Indie Media Response: āJuniorā S1 E1-4
Junior, a web series by Zoe Cassavetes for media company Blackpills, is all about perspective, vocalizing opinions, and agency. Its narrativeās main focus is about a high school filmmaker, Logan, and her newest project: a pseudo-documentary (inspired by Loganās love of French New Wave filmmaking) about her friend Jess becoming a ābad girl.ā
Junior borrows the definition of bad girl from urban dictionary: a girl who does whatever they want without worrying what others think. The series, and Logan herself, are concerned with the meaning behind the adjective ābadā being used to describe this type of person. Throughout the series Logan encounters various moralizers (mostly men) who deem her behavior inappropriate and her main goal seems to be pushing back against those voices.
Social media, film, and the camera are major motifs throughout the seriesā first four episodes. Where most of the high school sees social media as a way to appeal to others, Logan uses it as a tool to spread her own voice. Likewise, her constant filming with her iPhone camera reflects her agency in observation. The series addresses who controls what perspectives are shared in our media landscape through an early scene in the second episode. Logan shares some of her footage with an LA producer, Rick, who questions what Loganās message is. Here he represents a media gate keeper, a straight, white, cis-gendered man who Logan must appeal to in order to have her voice heard.
Cassavetesā series also discusses agency in love more directly. An episode four scene has Jess revealing that she has no idea what she wants out of sex. To her, sex has always been about pleasing a man. Logan argues against this idea, encouraging Jess to explore her own desires over that of her boyfriend. The series walks a fine line here. While I havenāt finished the series yet, it seems to avoid turning Jess into a nymphomaniac caricature or simply selfish. The possibility exists for a symbiotic sexual relationship between a man and a woman, but Logan and Jess have to deal with men whose personalities do not allow for female agency.