‘Looking for Alaska’ Mini-Series Review: Tragedy Saves The Story
Like many other films adapted from John Green’s novels, Looking for Alaska centers on a sentimental coming-of-age story.
Looking for Alaska is a teen mini-series drama that was adapted from John Green’s novel of the same name. Before we dive deeper into this review, I should give you a full disclosure that I have not read the book. The only John Green novel that I have read by far was the popular The Fault in Our Stars.
However, thanks to its interesting synopsis, Looking for Alaska has been marked as one of the billion want-to-read books on my Goodreads page. When I knew it has been adapted into a mini-series airing on Hulu since October 2019, I decided to binge-watch all eight episodes of it.
The mini-series centers on the story of a high schooler named Miles “Pudge” Halter, who just enrolled in Culver Creek Boarding School, which looks more like a summer camp. In the new school, the nerdish Pudge befriends other like-minded folks: the sharp-witted Colonel, the lively intelligent yet sensitive Alaska, the ever-so-rational Takumi, and the kind-hearted Lara.
Like the usual high-schooler life, the group experiences teenage drama with excessive drinking, smoking, and flirting — well, to be frank, nothing particularly interesting.
Until a sudden tragedy struck Culver Creek on one fine morning, which then shook up the friendship. As a way of coping with it, the gang decided “to look” for “the Alaska” they used to know.
Only then, the show gets more and more interesting.
Looking for Alaska will take you deep into the story of its three main characters: Pudge, The Colonel, and Alaska. Each one of them has a backstory that molds them into who they are when we see them in Culver Creek boarding school.
Let’s uncover each of the three main characters. First up is Pudge, whose point of view stirs the narrative. Played by Charlie Plummer, Pudge opens the show as a quite fascinating, bookish character. He likes to remember the very last words of famous people, from Oscar Wilde to Harvey Boggart.
With a unique proposition like that, Pudge should be an interesting character, right? However, later in the series, I find it harder and harder to sympathize with Pudge, or to give any care to his journey in the new school. Why, you may ask? I will explain it for three different reasons.
Three Reasons Why I Didn’t Care About Pudge
First thing first, Pudge enrolled in the new school to gain a deeper meaning in life, which he calls his “Great Perhaps”. The term referred to the last words of a famous scholar, Francois Rebelais, who said “I go to seek a Great Perhaps”, just before he died.
Those last words sound so sophisticated and all, but c’mon! The premise of a high schooler wants to gain a deeper perspective in life sounds both so pretentious and bogus to me.
Secondly, Pudge doesn’t take the central stage in this show. In the first few episodes, while he narrates the story, Pudge is seen merely as the new nerd on the block, who has been trying hard to adjust to the dynamic of his new school, as well as expressing his feeling for Alaska, who, at that time, already has a gorgeous-looking boyfriend. Heartbreak is inevitable.
Duh, big deal! Seeing a nerd having his heart broken by a pretty girl is neither interesting nor a novelty in pop culture.
Pudge falls for Alaska even before he sets foot in the new school. It’s love at first sight, they say. But after that, the story does not care to explain to us why Pudge is so smitten even by the presence of Alaska on his side.
I find it so annoying. Gone has the boy who wanted to gain deeper meaning in his life. Pudge’s mission of searching for the Great Perhaps has vanished in a puff of Alaska’s smoking.
“I go to seek a Great Perhaps,” Francois Rebelais said before he died.
The third reason, and I know this one is of personal taste, is Pudge’s haircut. It’s… I don’t know how to describe it. In several episodes, it does look cool, I have to admit, seeing a nerdish guy wearing a haircut like he was a member of an indie band. But most of the time, in most of the episodes, it looks so dorky and greasy, to the level of very unattractive. Go binge-watch all the episodes to see what I mean.
That Colonel Kid was Really Somethin’
On the other hand, you will see that the other member of the gang, Chip Martin aka The Colonel, is much more memorable. Played brilliantly by Danny Love, The Colonel has so many punchy and sassy one-liners that will make you put a smile throughout the show.
Playing The Colonel, Love portrays a black kid, who is so smart and witty he earns the name of The Colonel. Despite the fact he is a short black kid and, on a scholarship, The Colonel is widely popular and respected throughout the school. A rarity I must say, as this show was set in 2005, the period of time when maybe racial discrimination was still a thing among high school students.
There is one scene of The Colonel that I think I will not forget for the foreseeable future. It was when he knocked on the principal’s office door and asked to be kicked out of the school. He was so outraged by the aforementioned tragedy, but at the same time, tears dropped from his one eye, and only from one eye. This scene tells us that while he shows deep anger on the outside, he also is a sensitive man and has deep regret for the tragedy that has happened.
And from that scene only, we can see that Danny Love delivered a stellar performance to this show.
In fact, without a character as deep and smart-witted as the Colonel, the show would otherwise fall flat to be an ordinary teenage drama. Aside from the fact that the show has Alaska Young as the center of everyone’s universe, there isn’t a single character as even slightly smart and attractive as the Colonel.
Okay, Let’s Talk about Alaska
Kristine Froseth played the girl whose name was attached to the title of this show. The thing is, as a titular character, Alaska Young has to be enigmatic. She just has to be, otherwise, people will not give a damn to the main story.
Apparently, to push Alaska to the center stage, the show has endless closeup scenes of Froseth, showing how beautiful and fascinating the girl is.
There is nothing wrong with that, of course. But her pretty look is just the icing on the cake.
Alaska may seem carefree on the outside. But no one really knows what is going on on the inside. Even until the story ends, all characters still do not have all the answers to the mystery.
That is the key factor, I think, to make Alaska’s characteristics all the more memorable to the audience. For her part, Froseth has nailed it.
I Thank God for The Tragedy
For the first six episodes, we get to see these kids experiencing teenage drama filled with puppy love and war pranks. The ordinary teenage life was being presented with mostly indie folk songs or acoustic covers of otherwise mainstream songs. All these long-winded school dramas were presented for six freakin episodes. In summation: it is so hipster it feels boring.
The boredom may come from the fact that I may not be the target audience of the show. Heck, I am not in my early 20s anymore. That being said, I could not so much relate to the story. Only when the tragedy finally struck on the penultimate episode, I was hooked to the rest of the story.
Over the span of 8 episodes, however, there are repeated hints of Alaska’s mental state. An obvious example can be drawn from the title of her final essay in the World Religions class:
How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?
— Straight and fast.
And with that simple yet deep statement, the happy-go-lucky facade of this charming girl has been lifted for all the world to see.
To wrap up this review, I think it will only do justice to the sentimental coming-of-age story if I quoted Pudge’s very last words in the series:
“Thomas Edison’s last words were ‘It’s very beautiful over there’.
I don’t know where ‘there’ is, but I believe it’s somewhere. And I hope it’s beautiful.”
From a quick Google search, I find that the quote also comes up in the book. John Green and his sentimentality are inseparable.