The year is 2005. Sixteen year-old Orlando resident Miles Halter (Charlie Plummer, King Jack) is about to enter his Junior year of high school, and he is desperate for an adventure. Miles, you quickly realize, is not one for friends. His dull suburban home is presented as loving but painfully ordinary, and Miles has decided he’d rather study the deaths of famous men, including their last words, than truly live his own life. However, all of that is about to change, because, as Looking for Alaska, Hulu’s miniseries adaptation of the acclaimed John Green novel of the same name, begins, Miles is about to start the first day of his grand new adventure to discover what the point of living is.
If that sounds a tad morbid, you might be surprised how unexpectedly life-affirming this quest actually feels in its opening hour. Miles quickly falls in with a small group of friends led by his roommate The Colonel aka Chip. The Colonel gives Miles, who he ironically nicknames Pudge after seeing him in a towel, the lay of the land. The cool, rich kids get to go home on the weekends and have an openly hostile relationship with him. The Eagle, played perfectly by Veep’s Timothy Simons, is Culver Creek Academy’s hard-nosed Dean of Students and he’s not to be trifled with or trusted. And Takumi (Jay Lee, American Vandal) knows everything.
It’s not long after that Miles meets Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth, Sierra Burgess Is A Loser). We have been watching quick introductory scenes of Alaska throughout this first half an hour before her path crosses Miles’, and one would not be wrong to think she’s the series secondary protagonist. This is very clearly Miles’ story, as it’s almost exclusively from his point of view. However, the first times the camera drifts from his vantage point it’s to give us a glimpse into the life of the mercurial and enigmatic Alaska.
Alaska is savvy. She’s opinionated. She’s politically engaged. She’s bold. And she’s vulnerable only when she’s completely alone. In this opening hour, she does drift dangerously close to Manic Pixie Dream Girl territory, but it seems like the series is at least somewhat curious about her interior life and what drives her beyond what she means to Miles. Notably, Miles believes she is the answer to the question he’s been asking his whole life, which is a very romantic and/or narcissistic way of saying he’s falling for her.
Plummer is never better than in his very sweet and awkward scenes with Alaska. He captures just how earnest and innocent and more than a little overwhelmed by all of this Miles is, and he does so in this effortless way where he feels quite present in the moment, whether alone or with his scene partners. Froseth, is at her best in these scenes with Plummer, as well. There is this layer of nostalgia for the innocence Miles displays and a bit of regret at her own lost innocence to her performance. She’s capable of seeming like the coolest, most in control person in the room while also hinting ever so slightly at how truly out of control she truly feels. I do hope that we continue to see Miles and Alaska as dual protagonists going forward.
There are a few surprising plot developments that occur towards the end of the episode that will surely serve as an important spine on at least these opening few hours of the miniseries. However, what’s more interesting to note is the tremendous craftsmanship on display. In many ways, the bones of this story feel very YA in predictable and mildly inorganic ways, yet there is nothing inorganic about the world creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (The OC, Runaways) have birthed.
The performances all feel lived in and, on occasion, quite raw and intimate. The direction is often quite stunning, utilizing natural lighting and the forest setting to capture an empathetic and life-affirming visual palette, overflowing with natural beauty which our teens rarely take the time to appreciate. The art direction helps capture the world of 2005 (during which I was exactly one year younger than our main characters) in wonderful and accurate detail, from the bulky iPods and Dan Brown-obsessed parents to the MapQuest printouts and Fear Factor-inspired family bonding. And tying it all together is a soundtrack of period-specific indie rock that hits my nostalgia centers hard while setting a strong tone for the series.
All this is to say that I wasn’t exactly blown away by Looking for Alaska in its first episode. There is a lot of familiar territory here in its opening hour and not all of it is territory we really need to traverse once again in 2019. However, the series is also incredibly well-crafted, expertly acted, and deeply watchable. I look forward to seeing if Schwartz, Savage, and company can flesh this world out more and allow the story and its characters to live up to the promise of the excellent look and feel of the miniseries’ first hour.
Finding Alaska, the entire series, is currently streaming on Hulu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWNlrgNNVm4
