Representation in My Life with the Walter Boys
Representation in media is extremely important in the sense that it allows the audiences to connect with the content they're consuming. Netflix's most recent original series, My Life with the Walter Boys, does a pretty good job at representing multiple groups of people in an accurate way. The drama series is a book adaptation of a novel by the same name, written by Ali Novak. One of the social groups that the series represents the best is teenagers, specifically teenagers' mental health. The drama follows the main character, Jackie Howard, moving to a new town after her parents and older sister tragically died in a car crash. The series represents her grief and frustration over the situation realistically, showing her attempt at trying to adapt to her new environment but going through waves of sadness. One of her love interests, Cole Walter, is also shown to suffer from depression after a leg injury stunted his football career and college scholarship. He can be seen losing motivation in his schoolwork and acting out towards his family and friends. As the character starts to lose hope in his future, he starts to smoke and drink more with his friends. The series displays this as recreational and the audience can also see how both Cole and Jackie (the one time she gets drunk) are falling back onto these substances to relieve them of their thoughts that are weighing down on them. However, drug abuse is not a main aspect of these teenagers' lives as seen in other shows like HBO's Euphoria. Teenagers constantly partying, taking drugs, and drinking is not an accurate representation of the youth in the United States. Instead, characters like Jackie are shown to be dedicated to their schoolwork, clubs, and passions, which is more realistic as most teenagers aspire to do the same.
The other teenagers in the show can also be seen having insecurities and being anxious about situations, which is a common experience amongst teenagers. This anxiety and stress can be inflicted by school, financial circumstances, or relationships. The character Erin, Jackie's enemy turned friend, shares how her father also died and how she has been coping with the loss as well as her mother's pressure on her. Erin can be seen immersing herself in schoolwork and activities to avoid going home, and eventually she even defies her mother's wishes of competing with her school's track team. Teenagers can go through a lot of stress as they deal with parental and school expectations, toxic relationships, and external circumstances, which is important to highlight because the audience can feel seen, and it validates their feelings as common. It also shows how teenagers can overcome or adapt to their situations as the characters themselves learn to cope and connect with each other.
My Life with the Walter Boys also contains representation of various ethnicities and races. Though it could definitely work on further exposure of the characters' ethnic heritages and cultures, the show made a good attempt at introducing a diverse cast, especially within the first season. The main character, Jackie Howard, though not specifically mentioned, is a Hispanic character as well as two of the cousins that live with the main family. The three characters, along with Jackie's Uncle Richard, are seen speaking to each other in Spanish, but the show could've done a better job at representing their cultures and how it might affect them living in a predominantly White town in Colorado. Various other characters are Black, Asian, and even Native American. These characters are portrayed without stereotypes, which is beneficial to the representation of people of color as they aren't written in an unrealistic light. There is also a focus on the Native American culture in the series when the characters are celebrating Thanksgiving. The character Mato Summerhill leads a ceremony where members of the community were able to listen to how Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving and the indigenous history of the holiday. It is also important to note that the actors who play the characters are actually of the ethnicities that they're playing, which is essential to accurately representing these different ethnicities and cultures.
A group that the drama series represents, but only as a side story, is the LGBTQ+ community. The character Skylar is openly gay, but for the majority of the show is the only openly nonheterosexual character. The series could definitely improve the show's representation of this community as an accurate representation of a high school would be multiple people of different sexualities and gender identities. Further on in the season, one of the brothers of the main family, Nathan Walter, takes a liking to Skylar and they form a relationship. This addition to the plot is important to be able to represent the gay community, but the show could make up for its lack of representation through more open characters of the LGBTQ+ community.
Another way My Life with the Walter Boys accurately displays the real world is through its depiction of class and financial issues. It is a running plot detail that the Walter family is struggling with money because of a pest infestation to their ranch and all the parents and children can be seen as impacted by the family's financial struggles. The father even goes to the bank to ask for a loan but is denied, so the family has to resort to moving the older son's wedding to a smaller backyard ceremony. This is an important display of middle class in the United States, especially of those who are business owners and can be affected by external circumstances. It's great for series to represent all these issues and groups of people as audiences will be able to relate and connect more to the media.
