2018 feels like a million years ago now, doesn’t it? Timmy Chalamet walking his first Oscars red carpet and making the cover of i-D, Lady Gaga talking about there being a hundred people in a room, Ariana dropping Sweetener and slaying us for life. A lot happened back then. It’s also when Skate Kitchen, director Crystal Mozelle’s film about a bunch of skateboarding teenage girls in NYC first bowed, becoming an instant coming-of-age queer classic.
Based on a real collective based in the city, at the time the film felt like the opening chapter for something bigger. Well, guess what? You’re getting just that! Yep, next month, HBO will premiere the first episode of Betty, a brand new TV show based off of the characters and stories of Skate Kitchen, just stretched over six gorgeous episodes. The latest trailer, our deepest look into the world yet, dropped today.
In it, we see the cast of girls doing shit that New York teen TV shows (*cough* Gossip Girl xoxo) have long struggled to grapple with properly: the shared experience of being a young woman with friends you actually like, treating the streets of the city and its suburbs like they’re your playground, grappling with fleeting love interests (both girls and guys), and sticking up for each other when shit hits the fan. It looks exciting, like Kids meets Euphoria for modern day teens, and it’s got a line of dialogue, spoken by the OG Skate Kitchen character Kurt, that’s a sick mantra we should start following: “I wanna stop fighting the patriarchy, and start helping the matriarchy”.
It’s also the perfect postcard to a city in lockdown. So for now, enjoy this bittersweet portrait of a freewheeling city in its prime. Before long, you New Yorkers will be back out there too.