LOOKING FOR ALASKA

Looking for Alaska is eight-episode miniseries produced by Hulu and available on HBO. It’s based on novel of the same name, written in 2005 by John Green, one of the writers that marked generation with his bestsellers for adolescents like Paper Towns or The Fault in Our Stars. Looking for Alaska was adapted in 2019 by Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz, the duet that previously created teen drama series like “Gossip Girl,” “The Carrie Diaries,” and Marvel’s “Runaways”.  For an audience that grew up with those shows, “Looking For Alaska” creates the perfect wave of nostalgia.

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Miles Halter (Charlie Plummer) is a 16-year-old teenager from Orlando who is obsessed with the last words of famous people and is almost desperate to find meaning of his life, “the Great Perhaps”, a concept inspired by the last words of poet Francois Rabelais. Miles decides to change his school for Culver Creek Institute, his father’s alma mater and an elitist school that serves as a springboard to the best universities in the state. There, he falls in love with Alaska Young (played by magnetic Kristine Froseth), more experienced young feminist with a past that is also searching for her place in the world. She stole my heart from the first moment of the show. 

Miles is a skinny unpopular and shy geek who is looking for his identity. He is ordinary teenager and because of that, it is very easy to empathize with him. In Culver Creek he wants to find something less boring and safe than the life he’s always lived. Soon becomes close friends with his roommate and also my favourite character, Chip (Denny Love), whom everyone calls The Colonel. He is a prankster and scholarship student: short, poor and black, but despite of everything, he uses his intelligence to achieve social climbing and fight with privileged rich kids at school.  

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The greatness of this series is also in modern and well-chosen soundtrack, which gives it that independent air. Every two or three minutes we can hear sounds of indie rock like 'So here we are' by Bloc Party.

At first, Looking for Alaska can give the impression that it is one of those typical high school romances. However, the series, just like the novel, talks about big issues of adolescence. Of love, of the codes of honour, of how youngs see the world, of meaning of existence, of adults that seem to have no idea what it is to be young. Looking for Alaska contains great philosophical, moral and theological ideas. It also reminds us that teens can talk about things other than sex, alcohol, or drugs.