It’s important to remember two things when depicting teens on television. 1) Only five or six teenagers have ever existed ever and 2) Teenagers should be portrayed by actors in their mid to late twenties. We can’t speak for how age-appropriate the cast of new Fox8 drama SLiDE are, but the vodka-swilling teenagers they play certainly feel familiar. Trappings of the genre I guess. Pink-haired Eva (Adele Perovic) is rebellious, aloof and edgy. In Breakfast Club terms she’s the Ally Sheedy. Ed (Ben Schumann) is the socially awkward tech-nerd (a modern day Anthony Michael Hall). Luke (Brenton Thwaites) is the fun-loving jock (Emilio Estivez) and Scarlett (Emily Iris Robins) is a Dad-manipulating Princess who happens to live in a hotel (Molly Ringwald). The lone character we can’t envisage at Shermer High detention is Tammy (Gracie Gilbert) an aspiring music journalist who shops at thrift stores and has a blog. Bender she is not.
Eschewing the typical Aussie metropolises, the ten part series is set and shot in Brisbane (a city more synonymous with mass flight than hedonistic yoofs) and follows five disparate teens during the final ten weeks of high school. Virginity pacts are made. Drugs are consumed. Promises are broken (hearts too) and sex is awkward, swift and entangled with strange emotions they’ve never felt before. The easy comparison here would be Skins (another one-syllable teen drama beginning with “S”) whose commitment to audience engagement and realism SLiDE has embraced wholeheartedly. A crew of actual 17 year-olds were tapped to shape the show’s script and look while an exhaustive online campaign features webisodes, graphic novels, games, mixtapes and quizzes to tide fans over between episodes. We missed the premiere last night but this is definitely one to watch.
* Total missed opportunity if they don’t use Red Riders’ “Slide In Next To Me” somewhere in the soundtrack.
Slide airs Tuesday, 7.30pm on Fox 8.
MEET SCARLETT
MEET EVA
MEET LUKE
MEET ED
MEET TAMMY
