Parents' Guide to Grand Army

The students at the Brooklyn high school that anchors this engrossing series live messy, sprawling lives, and though they're sometimes grim and awful to watch, you won't want to stop. It's hard to escape the thought that the teens' experiences in Grand Army are something of a parents' nightmare: They casually talk about and use drugs, abuse and gossip about one another in person and on social media, and accept violence like 9/11 and a bombing incident near their school as an ordinary backdrop to their lives. And yet in other ways, they're there for one another.

With its big interconnected cast of teens and storylines revolving around sex, drugs, class, and social status, Grand Army may prompt comparisons to Euphoria. But while Euphoria has a superficial gloss and lighting, costumes, and dialogue that never let you forget you're watching a TV show, Grand Army feels more like you're eavesdropping on real teen lives. Characters are alternately exasperating, relatable, and sometimes tragic: Leila, a Chinese American girl who doesn't feel like she fits in anywhere, will do anything for validation from boys, even allowing herself to be mistreated and discarded. Dom, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, works tirelessly to help care for her nieces and nephews. and Sid is trying to fit in with his popular friend group while avoiding some of their questionable behavior and keeping a personal secret hidden. There's a storyline about sexual assault and recovery that's hard to watch. But seeing these teens fighting their everyday battles is ultimately a powerful, emotional, and uplifting privilege.