the way teenage bounty hunters DESERVED a second season. like what a tightly written, quippy, funny little show with so much heart. there’s so much good going on in it but things I particularly love:
Twin themes!! There’s so much good foreshadowing surrounding the big reveal (iykyk) and there’s also so much DOUBLING. Double lives especially is a big theme. Like, Debbie hiding Dana; sterling and Blair hiding their bounty hunting; the (functional) froyo shop being bowser’s bounty hunting lair; Terrance the lone wolf bounty hunter and bowser with his little “teen white savior” teammates; Yolanda’s sister who is a perfect foil for her; miles hiding Blair from his family; sterling hiding april from Blair…and then april hiding sterling period.
And I guess the doubling is kind of showing like, here are all the possibilities and here’s what happens when we let love in and here’s what happens when we shut it out
so much good stuff about being from the American south. As someone who grew up in the south and who grew up visiting close family in Atlanta…it is cool as fuck the way the south is portrayed in all of its complexity. The show does not shy away from issues of race, religion, SES, etc SPECFICALLY in Atlanta and manages to do it in a way that doesn’t come across as heavy handed. This show could ONLY be set in the south—it would be a fundamentally different show in any other setting
Also, like I said with the doubling points above, this show is full of secrets and secret keeping!!! But yet a fundamental point of the show is that being silenced is one of the worst things that can happen to a human being. There’s a scene where Blair is telling sterling that her dad yelled at her and that the worst part of all is that he told her to Be Quiet! And like in some ways that scene highlights what a loving household Blair has grown up in that the one of the worst things her Dad has ever said to her is be quiet (not even shut up)…but it really made me be like wow being told to stop questioning and be quiet IS something terrible. It’s a denial and a violation of our right to use our voices
and like it’s not a coincidence that in the final ep Dana gags sterling. Because the way sterling is talking to her is powerful and you can tell it is making her hesitate and question her whole life
so yeah anyway watch teenage bounty hunters! Or if you haven’t in a while, it’s definitely worth a rewatch
if I had a nickel for every time one of the teenage bounty hunters twins was in a humans vs superpowered people themed show where they were in a superpowered team vs superpowered team fight on the side that is against regular humans, ended up starting a murder spree only to have to be stopped (and subsequently physically hurt) by one of the few people they care about:
me, confident in my sexuality (figured out i like girls one week ago) making a move (kissing) on the girl i like (my long term academic rival) at the right moment (shes discussing her father’s arrest) in the right place (the bible studies office) confident she likes me back (she’s president of the straight straight club) and at the perfect time (i arrested her father a few weeks ago)
I wrote a Teenage Bounty Hunters fic (finally!) It’s a continuation to fix the cliffhanger Netflix left us with that ripped my heart out.
Rated T and will be 7.6K of words total. First chapter is up and I’ve divided it into three chapters. They’re all drafted so I’ll get the rest up over the coming two weeks.
One of the things that peeves me in Teenage Bounty Hunters is how much more Blair loves Sterling. Like Blair has made herself content being Sterlings henchman, her sidekick, she just supports her in her endeavors and backs her up regardless of her own feelings on the matter, like showing up to Bible class because Sterling needs a good reputation there. Blair doesn’t have her own friends or her own things at school, she has her sister, and her sister has her own things. Blairs thing is bounty hunting, that’s what she gets excited about, and Sterling doesn’t prioritize it for her and it costs Blair her relationship. Blair gets blamed for Sterlings shortcomings, it’s expected that she’s the screwup and that Sterling is the good one. It just pisses me off