Betty

Betty is a spin-off of the skate movie Skate Kitchen. After director Crystal Moselle - on the New York subway - met two members of the female skater collective 'Skate Kitchen', she decided to make a film about them. Not a documentary, a movie. With script and all. And with leading roles for the women in question themselves. So you see, inspiration is just one ride on public transport away. Skate Kitchen - an ironic reference to the intimidated, fragile, masculine egos that women prefer to see in the kitchen - is a group of skating girls trying to get their foot in the door in the male-dominated skate scene. An interesting subject for a film - and now also a series - but the elaboration leaves a lot to be desired. Quite a lot of money. The HBO boardroom is probably an ardent supporter of the 'yin-yang principle', because after the (possibly) best series of 2020 - I Know This Much Is True - they have now also made the worst of the year with Betty. It must be strange if someone else wants to hide here. Even the best trained limbo dancers are not flexible enough for that. The biggest stumbling block is the acting. It is amateur theater in its most awkward form. I have often been enthusiastic about actors who have not been drilled by some renowned drama school - think of Mocro Maffia, for example - but this is the other extreme. It's as if they asked some random passersby if they might enjoy being in an HBO series. In fact, that is actually exactly what happened. The girls from Skate Kitchen did get a crash course in acting, but unfortunately that didn't pay off. Also in terms of story it is not going anywhere. I understand that this is a series about friendship and acceptance, but there may also be some line and management in it. Now as a viewer you always ask yourself: why do I have to watch this? Opting for a documentary would have made a lot more sense to me. For example, the YouTube vlogs of Moonbear - one of the protagonists - already feel so much more authentic than Betty. That is - as far as I'm concerned - really a missed opportunity. Now Betty, together with series such as Here And Now, Mosaic and The Brink, is in the list of HBO titles that will / should be forgotten very quickly. Unfortunately.