New drama falls short but has key message, be honest with kids

As a major “Gilmore Girls” fan, I’m interested in watching anything that claims to follow in its footsteps.

Netflix’s new series “Ginny & Georgia” made that bold of a claim and in my opinion, it’s not as good. I think it’s an interesting one to watch.

The story follows single mom Georgia, her 15-year-old daughter Virginia (Ginny) and 9-year-old son Austin as they move to a small town in Massachusetts.

Basically, the main underlying mystery is that Georgia has a secret she’s trying to hide.

I think it brings up some important conversations and takes an interesting look at the lives of teenagers who have never settled down because they always had to keep moving.

It explores first loves, bullying, politics in a small town and motherhood.

While it’s not going to the top of my list for TV shows and I’m not waiting anxiously for a season two, it was interesting.

The main issue, I think, is it plays into various tropes and cliches. It is telling an interesting story around those, but they are apparent.

I think that can be an easy pitfall for a lot of genres and the high school dramas even more so.

It’s become a classic trope for high school dramas to depict teenagers partying, getting drunk and doing drugs.

Yes, that happens, but these shows make it seem like that’s what all teenagers are out doing and it’s not.

It just doesn’t depict reality, which is fine when the show isn’t supposed to mirror reality. But, shows like “Ginny & Georgia” are.

Critique aside, I think the primary message from this show is frankly simple and one that you shouldn’t need to be told; don’t lie to your kids.

When you tell your kids big lies like being an only child, at some point it’s going to come out that you lied. Then they just get mad at you and it causes trust issues.

Ginny says several times in the show that she hates Georgia and that’s frankly understandable when you see what their lives have been.

Michael Shine is a contributing writer for the Daily American Republic.