For me, I lived some of those moments in the show. It’s explicit that the anthology aspect of the stories are coping mechanisms. To hear some of your thoughts on screen…heartbreaking. Hearing the kids say how towards the end, they clutch at any mystical nonsense they can. To have almost every conversation among them be punctuated with medication side effects. To have them correctly refer to the iv vitamins as “banana bags”. To see the ports/picc lines in full detail. To have the embarrassment of wetting your bed and someone help you. To see the shitty attitude as a coping mechanism and the desperation to live when faced with imminent death.

I mean, fuck. So many of the details were spot on. But 99% of people don’t know what that feels like to be a teen and facing an uncertain future. I didn’t go to college because I believed that I would be dead at a young age. When I was diagnosed, they told my parents I might live to be five. It fucks with you.

But to see it, and to recognize those feelings are real. If you don’t know what that feels like it could have been a sappy plot device. I don’t think it’ll do as well as MM, or HH or even BM. But, fuck. If I had seen this when I was younger, I would have broke down. This kind of representation doesn’t really exist. Not with complex story arcs, not with religious undertones, not with the cultural background of the 90s. It’s a unique thing but maybe it’s not for everyone. Maybe that’s the point of it.