How to Be a Person is something that we all subconsciously question each and every day. How to Kiss, How to Lose Your Virginity, and more bizarre questions run through our minds, plaguing us with unrealistic expectations. How to Be a Person explores these ideas and more, depicting a series of individuals who are just trying to get their shit together like the rest of us. How to Be a Person is charming, powerful, hilarious, and debilitating–everything we need in order to understand the realities of the world in which we live.
The content present throughout the first season of How to Be a Person is wild. Everything from trying to get an abortion to thirteen year olds being addicted to porn. The content is certainly uncomfortable, and there’s no way, regardless of your age and/or your mental state, that you watch this series and don’t find something about it either a tad uncomfortable or off putting–and that’s okay. There’s no doubt in my mind that the team behind this series wanted this to be the case–and they succeeded.
I can’t think of better casting for this project–as each and every individual (all of which appear to be young adults) fills the shoes of their characters with vigor and passion. I know that How to Be a Person is a low-budget project, I know that the funding probably wasn’t there to cast the biggest names in Hollywood–but in this case I believe that’s a good thing. Sometimes casting bigger than necessary can hinder a film, making it challenging for a viewer to separate the actor from the role, but with the casting of How to Be a Person, that’s never the case. Individuals like Dee Ahluwalia (Lasanna) and Maya McQueen (Maya) navigate their roles beautifully and bring so much nuance to their characters.
While the truth behind these characters, the connections that they are able to make with viewers as a result of their honesty, is one of the most important aspects of How to Be a Person, it’s the comedy that drives the series forward. The comedy is absurd, raunchy, left-of-center, and about a dozen other things–but what it is more than anything else is effective. I laughed out loud on numerous occasions, and I was reminded that even in the worst moments of our lives (even the ones that seem to feel worse than they actually are) there is a silver lining, something to hold on to and to remind us that happiness is somewhere on the horizon. How to Be a Person, again, is so beautifully real, capable of reaching viewers in a series of ways.
Anthology series don’t have to connect each of the episodes together–that’s sort of the point of an anthology series. However, they should retain the same theme(s) and tones, and sort of rely on the other episodes in order for viewers to understand the content, the characters, and everything in between. I’ve seen series of this nature that manage to bounce around just a little too much (not killing the series, but making it a tad frumpier than needed). How to Be a Person seems to remain on a linear path in terms of its tone and its subject matter, effectively connecting each and every episode in a way that allows the season to flow incredibly well.
How to Be a Person is just as insightful as the title might suggest; it digs deep into the nuances of being human, of struggling with things that are sexual in nature, and just the idea of finding our way in the world. The series of characters present throughout the course of the season perfectly represent every type of person in a series of unique ways. The series is beautifully constructed, and raunchy comedy aside, I believe that How to Be a Person has the ability to reach everyone.
Directed by Sindha Agha.
Written by Sindha Agha, Prasanna Sellathurai, Abena Taylor-Smith, Mackie Mallison, & Samira Mian.
Starring Charlotte Bradley, Dee Ahluwalia, Ludovic Jean-François, George Lammiman, James Craven, Maya McQueen, Maya Torres, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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