Against the current Once a modest and shy ordinary teacher from London Shelley Green, passionately loved by her students, who are very concerned about the loneliness of such a beautiful and worthy woman, give her an unexpected gift, saying that they filled out her questionnaire for participation in the reality show “Desperate and lonely”, according to the rules of which two complete strangers marry and, in the event that their relationship will withstand the test of strength and do not fall apart after a certain time, receive a significant monetary gain. The ideal pair of gray mouse Shelley is its complete opposite - a self-confident American named Keith, who has a model appearance, an easy attitude to life and the ability to charm any girl. Soon it turns out that the most difficult in the future marriage will be far from such cardinal differences in the character and lifestyle of the wife and husband or the annoyance of the uncouth members of the reality TV crew, and skeletons in the closet of handsome Keith, as a result of which the couple finds themselves in the networks of international terrorism, civil war and natural disasters. This was the content of Katie Lette’s novel “Devilly Sexy”, one of the three books published in Russia by this Australian writer, who is known here for unsuccessful attempts to revolutionize the genre of the female novel, diluting it with unexpected elements, which did not change the essence of the final product. But in her homeland, Lette is primarily known as the co-author of the book “Puberty Blues”, an autobiographical and very frank story about growing up in a small Australian town inhabited by carefree surfers, and does not give young people truly important landmarks that can help them find themselves in life.
In the seventies, surf culture in Australia was typically a masculine affair - it was impossible to imagine a girl trying to catch a wave on a board, as all females were predetermined much more depressing roles - the surfer's girlfriend was always supposed to walk in the most revealing swimsuit, ready to have sex at any time of the day and night and anywhere, disappear when asked, and carry food tired of the whole day on the crest of the wave men. Most girls agreed with this role, but there were also those teenagers who, growing up in a few families with strong mothers, always on a par with their fathers in making decisions about the common future, decided to rebel and paved the way for girls to surf, influencing how we know surf culture today. Such were the heroines of Lette’s book and her friend Gabrielle Carrie, as well as the series of the same name, based on it – they went from litter for a gang of careless surfers, to girls who try to change the rules in relationships with the opposite sex and in relation to them, girls who are not afraid to stand on the board or protect a classmate whose helplessness is brazenly and criminally used by a bunch of local guys, girls who rush between the desire to be like everyone and obey the rules of the game established in their hometown, which apply to all aspects of life and in all places, including sometimes they can not be more captivated in this way and that they always become more popular.
"Puberty Blues" differs from the classic shows about teenagers in many ways, ranging from frankness to the role of parents in this epic. The series, the screensaver of which is as innocent as the innocent pink room of a ten-year-old girl, will show you a schoolgirl who spends more time in a teacher's car than in class, and as a result, before she finishes her academic journey, happily marries him, to the cheers of residents around the city, or a girl who is constantly sexually abused by her stepfather, who tries to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy by sitting in a hot bath and pouring vodka into herself. The world of Katie Lette and Gabriel Curry consisted of promiscuous sex, drug addiction, death, early pregnancy, blind rebellion, and their characters are full of maximalism, extremely dependent on others, quite empty and very lost. The authors of the series adaptation of the book do not make you love them or justify their actions, but do everything to make you understand them, including in the show rarely well worked out in the production of this kind of parenting factor – in “Puberty Blues” the families of several main characters are not just occasionally mentioned, so that viewers do not forget about their existence, but become full-fledged characters of the series, as a result of which it perfectly illustrates the relationship between children’s problems and the current situation in the family, the model of communication with parents and decision-making. As a result, the creators of the series turned out to be the most unusual and interesting show about seething hormones and a difficult age, about teenagers who do not study in elite schools and do not live in mansions, but are forced to deal with not the most pleasant manifestations of life and human nature, which, together with another Australian series “Pulp Australia” is an example of the fact that dramatic television production exists outside of American TV shows.