“Looking for Alaska”

By Erin Wilson

Based on the John Green novel, the new Hulu series “Looking for Alaska” tells a beautiful and bittersweet story of love, loss, and friendship.

The show follows a high schooler named Miles (Charlie Plummer) who transfers to Culver Creek Preparatory High School, where he hopes to find his “Great Perhaps.” He finds a new circle of friends, including an enigmatic girl named Alaska (Kristine Froseth), whom he falls in love with. The group gets caught in a prank war with other students, which ends when tragedy shakes the school. 

Poetic and insightful, the show captures the aches of young love and the numbing devastation that follows the death of a loved one. Plummer, Froseth, and Denny Love shine in their roles as Miles, Alaska and Chip, expertly depicting the nuances and intensity of teenage emotions. Tracks such as Kat Cunning’s cover of “Orange Sky” and Iron & Wine’s cover of “Such Great Heights” amplify the melancholy tone of heavy scenes in the show. The cinematography, with its warm lighting and slow shots of characters in the surrounding forest, contributes to the show’s distinct sense of nostalgia.

The show poses philosophical questions about the human condition that both add another level of depth to the show and ask audiences to consider the same questions. Heartbreaking, lively, and evocative all at once, “Looking for Alaska” is a vibrant adaptation of the novel.