n00b (New Zealand Series)

n00b is a New Zealand coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama television series. Set in the town of Gore, it is primarily about Nikau, a high school student who becomes a social outcast after being outed. He becomes a social outcast and along with a group of "freakish friends and foes" traverses the complicated world of high school, and the internet, in search of the confidence to be his true self. The show is 6 episodes of about 20-23 minutes each. The series is set in 2005 with bad fashion choices, emo music and flip phones, which also serves as a love-letter to the internet.

Nikau is a popular high school student and a star rugby player and captain. Secretly he has been writing gay fan fiction stories on the internet. In real life he has a girlfriend Lauren, who dreams of making it big in LA. She is pretty but also like a bitch putting herself always before anyone else. Nikau is finding it difficult to lead double life and Lauren is  getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of “romance” between them. As he prepares to host a party at his place, the school boys are hell bent to find out who this gay fiction author is. His secret is outed but he pretends that it was just a joke. Enter a punk, openly gay student James in school. Nikau wants to connect with him, but find it difficult with prying eyes of school boys constantly judging him. We also meet Nikau's best friend Taylor who always want to do the right thing by everyone. He is not the smartest chap, but is loyal. His girlfriend is Clara, who is Lauren's best friend and is going through her own issues and confidence challenges. While we go through the stories of all these individuals, the center is still Nikau, who continues to deny being gay or even his attraction to James. When it's time for school prom, eventually James has had enough. At the same time, the rugby team bullies (who were supposedly his mates), kidnap him, make him wear a dress and record a video. This is when all of Nikau's tries friends like Taylor, Lauren, Clara and James come in to his rescue. Nikau finally says it Lou that he is gay and that he likes James.

The town of Gore in this show, is not just a setting but a character in itself. It's been shown as one of those really backward towns who once was nicknamed 'gay Gore'. There’s perhaps too much of an emphasis on how backwards the town is especially by Lauren. The series meanders in a lot of places, because it not wants to talk about sexuality but also tackles on other issues  through Lauren and Clara around family expectations and reactions, teenagers' own dreams and what they want to do and of course the mentality of the small town people. Because of all this, a proper romance or connection is never developed between Nikau and James. I almost felt like Nikau likes James because he is likely the only other gay teenager that he knows of besides himself. I also felt the scenes involving the rugby lads together seemed lazy, born out of urban boarding school legends and tales that would have been far more unlikely in a rural co-ed school. Lauren was definitely the most interesting character out of all, IMO. The team of young actors do a solid job of bringing the show’s archetypal characters to life. My struggle is who is supposedly the target audience for this. Today's teenagers may not really connect with teenage life in a small town in 2005. And Tanagers from those years are in their 40s now, moved on and made something of their life. The series reminds us that sometimes you can’t help where you live. The chaos and cliches in this teen dramedy won’t be for everyone, but if you’re nostalgic for the era when the internet was full of hope and escape – and you don’t mind watching numerous circle jerks – you’ll appreciate what n00b has to offer. (6/10)