We Are Who We Are - General Discussion

[Robert Lynch]

 

from the director of Call Me By Your Name

Looks interesting...it has Jack Dylan Grazer in it.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Robert Lynch

[davey3932]

Jesus Christ Tom Mercier is hot.

[khyber]

I don't care enough about the kid to continue watching.

[Jadzia]

Weird show. The relationship between him and his mother seemed very odd. In some scenes they seem overly close, but then he tells his stepmom that he doesn't think she loves him? And what was the slap about?

Also, he seemed like a fish out of water at the army base which seemed strange for a kid of such a high-ranking military mom. Who was the person he was yelling at his mom for taking him away from? The grandfather?

Are we to take it that the kid is bi? He seemed fascinated by the girl but then was also was staring at the army dude.

I am kind of interested in seeing where this show goes, but I am not sure if I like it yet.

[Robert Lynch]

What makes it interesting is that his uncle is Brian Grazer, who is a producer for most of Ron Howard's films for years. 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Robert Lynch

[meep.meep]

Why would that make anything interesting?

I turned it off before the end of the episode.  Even starved for new content, I don't think this is worth watching.

And having grown up on military bases, including some overseas, the soldiers are always segregated from the women and children.  There is no way he could have wandered around the base and into an open shower room.  

[Robert Lynch]

30 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Why would that make anything interesting?

I turned it off before the end of the episode.  Even starved for new content, I don't think this is worth watching.

And having grown up on military bases, including some overseas, the soldiers are always segregated from the women and children.  There is no way he could have wandered around the base and into an open shower room.  

I wasn't talking about the plot. I just thought it was interesting that actor is related to the producer. One of those useless Hollywood trivias.

But, honestly, the plot is hard to get into. They think beautiful Italian scenery is what makes up lack of plot, but I believe the character is just too unlikeable. There are other roles where he excels in. This was not one of them. I'll try to watch it, but I think this is going to end on a cliffhanger.

[BigDfromLA]

What a weird show with weird people. Yet, I will likely keep watching.

It seems like a cross between Euphoria and My Brilliant Friend.

On 9/17/2020 at 8:11 AM, Jadzia said:

Who was the person he was yelling at his mom for taking him away from?

He is gay and is apparently in love with a boyfriend named Mark from back home. He messaged the guy a couple times. I think that is who he is mad about being taken away from by his Mom.

On 9/17/2020 at 8:11 AM, Jadzia said:

He seemed fascinated by the girl but then was also was staring at the army dude.

I don't think he is attracted to her at all romantically, but fascinated by her as a person. He is obviously intrigued by her gender issues.

 

It really is an interesting setting. They live in a little "piece" of America dropped into the Adriatic coast of Italy on the other side of the world in Europe. They can literally pass a gate into a completely different world, culture and country. "Americans can only be happy in America...this IS America!" was a quote from the show. In reality, these kids don't really live in America, but a paltry imitation of it. I think this makes them subconsciously depressed and disfunctional. They are really lost souls who never really get to go home.

[Maurina]

I'm really not sure WHAT to make of this first episode.  First of all, I get the feeling that the extremely slow plot development and meandering nature might be because the series is probably just too long - 8 episodes is too much if each episode is going to be like this one in terms of plot and character development.

Second, and I know this is incredibly nit-picky, but the entire beginning scenes wherein Fraser is baffled and totally unfamiliar with getting a military ID is just flat-out wrong.  Take it from a military wife, even if you're in the National Guard, every kid has a military dependent ID from the age of 10 onward.  And they have to be renewed.  If this kid's mom is a freakin' general that means she's been in the military probably her son's entire life, no matter WHERE she was stationed.  My husband's unit was stationed in the states most of the time, and both my kids have had their dependent IDs since the age of 10.  It's not some weird 'only if you're stationed overseas' thing.

[davey3932]

Between this and The Vow, the HBO shows I'm watching are pretty slow and boring.  But I'm really running low on things to do during the pandemic.

[BigDfromLA]

Interesting second episode, basically a replay of the "events" of the first episode, but from the perspective of Caitlin as opposed to Fraser whose perspective was shown in episode one.

So Caitlin has two brothers and a "boyfriend"? Her father and older brother seem hard core military, while the other brother seems troubled. Caitlin seems to worship her father while (quietly, so far) despising her mother. The mother seems like a fish out of water that is disrespected by her husband and kids. It seems like they look down on her (maybe subconsciously) for being Nigerian, or maybe she is just a doormat. 

It seems odd that Caitlin had her first period in this episode. If she is freshman in high school aged, I figure it would have started a couple years earlier. Weird how she tells her father about it and not her mother. Caitlin is a very complex character (as is Fraser) and it will be interesting to see their respective journeys in the show. 

Regarding the preview scenes of future episodes, it seems there will be some serious stuff coming down with Caitlin, Fraser's Mom, Fraser and the soldier he likes. We'll have to see what happens.

[Blakeston]

4 hours ago, BigDfromLA said:

Interesting second episode, basically a replay of the "events" of the first episode, but from the perspective of Caitlin as opposed to Fraser whose perspective was shown in episode one.

So Caitlin has two brothers and a "boyfriend"? Her father and older brother seem hard core military, while the other brother seems troubled. Caitlin seems to worship her father while (quietly, so far) despising her mother. The mother seems like a fish out of water that is disrespected by her husband and kids. It seems like they look down on her (maybe subconsciously) for being Nigerian, or maybe she is just a doormat. 

