I would not be the norm, but I graduated in 2004, and was using (selling) xanax, cocaine, marijuana on a daily basis before I graduated, and even was taking bars at the ceremony. So were many of my friends, who made up the top social class in the school, though obviously not everyone of them. This is accurate portrait of a certain subset of high school students and teenagers, usually the most popular social group will have the most extensive and diverse drug habits, as economics indicate, but now, with drugs like fake hydrocodones and oxy's taking over, the drug problem goes from top to bottom. No one but upper middle class and above can afford cocaine, which makes it a more rare drug to see in a lower socioeconomic class, which this show is clearly not set in.
What was also different in early 2000's was social media and technology. Awful things happened to girls, but there was always just rumor, no video documentation of sex acts, sex abuse, sexual exploitation, just stories, or if you were there, the memories burned into your brain. Also, know at least 5 girls who either stripped or did porn within three years of graduating, with some in the same year of.
Now kids are basically waging warfare with Snapchat and IG on each other and their reputations.
I like the show, but I may respect it more than I actually want to watch awful teenagers behaving badly for 8 hours. It does capture a moment in time though, just as one in my teenage years would have. The soundtrack of trap music a backdrop for decadence and dysfunction of the upper middle classes.
I think it's too wired too tight and verging on ham fisted, also very cliched in the fact that everyone has a model Hollywood body type, with the obvious exception. The kid, Nate, was one glaring example. Realism is one thing, but the show seems to verge on shock value too much.
to me
