Okay, first thing's first: this is not a great show. It's barely even good. You could blame it on the fact that I'm probably not part of the intended demographic - I'm 30, and kind of "over" stories where high school in-fighting drama is what drives the plot, but because I did take dance lessons when I was in high school, I still felt like this might be up my alley. And I mean, it kind of is. I ate it up - binged it, even.
The thing is, though, that although the frequent dancing's pretty good in and of itself, the messed up plot line distracts you from the show's aesthetic aspects.
If you're going to watch this show, get ready for characters that are incredibly difficult to care about. There are very few that are genuinely likeable, and those that are make some very questionable choices that will have you rolling your eyes and smacking your hand to your forehead.
One other thing that's immensely frustrating about the characters is that no matter how awful a character is, no matter what horrible things they do to sabotage someone else, no matter how much they lie and cheat and manipulate, no one is ever forced to face any form of punishment for their actions. It's just brushed to the side and forgotten, all of a sudden they're all friends again (without explanation) and after I've tried so hard to care about these characters, it's painful to not even get the satisfaction that comes with watching that one really, really mean girl come face to face with her actions - and the consequences they entail.
Secondly, characters will hook up (and occasionally even declare their love for one another) with ZERO build-up, and it's bizarre. So be ready for that. This show is not for those that like to ship characters.
Thirdly, themes like sexual harassment, sexual assault and grooming do occur throughout the series... and are dealt with terribly. Just terribly.
Then there's the issue of PACING. Jesus Christ, the plot is just all over the place. It's very, very confusing. Characters will randomly hook up with each other (leaving the audience utterly perplexed), blame each other for Cassie's fall (the crime that's supposed to drive the plot), characters will be lovey-dovey one minute and start arguing the next, a boy is shown to be suffering from bulimia but it's never really dealt with, and there's a police woman who is desperately trying to solve the case because of reasons that have nothing to do with the rest of the story (from what I can tell anyway - I'm only on episode 9).
There are SO many shifts in the pacing of this show that it's hard to take it seriously.
And yet, I watched it all. It's oddly addictive, the way shows with pretty actors, lots of nudity, good music, drama and an attempted murder mystery are. If you have 10 hours to kill and you just wanna find something to binge watch, I'd actually recommend this show, because even though it's kind of dumb, unrealistic and poorly paced, it's pretty entertaining.
