Mark your calendars! Back To 15 is returning to Netflix for season 2 on July 5! You may have never heard of this show, but I highly recommend it. Back To 15 is a coming-of-age drama that is essentially the reverse of 13 Going on 30. The show centers around a 30 year old who is unhappy with her life. After discovering that she can go back in time through logging into her old social media account, protagonist Anita changes her past to create a better present for herself. The show flips back and forth between adult and teenage Anita. The catch is that teenage Anita still has the mind of thirty year old Anita.
With themes of family, friendship, and young love, the show is entertaining and relatable. In many tv shows, I find that the teenage characters act too mature for their age, but Back To 15 captures the messy parts of being a teenager. Friendships are broken and selfish decisions are made. The show teaches people to hold themselves accountable for their actions and take initiative to repair friendships and family relationships.
In addition, I enjoy the nostalgia of Back To 15. The scenes from Anita’s teenage years are set in the 2000s. Along the way, there are many references that unlock childhood memories from My Chemical Romance lyrics sent on a social media site to Anita passing by a girl dressed like Avril Lavigne. Given the recent Y2K and pop-punk revivals, I think this show is the perfect mix between modern and nostalgic.
Spoiler alert: The beginning of season 2 takes place after one of Anita’s classmates hacks her social media account. Anita tries to log in, realizing that although she created a better present life for herself, she ruined her sister’s life. However, she cannot get into her account after it was hacked, and therefore cannot adjust the past to create a better present life for her sister. To find out whether Anita can fix her sister’s life, tune in to Netflix this summer!