It seems odd that Caitlin had her first period in this episode. If she is freshman in high school aged, I figure it would have started a couple years earlier. Weird how she tells her father about it and not her mother. Caitlin is a very complex character (as is Fraser) and it will be interesting to see their respective journeys in the show. 

Regarding the preview scenes of future episodes, it seems there will be some serious stuff coming down with Caitlin, Fraser's Mom, Fraser and the soldier he likes. We'll have to see what happens.

Doesn't Caitlin just have the one brother? Danny, the obnoxious loudmouth, who apparently is interested in Islam?

I really, really can't buy Caitlin as someone who just had her first period. The actress is clearly older than the character.

And isn't Danny supposed to be even younger than her? She called him "baby brother." It's completely implausible that he's younger than 14.

[For Cereals]

I got sucked in by all the previews and accolades.  It’s not for me...

[Robert Lynch]

I just don't know what to make of this show. It looks it is destined to be only one season and that's it. I could see it now.

[backhometome]

I want to like it but its so slow paced. 

[Blakeston]

On some level, I was hoping for the Russians to come home to their villa and blow most of these kids away.

Craig seems like a very nice guy, but he really should have done something to stop the kids from trashing the place. He's old enough to be enlisted, and he's clearly a mentor to these kids who have just recently hit puberty. And he knew he was about to be deployed - how stupid can you be to think it's a good idea to break the law like this?

[BigDfromLA]

Wow. Whatever minimal interest there was on this show here has completely evaporated.

This may be the strangest and most unusual show I have ever continued watching. This Fraser kid is a real whack job and the way his mother has raised him and the interactions they have really show how that happened. This show is kind of sad because so many characters are messed up and mentally out of it...Fraser, his mother, Richard, Danny, the other teens, Caitlin to a certain extent, Caitlin's mother is a mess as well. Poor Maggie. She is one of the few together, rational people stuck in the middle of all these crazies.

Something really bad happened right when the last episode ended, but I have no idea what. I have a feeling things are going to go haywire in the last two episodes. 

[Blakeston]

On 10/20/2020 at 5:16 PM, BigDfromLA said:

This may be the strangest and most unusual show I have ever continued watching. This Fraser kid is a real whack job and the way his mother has raised him and the interactions they have really show how that happened. This show is kind of sad because so many characters are messed up and mentally out of it...Fraser, his mother, Richard, Danny, the other teens, Caitlin to a certain extent, Caitlin's mother is a mess as well. Poor Maggie. She is one of the few together, rational people stuck in the middle of all these crazies.

I feel like this was all devised to make viewers as uncomfortable as possible, and to hit as many hot-button topics as possible.

A story about a gay teenage boy and another gender-questioning teen becoming friends on a foreign military base has a ton of potential on its own.

It really wasn't necessary, IMO, to play Provocative Issues Bingo and include a Black Trump supporter whose family consists of a trans kid, a Muslim kid, and a queer immigrant wife. And it also wasn't necessary to have the gay boy slapping around his lesbian mother who gets naked in front of him, sniffs his boxer shorts, and has no qualms about this bizarre "friendship" between her son and her 30-year-old assistant who her son is obviously in love with. (And that list doesn't even include her wife sleeping with the other kid's mother.)

Edited October 22, 2020 by Blakeston

[gibasi]

This show is just a self indulgent fantasy by the film maker, Luca G. None of it is grounded in reality except the tv clips. 

[Bluesky]

On 10/21/2020 at 8:50 PM, gibasi said:

This show is just a self indulgent fantasy by the film maker, Luca G. None of it is grounded in reality except the tv clips. 

What is up with the TV clips anyway?  Are they significant to the story? 

[Robert Lynch]

14 hours ago, Bluesky said:

What is up with the TV clips anyway?  Are they significant to the story? 

No idea.

[dbklmt]

Couldn't find a thread for this show until the night of the finale for season 1.  From the number of posts it seems like there weren't many people that were watching it.  From those that I read the comments were all spot on regarding the show.  It looks like there will be  a season 2 from what was said in the after show discussion with the "self indulgent fantasy" film maker, Luca G and his two writers.  I won't be watching if there is and I'm upset that I wasted eight hours watching this convoluted journey of Caitlin and Fraser discovering their self identities. 🤢    

Edited November 3, 2020 by dbklmt

[izabella]

This last show was super irritating, more so than the bizarre show it has been most of the series.   Why did we spend most of it at a concert?  I also can't get over my irritation at Caitlin tricking women/girls by putting on men's facial hair.  

Fraser's pants always bugged me, too.  His fashion choices, while interesting, produced a highly unflattering silhouette.  The too-short, wide pants never worked for me, and I finally decided were the worst element of his sartorial affinities.  I did, however, LOVE that hilarious coat he wore an episode or two ago that looked like an extra-large blue striped button down shirt.   THAT was funny as hell. 

[FoxyBrown]

So I'm the only one who really enjoyed this show? Fraser was definitely off-putting in the beginning but he truly grew on me as the season progressed. I really enjoyed his relationship with Harper and the ways they each discovered, or at least gained a greater understanding, about their identity. The final scene was perfect. The thing they had been looking for all this time had been right next to them this whole time.

They sold a sappy love/friendship story and I bought it.