Abortion is a theme that is surely sensitive. The parallelism between Bible's Maria - Joseph and series' Maria and Jo is obvious. Modern Maria does not want to bring the child to this world because it is going to ruin her plans and dreams. However, it is not only a good idea that makes a good script. I am going to firstly review every relationship Maria has in the series.
Girlfriends: Maria's friends come and go in the story not as complete characters, but somehow as a kind of help when the scriptwriter runs out of ideas. Kate is supposed to be a girl from a strictly religious family, but her appearance does not state that. Concerning that these girls live in a village, I would expect characters that wouldn't look like 20-year-old students from the centre of Athens. Also, the way they treat Maria when they find out that she's pregnant does not make them friends at all. No matter how immature a 17-year-old person can be, getting angry of someone's unwanted pregnancy shows off they're no real friends.
Family: The director/screenwriter chose to avoid all the necessary scenes. Maria goes to the supermarket. When she returns, she finds out that her boyfriend Tasos, came to her house and announced to her parents that she's pregnant. How did they react? This was dramatically one of the most important moments. Her parents does not have any idea that Maria is having a boyfriend therefore that she has sex and a stranger comes to their house not only to introduce himself but also tell them that they are going to be grandparents! As for the characters, they seem completely ignorant. Starting from the grand mother who speaks to a ghost - it was like the creator wanted to complete some minutes of the episodes with those moments. Then, Yorgos, which is a disabled man that goes to night school to be able to get a better job. What parent would continue to go to the night school leaving his pregnant child walking around the village without knowing what is she doing? This is not realistic. Not to mention her mother, Eleni, which seems to have an affair with another woman at her work. I understand that every person, no matter the situation has passions, but the main theme is the pregnancy of the main character and her parents seem to forget that between the series. Let alone that they live in a village, and parents in such areas are sometimes overprotective.
Tasos (boyfriend): In my opinion Tasos is the most well rounded character in the series. Firstly he has both advantages and disadvantages in his personality. He loves Maria but in a way that she feels she's suffocating. There are some plot however. When does he stay after his trailer is on fire? At the gas station? At his friend's house? In his car in the middle of the winter? It's a very important information that was disregarded.
Joseph (Jo): Jo is also a very interesting character in the series which was surely a necessity to include and represent the LGBTQ+ community. He is an extrovert, while Maria is an introvert. He is brave while Maria is timid. This relationship works and he is very important for the turns the story has. However some info about him is just not that believable. How could an Athenian boy go live in the village at his last grade? Especially for a boy such provocative as Jo is. I would also like to explore more his relationship with his father, rather than hanging around the horses. Beautiful picture but it needs a content to be called poetic.
Finally, I would say that this is worth to be watched by people that are curious about it. After watching the last episode I am wondering what was the point of the series? Giving the world the topic of abortion is surely important. But I feel like the message that a woman can do whatever she wants with her body is not finally very strong within the series. It is not enough for an artist to have that message being told by his characters in his dialogues, but the piece of art itself should be the food for though of such an important topic.
Girlfriends: Maria's friends come and go in the story not as complete characters, but somehow as a kind of help when the scriptwriter runs out of ideas. Kate is supposed to be a girl from a strictly religious family, but her appearance does not state that. Concerning that these girls live in a village, I would expect characters that wouldn't look like 20-year-old students from the centre of Athens. Also, the way they treat Maria when they find out that she's pregnant does not make them friends at all. No matter how immature a 17-year-old person can be, getting angry of someone's unwanted pregnancy shows off they're no real friends.
Family: The director/screenwriter chose to avoid all the necessary scenes. Maria goes to the supermarket. When she returns, she finds out that her boyfriend Tasos, came to her house and announced to her parents that she's pregnant. How did they react? This was dramatically one of the most important moments. Her parents does not have any idea that Maria is having a boyfriend therefore that she has sex and a stranger comes to their house not only to introduce himself but also tell them that they are going to be grandparents! As for the characters, they seem completely ignorant. Starting from the grand mother who speaks to a ghost - it was like the creator wanted to complete some minutes of the episodes with those moments. Then, Yorgos, which is a disabled man that goes to night school to be able to get a better job. What parent would continue to go to the night school leaving his pregnant child walking around the village without knowing what is she doing? This is not realistic. Not to mention her mother, Eleni, which seems to have an affair with another woman at her work. I understand that every person, no matter the situation has passions, but the main theme is the pregnancy of the main character and her parents seem to forget that between the series. Let alone that they live in a village, and parents in such areas are sometimes overprotective.
Tasos (boyfriend): In my opinion Tasos is the most well rounded character in the series. Firstly he has both advantages and disadvantages in his personality. He loves Maria but in a way that she feels she's suffocating. There are some plot however. When does he stay after his trailer is on fire? At the gas station? At his friend's house? In his car in the middle of the winter? It's a very important information that was disregarded.
Joseph (Jo): Jo is also a very interesting character in the series which was surely a necessity to include and represent the LGBTQ+ community. He is an extrovert, while Maria is an introvert. He is brave while Maria is timid. This relationship works and he is very important for the turns the story has. However some info about him is just not that believable. How could an Athenian boy go live in the village at his last grade? Especially for a boy such provocative as Jo is. I would also like to explore more his relationship with his father, rather than hanging around the horses. Beautiful picture but it needs a content to be called poetic.
Finally, I would say that this is worth to be watched by people that are curious about it. After watching the last episode I am wondering what was the point of the series? Giving the world the topic of abortion is surely important. But I feel like the message that a woman can do whatever she wants with her body is not finally very strong within the series. It is not enough for an artist to have that message being told by his characters in his dialogues, but the piece of art itself should be the food for though of such an important topic.