Team Kaylie – review

Team Kaylie is a Netflix original series that follows a teenage celebrity who is forced to do community service with a group of children who are apart of a sort of camping society. The show shows the sharp contrast between the celebrity lifestyle and every person lifestyle while includes over the top characters which are where the majority of the ‘comedy’ comes from.

Yeah, This is a show definitely pandering to the young teenage audience as it focused on a female teenage celebrity who is obsessed with modelling, selfies etc and it also references my celebrities who this demographic would look up to. It is based mostly in a school which, is one of the only things in my option that, makes this show relatable to this age bracket. There are many important themes embedded in this show including body image, broken families and responsibilities which are vital for this age group that is marketing. Despite all this, however, it is not a super serious show that makes you reflect. Instead, it is a fun and easy to watch series that would fit any younger persons attention span.

The characters themselves in this show are so over the top it’s ridiculous. They are beyond stereotypes that at the time it appears too exaggerated and forced. One of the worst characters was Valeria, played by Eliza Pryor, who was supposedly a witch type character. Don’t get me wrong Eliza was great in this character and is clearly a fantastic actor but the actual character was ridiculous. There were scenes that involved this character using spells and potions which I imagine isn’t relatable to the teenage audience. Another character that at times seemed over-the-top was Kaylie Konrad, played by Bryana Salaz, who is the titular character of the series. This character was excellently portrayed as a spoilt, rich teenage celebrity who is new to the real world. Bryana balanced the rich kid side of this character with the more serious relatable part of the character which was fantastic to see. What was fantastic to see was the inclusion of a gay character in a children’s tv show. Ray Ray, played by Kai Calhoun, was the stereotypical LGBT character with catty comments and one-liners but unlike the traditional trope, there was no massive coming-out drama which is obvious to normalise LGBT characters and people in tv.

Some of the minor characters in this show were very frustrating and annoying. For example, the principal played by Nicole Sullivan who was obsessed with online dating. She constantly spoke to the student which is not at all how a principle acts in real-life which makes it very hard for the audience to relate this character. I understand that this isn’t a documentary but it has to be based on real-life otherwise it’s unrealistic and unrelatable to the audience. Also, this series had a weird obsession with suggestion many adults have an unhealthy obsession with older family members. We had a photographer who mentioned his nana in every other sentence and a security guard who spoke constantly to his mother even while on the job. I personally don’t understand where this idea came from or what it is based on but it didn’t really make sense to me. One of the best minor characters was Anton ( played by Kevin Chamberlin) who reprised his role as a butler for only one episode. I have fond memories of Kevin playing the butler in Jessie and so this was a nice touch for me.

Creatively this show had some interesting choices. Many of the backdrops of hiking scenes who obviously edited and were very bad. Again this suspends the belief of the audience which is not the purpose of the show. However, what was excellent was the use of costumes. Kaylie was given the most fantastic outfits to wear that solidified her celebrity status whereas the ‘normal’ people were given basic clothes which highlighted the contrast of status.

In general, this show did what it needed to do for its audience but as I am not in their target audience I may somethings. I would rate this 2 stars from my perspective but a young teenager would defiantly disagree with that rating.