“You think it's just another ‘troubled teen' story. Think again.”
Netflix's official trailer for Bad Boy, which dropped ahead of its May 2nd debut, doesn't just tease a prison drama—it thrusts us into a poetic, paint-splattered warzone of emotion. And honestly? It doesn't pull punches.
Set in a juvenile detention facility, Bad Boy traces the journey of Dean Scheinman (played with unsettling charm by Guy Manster), a teenager surviving the brutality of incarceration with wit, creativity, and a deeply buried vulnerability. Created by Ron Leshem—the same mind behind the original Israeli Euphoria—this isn't just another moody teen drama with moody lighting. It's personal. Raw. And surprisingly artistic.
Let's get this out of the way: yes, the trailer carries the same high-contrast, slow-motion stylization that Euphoria fans will instantly recognize. But what elevates Bad Boy is its thematic precision. It leans heavily into the real-world trauma that inspired it, revealing a layered narrative about broken systems, male friendship, and the creative instinct to survive.
“Youth, survival, and redemption” might sound like trailer-bait, but here? They hit. Hard.
We've seen this trope before—teens in detention. From Scum (1979) to The Night Of (2016), gritty reform school stories are nothing new. What Bad Boy seems to do differently is let its protagonist reclaim the lens. Dean isn't just acted upon by the system; he paints over it. Literally. His creativity becomes the lifeline, not just a subplot.
That makes this show feel closer to City of God than 13 Reasons Why. While the latter moralized its characters, Bad Boy appears to humanize them through shared pain and unexpected humor. There's even a moment in the trailer—a blink-and-you-miss-it clip—where Dean sketches a cartoon on a cement wall, grinning like it's the first time he's smiled in months. That one frame? It says more about resilience than most entire seasons of Netflix dramas.
Directed by Hagar Ben Asher (known for Long Bright River) and backed by a diverse Israeli writing team, Bad Boy has international roots and festival clout—it premiered at TIFF 2023—but its messaging is universal. Institutions crush individuality. Dean fights back.
Let's talk structure. The trailer uses sharp pacing—cutting from scenes of violence to moments of silent expression. There's no voiceover. Just bursts of dialogue and ambient noise. This minimalism forces viewers to watch, not just listen. It's like the trailer's screaming: “Pay attention. This is real.”
And then there's the symbolism. Dean's name—Scheinman—literally means “beautiful man” in Yiddish. Coincidence? Maybe. But in a series that paints scars as stories, names probably matter.
In a post-Euphoria, post-Beef world, audiences are finally rewarding shows that blend social commentary with style. But there's a fatigue setting in—too many shows glamorize trauma without substance. Bad Boy promises something different: trauma with transformation.
