Common Sense Media Review
By Jenny Nixon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Nuanced teen series covers mental health, eating disorders.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Everything Now
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
EVERYTHING NOW tells the story of awkward, funny 16-year-old Mia (Sophie Wilde, Talk to Me), freshly discharged from a seven-month stint at an inpatient eating disorder treatment facility after a harrowing descent into anorexia. She soon finds that her formerly close-knit friend group has been hitting a bunch of teenage milestones (hookups, drunken parties, and so on) without her. Meanwhile, her family -- straight-laced little brother Alex, homebody dad Rick, and reticent workaholic mother Viv (Vivienne Acheampong, The Sandman) -- has been falling apart in her absence. Hoping to form a new identity for herself post-diagnosis, Mia creates a "bucket list" of "firsts" she wants to experience, and goes about checking each of them off while convincing everyone that she's doing just fine at maintaining her recovery.
Is It Any Good?
A welcome change from typical movie-of-the-week-style exploitative anorexia stories, this series may center on Mia's recovery, but not at the expense of character development and realism. Everything Now shows the reality: that these issues affect people from all walks of life. Eating disorders are a sensitive topic that requires a thoughtful, deliberate hand to portray correctly, and far too often they border on glamorizing the plight of waif-like (but still pretty!), well-to-do, heterosexual white women.
Make no mistake, Mia's family (and most of her friends) are privileged -- but the show smartly touches on the strain that funding a half-year stay in a hospital can have on a family beyond just financial matters. The series is wise too in not centering itself strictly on Mia, but also illustrating the way that the hyper-focus required for recovery can sometimes read as selfishness to the people she loves. Teenagers are bound to mess up under the best of circumstances, and attempting to rebuild one's mental health and identity while surrounded by people whose concern sometimes feels like suffocation can't be easy. This well-acted, clever series does a lovely job exploring the warts-and-all nuances of that journey and showing that imperfect growth is still growth.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about eating disorder-centered films and TV shows you may have seen before. What kind of responsibility do filmmakers have when creating onscreen depictions of these types of serious physical and emotional struggles? How do you feel about the way Everything Now approached the topic?
Discuss the end of season one, which deals with Mia struggling with her recovery and the effect that struggle has on her friends and family. How does the way she handles her issues seem different than it did at the beginning of the series? How does this illustrate courage?
TV Details
- Premiere date : October 5, 2023
- Cast : Sophie Wilde , Stephen Fry , Niamh McCormack , Vivienne Acheampong , Lauryn Ajufo
- Network : Netflix
- Genre : Drama
- TV rating :
- Last updated : January 17, 2024
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