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When a classmate finds out that new Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez) has recently moved in with the Walter family, she practically screams with excitement. “You’re like the luckiest girl in this whole school,” she gushes, describing Jackie’s situation as “kid heaven.”
The comment is more than a little tactless, considering Jackie was only taken in by the Walters after losing her entire family in a car accident. But it is also an accurate diagnosis of the fantasy that Netflix My life with the Walter Boys is meant to depict, in which prim and pretty Jackie finds herself living among the city’s most eligible teenage bachelors. Unfortunately, the dull characters and slow pacing put a damper on the reverie before she has a chance to properly ignite.
My life with the Walter Boys
The bottom line
A mediocre collection of clichés.
Air date: Thursday, December 7 (Netflix)
Cast: Nikki Rodríguez, Noah LaLonde, Ashby Gentry, Sarah Rafferty, Marc Blucas, Johnny Link, Zoë Soul, Connor Stanhope, Corey Fogelmanis, Jaylan Evans
Creator: Melanie Halsall, based on the novel by Ali Novak
The most striking scene of My life with the Walter Boys arrives very early, when former New Yorker Jackie arrives at the Walters’ ranch in Colorado to find the Walter children seemingly strewn across every surface and spilling out of every door. However many you’re imagining right now, I can almost guarantee you there are more: the final sum is seven of Walter’s children plus two of Walter’s male cousins plus one of Walter’s pre-teen daughters, all under the loving care of farmer George (Marc Blucas). and veterinarian Katherine (Sarah Rafferty). Of those nine Walter kids, six are in high school with Jackie. Of those six, two fall in love with Jackie more or less upon seeing him. Many of the season’s 10, 45-minute episodes are dedicated to Jackie hesitating among themselves.
But Jackie’s desire to fulfill her dilemma fails when none of the options seem very attractive. My life with the Walter Boys, adapted by Melanie Halsall from Ali Novak’s book, recognizes the tropes for making the love triangle land, but not how to bring them to life. Cole (Noah LaLonde) is the jerk with the heart of gold (and the Abercrombie abs to match). But the ratio between “jerk” and “heart of gold” isn’t right, so most of the time he reads like a regular jerk who mistreats everyone in his orbit. Likewise, Alex (Ashby Gentry) is the designated good guy, but he’s saddled with a neediness that seems on the verge of turning into toxic self-pity at any moment. In any case, both brothers seem much more interested in their lifelong rivalry than their supposed once-in-a-lifetime chemistry with Jackie.
In fact, for a romantic drama, My life with the Walter Boys is frustratingly short on couples worth rooting for, much less swooning over. When Nathan (Corey Fogelmanis), the gay Walter Boy, subjects his crush Skylar (Jaylan Evans) to a grand romantic gesture, we are meant to understand Skylar’s ambivalence as misguided cynicism rather than a clear indication that he simply doesn’t like the guy. Will (Johnny Link), the first-born Walter Boy, 24, is trapped in a subplot in which he constantly neglects and lies to his fiancée, Hayley (Zoë Soul), for the sake of his career, and then acts dumbfounded and he feels hurt when he points out that they are growing apart. The platonic couples fare a little better—the gradual thaw between Jackie and Cole’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Erin (Alisha Newton) is one of the season’s most compelling plotlines—but that only made me root for the various love interests. of Walter Boy to unite as one. and realize that they collectively deserve better.
In some dramas, that bad behavior may be part of the draw; no one is watching Euphoria either yellow jackets for the unwavering kindness of its protagonists. But My life with the Walter Boys He barely imbues his characters with memorable quirks, much less interiorities complex enough to make us care about them despite their flaws. This is a problem in the premiere, and it’s a much bigger problem in the finale, at which point it becomes impossible not to notice how two-dimensional all of these people seem even after you’ve spent hours and hours with them.
My life with the Walter Boys Its goal is nothing more or less than to provide cozy familiarity, and on a superficial level, it hits that mark quite acceptably. The rural landscape is pretty, but not so majestic as to seem distant. The interiors are somehow identifiable and at the same time aspirational (as Does this family of 12 keep their kitchen so spotless??). The small-town city girl premise aligns it with Hallmark Christmas fare; Teen love triangle could be booted from Amazon The summer I became pretty or Netflix’s own To all the boys franchise. While the characters run into problems here and there (money problems, stress about college admission, a health problem), happy endings prevail more often than not. It’s just that I couldn’t feel much in the way of warm fuzzies from a show whose characters so often left me cold.
My life with the Walter Boys takes as one of its guiding principles that “nothing is so broken that it cannot be fixed.” A broken teapot can be put back together with glue. A frayed relationship can be repaired with apologies. Even a life-changing setback can, with courage and love, become an opportunity to forge a different path forward. It’s possible, then, that a possible second season could right the ship: the finale ends with a glimmer of hope that Jackie will finally find something to do in addition to the anguish due to her excess of suitors. But I suspect the true corollary of that mantra should be that some things are still so flimsy that they’re not worth keeping in the first place.
‘My Life with the Walter Boys’ review: Netflix’s teen romantic drama is harmless but disposable