NYC Summer Lovin': Our Review of HBO's New Series Betty
YAAAHHHOOOO Betty is here! For those of you who live under a rock, or somehow found this page accidentally, Betty is the newest comedy / skate masterpiece from The Skate Kitchen written by Crystal Moselle + Lesley Arfin. Betty is kicking off its first season with six episodes exclusively on HBO. HOWEVER you can watch the first episode on Instagram live now
ALSO want to give a huge shout out to Betty + HBO for sending us such a sick package. Feeling really blessed and excited to use all those goodies to share the love. This post wasn’t sponsored - but needed to give a little love and kudos.
The description of Betty states: A group of diverse young women navigate the predominantly male-oriented world of skateboarding in New York City. I mean lmao story of my life right...but let’s get into it SEASON ONE EPISODE ONE
We catch Nina aka Kirt (spelling change in this show versus the movie The Skate Kitchen) taking some ass shots of a seriously bruised butt. Wonder how much of that was costume makeup or real life. She facetimes our girl Dede aka Janay because they’re about to meet up for their first girl’s sesh!
It’s absolutely foreshadowing who the guy is with Janay but we shall see. PS shouts out that Janay had on a KCDC tote. But anyway - we catch our girls at LES somewhere *incredibly* extra. Enter Moonbear aka Honeybear, and immediately we clock that she’s a filmer, so our gang starts to catch some clips.
Camille shows up with her two boys and immediately is a way different character than her movie debut. Then we get this montage of skating and general LES shenanigans. How many times should I mention that I miss being outside? It starts POURING and they all mob to a bodega. I wonder if that was real rain or not - but I’m going to go with not. I’m from Miami and I don’t remember it raining like that here.
“Phillip” orders a bacon egg and cheese and my heart dies a little. Camille realizes she forgot their backpack at the park and freaks out on her to go get it. The girls are not having how he treated her and they all get kicked out of the bodega.
The gang realizes that the backpack is stolen. Janay proves to be the smartest thinker trying to get Camille to use find my iPhone. Phillip doesn’t have an iPhone because “he doesn’t trust the government.” I wish I couldn’t say that I haven’t met a New York skater exactly like that but…
Phillip is really upset because he lost his “Winter Bowl Key” which Kirt quickly reminds him girls can’t get in there anyways. Our first look into the divide of the skate scene. But they make a deal that when they get the backpack thief, they can get into Winterbowl.
They run into a friend Farook and meet Indigo, our baddie smoking in the van. Camille doesn’t want to hear her stoner friends excuses and just wants her backpack. Kirt, Phillip, Honeybear and Indigo pile in Farook’s van to smoke. Janay gives her stuff to Honeybear and her and Camille embark on this adventure to get the stolen backpack. Camille and Janay first see a similar backpack on a young man, and think they find gold but in reality it’s some mean 14 year old boy.
Back in the van, Farook tries to remember his weed prices to send out Indigo to sell some *drugs*. Kirt delivers the best line of the show “not my fault if my lets skate and my lets smash vibes have some overlap.” She tries to get Indigo to skate with her, and speaks the truth about skating: it’s not about landing tricks all the time, it’s about having fun. This scene seems really chill but it is in fact the pivotal moment of the show. The difference between how men see skating and how women are developing their own communities.
Now we get to a Fuckin Problems montage to find our backpack through Chinatown. We start to see Camille and Janay develop their relationship and it seems like a fun promising future for our ladies. Meanwhile back at the van, Indigo is learning to skate from Kirt. Indigo baby mall-grabs the fuck out of this deck while flirting with this guy to sell some weed. She skates now though “it’s whatever”. My personal favorite part of the episode is that Kirt teaches the importance of how to hold your skateboard.
Janay and Camille have a terrible interaction with an old man and start to get a little more open about the overwhelming sensation of older men preying on younger women in situations they should be safe in, like the school bus. Back in Farook's bus, Honeybear realizes she found the backpack thief on her camera. The ladies meet back up to fuck this guy up. He’s sitting on a park bench and then starts cursing at them in Spanish but surprise Camille speaks Spanish and gets! her! backpack!
YAY we did it we’re all best friends wooooooo. So Farook drops our ladies off at the Winterbowl and Camille opens the door to get in. They’re greeted by some random guy who refuses to let them in. A guy vouches for Camille but she ditches the other girls at the door. All of a sudden the sky opens up and leaves our ladies out in the rain.
That’s all she wrote.
Catch our Betty recaps every week here!
If you have any suggestions or anything we’ve missed DM us @quellskate.