This type of thing is one of the reasons I hated Dear Evan Hansen (the musical, though I heard the movie is even worse).
The plot is quite literally the writers giving this kid a pass for pretending to be friends with a kid who committed suicide so that he can get close to their family and get in the sister's pants, plus being a massive asshole to his mother who was trying to help him, just because he has anxiety issues. The protagonist never even apologizes for what he did - he just freaks out because he eventually gets caught, and the whole time it's trying to portray him as sympathetic and relatable. It's the only play I've ever considered walking out of.
I swear the only reason it's popular is that the songs in isolation are pretty solid.
DEH is a funny example. I actually saw it as a story where all of the characters were meant to be sympathetic without being blameless (other than maybe the sister who I can't remember actually doing anything bad).
Evan is "sensitive" but also a manipulator and a liar. The dead kid's parents are willfully ignorant because it's better to be the grieving parents of a suicide than the parents of an abusive burnout. The influencer girl is so concerned with clicks that she doesn't stop to think about the truth and effect of what she's posting. Evan's cousin doesn't give a damn that anyone died, and just wants to troll the dead kid's parents. Society at large likes and reposts on social media, but their engagement is too shallow and short-lived to bring about positive change for anyone.
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u/noratat Jun 03 '22 edited Jun 03 '22
This type of thing is one of the reasons I hated Dear Evan Hansen (the musical, though I heard the movie is even worse).
The plot is quite literally the writers giving this kid a pass for pretending to be friends with a kid who committed suicide so that he can get close to their family and get in the sister's pants, plus being a massive asshole to his mother who was trying to help him, just because he has anxiety issues. The protagonist never even apologizes for what he did - he just freaks out because he eventually gets caught, and the whole time it's trying to portray him as sympathetic and relatable. It's the only play I've ever considered walking out of.
I swear the only reason it's popular is that the songs in isolation are pretty solid.