Texas. She loves all things pop culture and new adventures.
