Dreamers review – this teen dance drama is too subtle for its own good. Where’s the debauchery?

Rachel Aroesti - TheGuardian - 30/03
Where other teen shows ramp up the sex, drugs and scandal, this Leeds-set saga about rivalries in a dance school keeps it real – so real it almost refuses to be entertaining
Steely sweetness … Princess Nelia Mubaiwa as Puppy in Dreamers. Photograph: Channel 4
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Steely sweetness … Princess Nelia Mubaiwa as Puppy in Dreamers. Photograph: Channel 4
Review

Dreamers review – this teen dance drama is too subtle for its own good. Where’s the debauchery?

Where other teen shows ramp up the sex, drugs and scandal, this Leeds-set saga about rivalries in a dance school keeps it real – so real it almost refuses to be entertaining

The implausibility of the teen drama may well be the genre’s defining feature. In the 00s, we were subjected to untold glamour and relentless wisecracking by US imports such as The OC and Gossip Girl. The UK equivalent was Skins, in which a group of Bristolian party animals managed to make practically every personal problem known to man look intimidatingly cool. More recently, we’ve had mind-blowing levels of debauchery from Euphoria, mind-blowing levels of sexual literacy and candour from Sex Education and m...
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