Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Name your favorite “teens going on an adventure” movie. It usually starts when best-laid plans go wrong almost from the start. But, boy, you’d love to go on that adventure, wouldn’t you? That’s what we see in series form in Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever., which takes place during a fictional Comic-Con. Read on to see if this will be a new teen adventure classic…
BEST. WORST. WEEKEND. EVER.: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Shots of a comic book called Star Crasher, and a voice over saying. “You’ve probably never heard of the comic book Star Crasher, but to me and my best friends, it was everything.” We then see a sepia-toned shot of three 10-year-olds and a dog reading the comic under a set of bleachers.
The Gist: The narrator is an older version of Zed (Sam Ashe Arnold), who bonded with his friends Treece (Brianna Reed) and Argo (Cole Sand) over Star Crasher when they were in elementary school. Now it’s the winter before they enter high school, and they find out that not only will Comic-con be coming to their town, but the reclusive author of Star Crasher, who disappeared after making issue #93, will appear. Zed’s plan: Create issue #94, with Argo writing it and Treece providing the artwork, and get the author to sign it. What will Zed do? “I’m the idea guy!” he says.
Cut to the summer, and the weekend before school starts. The trio’s plans are coming together, including how to get Argo, whose retired-colonel dad Cliff Andropolis (Matt Battaglia) has hired a babysitter to watch his 14-year-old disappointment of a son, out of the house. After a bunch of machinations designed to fool the colonel, one problem crops up: Argo dropped his pass and it got stuck to his dad’s foot.
After failing to sneak Argo and Treece’s weird stepsister Hallie (Brittany Garms) —hey, they needed a ride!— into the con, they’re all blackballed. So Zed has an idea: hold a “literary event” and tweet an invite to the author, who accepts. But two problems: they ended up getting a huge crowd at Argo’s house, and no one knows what the author looks like.
Our Take: Netflix is labeling the somewhat awkwardly-named Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever. as a “limited series,” with episodes called “issues.” It makes sense once you see the first episode, which gives off an Adventures in Babysitting vibe. A group of kids, usually with a young adult or older teenager “supervising” them, get in all sorts of cool adventures as they keep getting sidelined on their way to their goal. In Zed’s narration, he even says, “The best memories never come from what you plan; the best memories come from when that plan goes horribly wrong.”
So what creators Daniel Bryan Franklin and Robin Stein, along with EP Jeremy Garelick (Sideswiped) have done is create an extended version of that kind of movie, filled in with flashbacks and some interesting character exploration. We’ve met Treece’s dad, whose relationship with Hallie’s dad has made for a tense blended family; we also know that Zed’s mom is raising him on her own, too.
We already know some backstory, like Argo going into a magnet class in high school and Treece bonding with the soccer team, leaving Zed in the lurch. So if we go further into the kids’ relationships with each other as they try to get back to Comic-con, it’ll make for a very fun show.
What Age Group Is This For?: Some of the funny stuff might go over the head of kids under 10, but it’s still entertaining for kids 7 and up.
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Parting Shot: The “literary event” basically trashes Argo’s house; Treece and Zed wonder where he is. We cut to Argo, waking up next to a lake, with no glasses on, facing a huge bear.
Sleeper Star: Reed has a couple of funny monologues in the first episode that she handles quite well, and they’re among the funniest moments of the episode.
Most Pilot-y Line: The cotton candy vendor for the party — er, “literary event” — tells Zed that “you’ll see these kids’ insides on the outside of this house” if this mega-candy gets overheated.
Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s a fun show that’s in the tradition of the teen adventure movies we’ve loved for years.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.
