‘Good’ girlhood: ‘All the things Now’ portrays the ache of grappling with conformity for survival

Content material warning: This text incorporates references to consuming issues.     

For higher or worse, the “After College Particular” is lengthy gone. However its cautious training on critical on a regular basis points needn’t observe go well with.

Though there have been a lot of exhibits about consuming issues lately, many have been criticized for overwhelmingly that includes white feminine characters and utilizing disordered consuming as a plot system that glamorizes the bodily facet of those situations.   

Maybe that is why “All the things Now,” the Netflix sequence written and created by Ripley Parker and launched earlier this month, is such a refreshing watch. Impressed by Parker’s experiences with physique picture, the present explores Black British teenager Mia Polanco’s (Sophie Wilde) try and get her life again after spending seven months in a residential in-treatment program for anorexia nervosa and physique dysmorphia. It’s a delicate but comedic story about how the individuals round Mia battle to greatest deal with her as she learns to deal with herself. 

After we first meet Mia, she is on a strict routine of deliberate meals and weekly outpatient visits, however she is preoccupied by how a lot dwelling her squad — Becca (Lauryn Ajufo), Cameron (Harry Cadby) and Will (Noah Thomas) — has performed whereas she has been away. From misplaced virginities to newly-found weed sellers, she has missed too many milestones (“There are a number of weeds?” Mia asks her associates incredulously). She decides to create a bucket record to catch up, and her associates assist her cross off an merchandise in every of the present’s eight episodes.

Her squad retains her grounded, however Mia’s house life is barely extra sophisticated. Her charismatic mother Viv (Vivienne Acheampong) is as distant as her father Rick (Alex Hassell) is doting. Mia walks the tightrope of their completely different parenting types whereas her brother watches the spectacle from under. Viv is the kind of girl who matches her lipstick to her jewel-toned energy fits. Whereas she just isn’t completely aloof, as revealed by her try to provide Mia “the discuss” in regards to the significance of protected intercourse, she is a hard-working girlboss who regards imperiousness as a type of intimacy.

Mia appears immature for her age till extra particulars about how she experiences her physique dysmorphia are revealed. A lot of her headspace has been taken up by obsessively monitoring her energy. Though avoiding triggers is sound scientific recommendation, Mia’s set off is meals, one thing that must be consumed a number of instances a day to remain alive.

Mia’s voiceover and flashbacks to her time in therapy successfully depict disordered consuming as a mind-body disconnection. As Mia walks via the cafeteria after her return to high school, there are a number of overhead photographs of lunches and cuts to her friends consuming pasta in sluggish movement. Positioning consuming as a spectacle offers the viewer a way of what it’s like when the mind regards nourishing oneself as overwhelming.

In a single scene, Mia strolls via the mall to seek out garments for a date after deciding her conventional garb of outsized sweaters and saggy pants aren’t appropriate for the event. She is bombarded with commercials proclaiming “Actual ladies have curves,” and slim mannequins in storefront shows.

It doesn’t matter what Mia’s physique appears like, she all the time feels “incorrectly female.” Girlhood is a state of contrived effortlessness, however Mia approaches every part effortfully, which makes recovering really feel like failure.

The sequence is advised via Mia’s perspective, however everybody in her orbit will get compelling storylines. Even the bombshell widespread lady who flits round Mia’s associates finally ends up having sudden depth. Mia ultimately develops a crush on a lady: watching her discern between love and infatuation is pleasant, but the preliminary narrative thread additionally stays taut as Mia tries to be taught to be comfy in her personal pores and skin. 

These facet characters additionally problem the protagonist in her progress. At one level, Becca exclaims that it’s exhausting being Mia’s good friend as a result of her self-centeredness makes her overlook the truth that different individuals have issues too. It’s a robust blow, however one which Mia wants to listen to after weeks of taking everybody without any consideration. 

Finally, “All the things Now” is a narrative of a lady in restoration — a lady who is best however not essentially good. This distance between restoration and recovered could also be lengthy, however the journey is best with good associates alongside for the trip. 

Editor’s Be aware: This text is a evaluate and contains subjective ideas, opinions and critiques.