First Day
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2020)
I found this show on Hulu last week while scrolling around looking for something to watch. There are only eight episodes and they're not very long, but I binged through the whole series in a single sitting and was absolutely blown away.
The star of the show is Evie Macdonald. She plays a character named Hannah Bradford, who has just started middle school. Both the actress and the character that she plays is transgender. At the start of the series, the only people who are aware that Hannah is trans are her family, the school faculty, and one other girl who Hannah does not get along with. As the show progresses, the rest of the school becomes aware (not by her choice). Some react to this discovery with support and positivity. Others respond with varying levels of ignorance and spite, but with the support of her family and friends, Hannah overcomes the obstacles with grace and dignity.
Everything about this show is beautiful. It's filmed well, the performances are outstanding, and the message is heartwarming. It left me feeling both hopeful and depressed. It shows a world that seems to be getting further out of reach everyday; a world where people can respect the right of other people to live their own lives even when they don't understand it. Ideally, this is the kind of thing that should be be shown in school as a part of a class on tolerance and acceptance of others, but that's clearly not going to happen for the foreseeable future here in the US. Is it really that difficult to not be an asshole?
