Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Looking For Alaska’ On Hulu, A Miniseries Based On John Green’s Hit Novel

Why are John Green‘s books so popular? Because they’re about teens who are in extreme situations, but they still look for the same things that teens everywhere are looking for. Looking For Alaska is no different; even though it takes place in a woodland boarding school, it’s still about love, loss and finding where you fit in. Read on about the new Hulu miniseries based on Green’s novel…

LOOKING FOR ALASKA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A rainy night, and we see a headlight approach through the rain. A voice over says, “I am fascinated by last words.” Eventually we see a car speed through a roadblock, fly through the air and land on its roof.

The Gist: Miles Halter (Charlie Plummer) is an Orlando teen in 2005 who reads lots of biographies, mainly because he’s fascinated with people’s last words. He feels he’s leading a very ordinary life, and wants to explore more and live a life with more meaning. He decides that he wants to go to his father’s alma mater, Culver Creek Academy, a boarding school in Alabama that is in the middle of the woods and feels more like a camp than a school. His dad was a legend there, pulling some major pranks, including stealing the bell that the school still uses.

When he gets there, he meets two people who change the path of his life: Chip Martin (Denny Love), whom everyone calls “The Colonel,” and Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth), a rebellious girl who is more interested in getting wine with a fake ID and burying it in the woods than being popular. But she’s a huge reader, so of course Miles falls deeply in love with her.

The Colonel, who calls Miles “Pudge” because of how skinny he is, is the prank master, and he guides Miles through everything he needs to know about who and what the school is all about, from the ever-watchful dean called “The Eagle” (Timothy Simons) to the group of bro-tastic “Weekday Warriors”, rich kids who go home every weekend. The Colonel’s group, including right-hand-man Takumi (Jay Lee) are in a continuing prank war with the Weekday Warriors, and the Colonel has one major rule, “Don’t be a rat.”

The war gets escalated when someone tells The Eagle that one of the Weekday Warriors is having sex with Alaska’s roommate and The Eagle finds them en fuego. They both get expelled, and the Weekday group try to recruit Miles to come to their side. When they resist, they toss him in a lake while wrapped in plastic. He goes to Alaska’s room after getting out of the lake (and surviving an attack by the lake’s swan, who is “the spawn of Satan,” according to the Colonel) and she’s in her own pain. But the next day, the two of them get super-close as they figure out how to get back at the Weekday Warriors.

Our Take: Looking For Alaska is based on a John Green novel and is produced by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. So it leans heavily on fast-talking, wise-beyond-their-years teens and the rivalries groups of those quippy teens have with each other. One one hand, it feels like it fits right along with the Schwartz/Savage oeuvre (The O.C., Gossip Girl), but because it’s based on Green’s novel, it’s a little different.

First is the setting. We’ve never heard of a boarding school that feels like a camp before, so we at first thought everyone was going to camp. That was until everyone talked about their summers. So that part of it is intriguing. Also, the fact that Miles, a skinny loner wanted to go to the school where his militaristic father was a legend was an interesting choice. He wants to experience a more interesting life, but he wants to do it in a place his father loved and can’t stop talking about. It’s an interesting choice, considering that Miles is so not like his father.

There are a lot of ways a show like this could be too precious for its own good, and in the first episode, it veers towards that territory. But at the last second, it steps back into a space where you could see yourself as Miles, following The Colonel’s lead and falling for Alaska. Yes, the first episode portrays Alaska as the classic Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but the miniseries has enough room to explore the darkness in Alaska’s life (and there for sure is a shit-ton of darkness) that will make her a more rounded character.

Also, we know that the show takes a dark turn with that auto accident, so hopefully the first episode’s mood will give way to something deeper and more personal when we get to that point.

Sex and Skin: Besides Alaska’s roomie and a Weekday Warrior having sex, the rest of the episode is pretty chaste.

Parting Shot: Miles calls home to tell his parents about his new friends, and we see the four of them smoking in the designated spot under a bridge. Then we cut to the scene of the accident. A graphic flashes “102 Days Before.”

Sleeper Star: This is a great spot to mention Ron Cephas Jones as Dr. Hyde, a wise and crusty professor who says things like, “You may be smart, but I’ve been smart longer. Therefore I will talk, and you will listen.”

Most Pilot-y Line: We’re not sure we love the relationship between The Colonel and Sara (Landry Bender), both damaged people who seem to be hanging on to each other like they’re on a life raft. “We deserve each other,” The Colonel tells Miles. This is one of those things that makes the show tread that “too precious” line.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re recommending Looking For Alaska because we know the show will take a dark turn. But it might be too much to bear if it keeps the tone we see in the first episode.

Your Call:

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, FastCompany.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Looking For Alaska On Hulu