Whoever thought we’d be talking about watching police storm into a house to arrest 13-year-olds becoming a familiar trope…what? For those who are familiar, that’s how you could describe the opening sequence of the hit Netflix series Adolescence. However, now I have the (dis)honor to say I’ve seen two shows that open the same way, though one is far better than the other, and I’m going to let you guess. Imagine, at 13, finding yourself in juvenile detention because your mom called the cops on you, and then growing up to become a stand-up comedian, writing material based on your trauma? That’s the basic premise of Bad Boy, a new Hebrew-language show on Netflix that has apparently won a whole lot of awards. Despite having watched it without any biases, I can’t help but admit that I found the show massively underwhelming and absolutely incoherent.
On paper, this story definitely sounds intriguing. Just as we were eager to see the consequences of a 13-year-old being taken in for questioning while watching Adolescence, we feel an urge to understand the whys and the whos of this story. But the thing is, every time something seems to start to make sense, we’re hit with a new comedy routine that feels never-ending. I’m not going to say much about the stand-up itself because I’ve always been a little bit averse to people making fun of those they know in front of 100s of people for gags, but I think this might be a case of the humor being lost in translation because literally none of this landed. I guess you could say this show has the same issue that a lot of detective shows have when they try to write genius characters: you can’t write a stand-up comedian without knowing how to write comedy (whoops).
In Bad Boy, Dean Shaiman finds himself in a terrifying situation when the police storm in to arrest him. He’s then sent to juvenile prison, where he meets some terrifying people and fears immediate death. To make matters worse, he’s forced to room with the scariest kid on the block. 20 years into the future, Dean’s still alive and well, but he also goes by Daniel Chen. New identity, new life, you’d imagine, eh? Not exactly. It’s a new life, but by stepping onto the shoulders of his old one. I know, at this point you’re thinking: this sounds pretty decent. However, when you actually watch it, it is basically just a mess of chaos. I know, having a non-linear timeline can be fun, but in this show, even the flashbacks are jumbled up, making us as viewers completely frustrated by this flavorless prawn cocktail.
Guy Manster plays the protagonist, an anxious yet humorous young boy who just wants to make people laugh. To be fair, Guy does a great job of bringing Dean’s dilemma to life. One second, he’s scared out of his wits for his life, and the next he’s joking about being invited as a stripper because he’s got no clothes on (I thought that was delivered pretty decently, despite it being a 13-year-old doing the delivery). But this charm isn’t enough to keep this show interesting, because it keeps getting interrupted by the co-writer, co-creator, i.e., the man who this entire show is based on, Daniel Chen, starring as himself, doing his standup in massive chunks across the show. It’s tedious, it’s occasionally repulsive (there’s a joke about pedophiles that just left me wondering why; I can’t even pretend to like this), and sometimes does come across as juvenile, too. I suppose embellishing it with his own laughter can help, but it didn’t do the trick for me. Maybe if the two entities were treated as separate, rather than as one narrative incorporating two styles, it might’ve been much more appealing for an audience that doesn’t know much about this story.
The only thing that actually works in favor of the show is the relationship Dean develops with a boy named Zorro. He’s the one single character who actually feels well fleshed out, despite having so much mystery surrounding him. But again, everything is left halfway, like a slice of pizza where only the crust (the best part) remains. It is the chemistry between the two boys, with a very obvious undertone of homoeroticism, that actually brings the show to life. I mean, he calls him “Rabbit,” but don’t get excited; that’s not what this is about, though the Heartstopper-like doodles will definitely confuse you. The rest of the characters are basically cardboard. It definitely feels like the warden is a woman just because there needs to be a woman on the show beside the mother. Same with the drama teacher, who doesn’t really bring anything to the narrative. There’s one character who comes in like he’s about to traumatize grown-up Dean, but literally nothing comes out of it, and you completely forget it happened in the second half of the series. So like, what was the point? It does deviate from a typical trope in these stories involving the mother, which I appreciated. But yeah, that’s about it.
Just as with the writing, the visuals are also pretty confusing, leaving very little space for breathing time. Still, I’m not sure why the show had to be 8 episodes, because the story could’ve been wrapped up in half of that time, even if we didn’t leave out the comedy bit and simply went with a more coherent narrative style. If you can’t tell already, what I’m trying to say is I felt like this show was a massive waste of time and didn’t entertain me at all. I didn’t see a point in it by the end of the day because whatever it was trying to say didn’t come across very well in the messy run-up to the final act, which is pretty sweet. I’d give Bad Boy 1.5 out of 5 stars, and I’d like my hours back. I wish it didn’t live up to its title so hard.
