Looking for Alaska Review: A Great (Masterpiece) Perhaps
You can call it a teen drama, call it a coming-of-age story, call it any other trope-filled term that we hear time and again to describe the latest and greatest show developed with adolescents in mind.
I, however, call Hulu’s adaptation of Looking for Alaska an illustration of the Great Perhaps of complex teenage truths, building bonds to last a lifetime (however long a lifetime may be), and searching for the meaning of life when you’ve not yet decided what kind of life you want to live.
This concept may feel familiar, as it should. Embedded deep in Looking for Alaska is the DNA of its most successful predecessors, Dawson’s Creek, Freaks & Geeks, 13 Reasons Why, and The O.C., to name a few.
You’ll find teens who arguably don’t sound like typical teenagers, romantic disasters, school dances gone wrong, underage drinking and smoking — I could go on and on. You’ve seen these stories before.
What sets Looking for Alaska apart from the crowded and saturated world of teen television is its source material, the beloved book of the same name written by John Green, and the man who helped bring it to life on-screen, Josh Schwartz.
It seems astounding that this story wasn’t Schwartz’s own to begin with. At the helm of shows like The O.C. and Gossip Girl, he (alongside his production partner Stephanie Savage) seems to have an insight into what motivates teenagers in various settings that we don’t see often enough on screen.
Looking for Alaska is a triumph of collaboration, a rare case in which a story is adapted for the screen by exactly the right set of hands who treat it with the level of respect it so requires.
Looking for Alaska begins with a mystery, a car crash that no person could have possibly lived to tell anyone about. Continually appearing throughout the series is a countdown of the days “before” what we can only assume is the crash. Each time the countdown appears, it’s clear that a character we know and love has died.
Those countdown reminders generally come after we’ve spent an emotional hour celebrating teenage triumphs, torture, heartbreaks, and friendship, which makes them nearly an afterthought, an extra button on the episode that we’d forgotten about completely.
We know something bad is coming — but the story of these teens is so rich and riveting that it’s easy to forget that tragedy is looming over them and that things are about to change in their lives forever, though we don’t know the who, what, or why of it all.
The cast is led by Charlie Plummer as Miles “Pudge” Halter, a new transfer student to Culver Creek, a private school in Alabama. He quickly bonds with his new roommate, Chip “The Colonel” Martin (Denny Love) and even more quickly falls for rebellious Alaska Young, played brilliantly by Kristine Froseth.
The blossoming friends-but-maybe-more story between Miles and Alaska is a thread that runs throughout the series, however, it’s paced slowly while larger stories that affect the entire ensemble take center stage.
Miles is an intelligent young man who has a passion for literature and last words. He’s a bit of a misfit, albeit, a very lovable misfit. Miles has Seth Cohen vibes, while he bears a striking resemblance to former teen television star Chad Michael Murray. He’s learning to navigate his world with a new shade of independence, while still nurturing his general neutrality of what’s right and wrong.
Which is exactly why Alaska, who I can only describe as a force of nature, turns his world on its side. She breathes colorful life into his neutral world, and his attraction to her is founded on excitement and spontaneity, with a side of romance.
The story technically belongs to Miles, but Froseth is the standout as Alaska.
Alaska is a teen suffering from depression — the signs are all there. She’s acting out. She’s erratic. She believes she’s damaged, that she’d ruin those around her if she let them get too close. She warns Miles time and again not to “ruin it.” She puts her own feelings on hold in favor of doing things for those around her, building them up in an attempt to cover up her own internal destruction.
Froseth balances Alaska’s myriad of feelings at any given time with textbook precision and unparalleled heart. When Alaska is hurting, we are hurting. When Alaska has a victory, we have a victory.
Alaska is our link to this world, not Miles, as you may believe when the series begins. She stands on her own, another glaring difference from the teen television norm. Alaska could have easily been an ancillary female object that Miles hones in on. Instead, she’s multidimensional and steals the show from everyone, proving that she’s anything but an object.
While Miles and Alaska take turns in growing pains, The Colonel has a heartfelt story of his own, dealing with challenges from racism to rats, and struggling with the age-old question that every teenager asks, “how can I stop myself from turning into my parents?”
Denny Love is perfectly cast as this beefed-up iteration of The Colonel, and he shines nearly every time he is on-screen.
No teen drama is complete without an incredible soundtrack, and if we’ve learned anything from each of Schwartz’s previous showings, it’s that he has a PhD in the perfect song.
Many songs in the series will send older viewers into a time capsule of 2005, but they’re covered in new and updated ways that hit the right nostalgia points while introducing a new generation to classic songs of the early aughts.
Speaking of nostalgia, the show takes place in 2005, a time when these teens may have gathered together to watch the latest episode of The O.C. as a weekly tradition. What was fascinating to me upon viewing was that the specific time period was not a distraction at all.
We’ve seen an increase in television in recent years that hits on nostalgia by beating viewers over the head with what decade we’re in.
Looking for Alaska isn’t looking to remind you what year is on the calendar. They’re simply telling their story in it’s intended time period, and not for a second do I consider the lack of cell phones, laptops, and social media. It didn’t even occur to me that many of these issues could have been solved with the technology that we’ve gained in the last 15 years.
Social media isn’t important to this story, because it’s a story about society, or at least the society that teens live in each and every day. Despite technological advances, the teenage hierarchy of power hasn’t changed in the last 15 years.
What these teens, despite their place in that hierarchy, mean to each other when the dust settles is the greatest social win of the series.
But be warned: there isn’t always an easy answer or an easy road to forgiveness and acceptance, even among the tightest of social bonds.
Looking for Alaska revels in its strengths — an impactful and insightful story brought to life by an amazing cast under the direction of a master. Taking this streaming journey will be your own personal Great Perhaps.
What did you think of Looking for Alaska? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Looking for Alaska is streaming now on Hulu.
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Christine Laskodi
Christine is guilty of watching Hart of Dixie more times than the average human will in their lifetime. She's the host of Long Live the Hart: A Hart of Dixie Podcast (available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!) as well as co-host on The Shipping Room, a podcast devoted to television's greatest relationships. You can find some of her older television reviews at TV Fanatic and IGN. Christine eagerly anticipates every cheesy holiday movie that networks can throw at her, and current favorite shows include The Good Place, The Resident, Shark Tank, and All Rise.