With HBO stringing out a slew of new shows recently, there’s plenty of new stories that are constantly being talked about. However, there’s one that’s been in the shadows of Lovecraft Country and The Third Day and has flown a bit under the radar – especially considering who is attached to it. That show is called We Are Who We Are, and it is currently airing Monday nights on HBO and HBO Max. Not only does this coming of age show have the likes of Jack Dylan Glazer, Chloe Sevigny, Alice Braga, and Kid Cudi, but it also has Call Me By Your Name and Suspiria (2018) writer/director Luca Guadagnino making his writing and directorial debut on the small screen.
With so much talent both behind and in front of the camera, there’s definitely a lot of potential for We Are Who We Are to be something special – once we get more story-driven moments. Yeah, just like other HBO series, the premiere is more of an establishment of the style and tone of the atmosphere and characters of the show. It does set up some story as we meet Fraser (Glazer, Shazam!), a shy introverted 14-year-old, as he’s forced to move to a US military base in Chioggia, Italy with his mothers after one of them, Sarah (Sevigny, Kids), is promoted to be the new colonel of a messy military unit.
Like I said before, the premiere is basically Guadagnino just giving us a feel of his characters and some of their relationships – mainly that of Fraser and his moms. He’s the typical wallflower character as his introverted personality makes him more of a quiet voyeur constantly observing his surroundings and less of a conversationalist. However, whenever he does speak, he’s completely full of angst and even has an incredibly bitter relationship with Sarah, versus his more loving relationship with his other mother Maggie (Braga, Queen of the South) as she’s more of the chill mom, for uprooting their New York lifestyle and for being more concerned about her military career than loving her family. There’s definitely some tension and frustrations building within Fraser that Glazer makes for an incredibly intriguing performance full of angst and indecisions – mainly the latter though.
For those, like myself, craving for stronger representation and diversity in LGBTQIA characters and stories, this series immediately provides that through it’s coming of age themes that explore first love, sexual exploration and curiosity, and gender identity. With conflicting feelings about himself, Fraser is, at the very least, bi-curious as he reminisces about a, now, lost relationship back in New York with a boy, is shown to be slightly interested in one of the male soldiers after sneaking a peek at him in the shower, while also becoming enamored by an (at least at first) female presenting peer on base named Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamon). Even in his appearance his unsureness and indecisiveness are made clear as his nail colors are painted different and the way he dresses is a little all over the place. It’s this kind of unsureness and curiosity that sets up a lot of potential for a strong LGBTQIA coming of age story – something that Guadagnino is plenty familiar with.
The potential doesn’t stop with Fraser, as the character of Caitlin appears to still be figuring out their gender identity. Right from the first glimpse Fraser has of Caitlin, he can tell there’s something different about the character and after following Caitlin to a café, he’s sees that, when off base, the character presents their gender identity as male and goes by the name Harper. While we don’t get to explore their character much with this episode, Fraser asking what to call them at the end sets up a strong coming of age that’ll be very interesting to explore, hopefully, as they both come into their own in a place that isn’t exactly welcoming of difference.
Even though Sarah is the new colonel of the base, she doesn’t exactly get the warmest of welcomes as she is harshly informed of all of the issues within the unit that she’s walking into and there’s surely some social obstacles Sarah and Maggie are going to face in being together on base. Honestly, all of this taking place on a military base, especially with the kinds of problems that have been disclosed so far, is likely to create some conflict that will be interesting to see unfold as everyone gets their bearings.
Now, I know I’ve talked about a lot of story beats, but believe me, these are the small details that I was able to pull out of the more stylistic tone and filmmaking of this episode. Overall, the show has a great summery feel to it with bright cinematography, a strong soundtrack that feels free-flowing, and even a score that evokes the feel of a coming of age summer story. The subtitles even have a distinct look to them as they looked ripped right from someone’s journal/diary and are immediately eye-catching. Summer might be coming to a close, but We Are Who We Are is keeping the warm vibes alive with its distinct style and tone that’s easy to settle into.
We Are Who We Are airs Monday nights on HBO and re-airs the following day on HBO MAX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKgJexPP5EU
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