Okay yeah I’m talking about it
I just really don’t like how much focus they put on j*ke. Coz this is supposed to be a found family show, but it consistently pushes Alex and especially Reggie to the side to focus on the relationship between Julie and Luke. A relationship that barely has any development or depth to begin with.
The only things we see them bonding over are music and their mums, and even their issues with their mums are no way similar to each other. Julie lost her mum and she can’t see her again. Her mum isn’t a ghost, she might not see her again until she dies herself. But Luke lost both of his parents, and he can still interact with them in some way. He can still spend time with them, and if he revealed the existence of ghosts to them, he could have some sort of relationship with them. His grief of losing his parents isn’t any more similar to Julie’s than Reggie and Alex’s. Hell, I’d say Reggie’s story is closer than Julie’s is. But Luke gets the parent arc instead, despite the fact that there’s almost zero setup for him missing his parents
And the scenes we get of them bonding over music are,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I mean they have good chemistry, but they don’t get deep about anything. They just think the other’s pretty. We barely actually know anything about Luke’s love of music without looking at the extra-canon material in the books. In the show he just,,,,,,,,,, enjoys music and has some band shirts. That’s as deep as it ever goes for him in the show
They put so much prioritisation on making their romance seem Deep and Important that they actively push Reggie and Alex aside. They make all the band scenes about Julie and Luke, not the band. I mean they were all brought back by Rose to help Julie back into music, but Julie asks Luke and only Luke to thank her for that. She specifically asks him to step away from the guys to ask him about it, and the guys are very clearly within earshot the whole time
And the final garage scene is the absolute worst for this. She hugs Luke and says she loves the guys while Alex and Reggie watch them a few feet away, just kinda Being There because they have to be. They’re barely second thoughts in the scene, despite the fact that it’s supposed to be the big showstopping found family moment
The show’s called Julie and the Phantoms, but it’s more like Julie, Luke, and the Others. Alex and Reggie are consistently ignored to set up the romance between Julie and Luke, but they never actually put much work into characterising Luke. Luke in the show has probably the least substance out of all of the characters. He’s mostly riding on good looks, a crush, and a guitar. He feels so flat when you actually think about what we get told about him, and if Charlie wasn’t such a naturally charismatic actor he’d probably just be. kinda shit. He wasn’t written well at all in my opinion
JatP isn’t a show that puts found family before the romance, and I hate that people keep saying that about it. They consistently put romance first and they didn’t even develop the main romance much to show us what they like about each other beyond Pretty And Good At Music
I think they could have been so much better if they’d balanced out the other characters and actually given Luke some depth and consistency. Plus it’s just so obvious that Luke’s way older than Julie and it makes me so uncomfortable. Yes he’s meant to be 17 and she’s 15 (which is gross enough for me as a Brit) but Charlie was literally 21 when they filmed and you can Tell.
So yeah. I’m not a fan of j*ke