Julie and the Cringelords

Julie and the Phantoms is Netflix Original series directed by Kenny Ortega. The same director of Hocus Pocus, High School Musical movies, and the Descendent Movies. It's rated TV-G and looks like its directed towards an 8-12 year old age range.

I recently came across from this show the week of January 24th. I stream on a service called YouNow and one of my viewers recommended it to me and then shared a video of one of the scenes in our discord. The song was catchy so that made it seem cool at first, so I asked him what the concept of the show was. He replied saying "So the concept of the show is a band who died in 1995 before their big show and essentially it sets up the whole show. However the band and Julie are connected by Julie’s mother because one of the members stayed behind and flirted with Julie’s mom at the time that the other 3 died."

So that definitely interested me and after work I put it on just to check it out and found myself finished the first season about 5 hours later.

Reasons Why this Show is a guilty Pleasure:

I'm a 26 year old guy that become obsessed with a kids show definitely directed towards kids who are most likely in between the ages of 8-12 years old. From how much music/singing is in the show I could see this being categorized or included as a musical. Because it is directed towards a younger age group, it's humor is very corny and can be "cringy" for someone of my demographic.

I have a few friends who are my age or around my age who would've enjoyed this and recommended it to but other than those 3, I do not have the courage to share this enjoyment.

My appearance alone, having tattoos and piercings and wearing a wardrobe of ripped skinny jeans and flannels, most people would never think I would genuinely enjoy watching and loving this show.

Pros about the show:

The concept of the show is great and in general could capture many peoples interests.

Diversity with the cast and characters. The cast is a very good mix of races with the main protagonist being a Hispanic girl. She's even played by a girl who is full blown Puerto Rican.

I wanna include women empowerment because of the fact that Julie is the reason for her band and that she is the one who the band looks to. She is someone many little Latinas and Hispanic girls can look up to when watching this.

The drummer of the band, Alex, is gay and to have that kind of subject thrown into a kids show is the kind of progressive energy most shows need until it's no longer a shock or something different.

The way all of these matters are thrown in the show are heavy and light but presented very organically.

My Personal Interest for the show:

• Depression: The lead guitarist and vocalist character, Luke, helped me with my situational depression. I felt like I had been taking life too seriously; thinking life had more meaning when it came to do with everyone having an important role in life. I had been questioning that my meaning in life to help people psychologically and spiritually was a waste. But I needed someone like Luke's character who's meaning in life is to make music to bring people together and feel something, to remind me you can have a goal and drive in life to do something great.

• Anxiety: The show's soundtrack and calming dialogue audio helped for good background noise when my anxiety was getting too heavy. The only other TV show that has been able to be background music for me and calm my anxiety is The Office.

• Fashion/Style: The wardrobe of Luke and the bassist, Jeremy, helped me get back into caring about my outfits again because my anxiety was causing me to slip. I'm now back to accessorizing and putting more efforts into my outfits. Well, on my days off at least.
• Confidence, Emotions, and Relationships: Luke is a very openly emotional person when it comes to his passions and the people he cares about. I have been closing up more and more around the wrong people and it was starting to really affect my relationship. After watching Julie and the Phantoms it made me realize I can be openly emotional and that can benefit my relationships and bonds.
• Soundtrack: Normally these types of shows come with corny soundtracks may or may not grow on you, but this show's soundtrack overall is genuinely really catchy. And it was impressive to learn one of the songs off the soundtrack's "Perfect Harmony" was written by the two cast members who sing and dance to it.

We all have our guilty pleasures. This one is my most recent and it grows a bit more each day. I'm glad it was brought to my attention because it's been able to help me more than I would ever think a kids show could. So, in a way, I'm also thanking it for existing and hope they get the green light to start filming the second season.