A single mother raising two kids. A family constantly moving from place to place. The story of Ginny and Georgia is one of discovering secrets that were thought to be buried deep.
I saw this come up on Netflix and honestly, wasn’t that interested initially. Can’t say I know the reason why but the concept didn’t interest me. One day though, I had no idea what to watch and I had about an hour to waste so I put it on and was pleasantly surprised.
Georgia is a ‘southern gal’ who had a very rough time growing up. A mother who was never present and a stepdad who was abusive. Georgia decided to find her own way through life and ended up meeting Zion. They had Ginny. We find out throughout the series what happened in that relationship and the continuous struggles Georgia faced in trying to provide Ginny with the best life she could have.
Georgia also has another child, Austin whose father is in prison. We don’t find out much about that relationship or the timeline and I guess that’s something they probably wanted to keep for season two.
Ginny is tired of always being the new girl and in this new place, she quickly makes friends because of a very friendly girl, Maxine (who goes by Max). Maxine has a twin brother Marcus who ends up sneaking into Ginny’s room, thus a romantic relationship is born.
So, I had really high hopes for this series. It started out really strong and the acting on the most part is fantastic. Max can be a little annoying and over the top but I’m guessing that’s what they intended. I loved the way they set out all of the storylines in the first episode. It felt like a series that has something for everyone but also doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Ginny & Georgia covers a lot of heavy topics but without being too patronising. A few people felt that the show was too political, but honestly, it felt relevant. I didn’t get the impression that they were trying to educate us right from wrong, but they were expressing social topics as they are viewed by the characters. Personally, it explained the impact of certain situations that you may not otherwise realise, i.e. comments about being mixed race.
The chemistry between Ginny and Marcus is an interesting one. I love romance stories and the idea of experiencing a true connection with someone. It was interesting to see how they couldn’t really keep away from each other but they tried as neither of them were in a good place mentally. Ginny believed Marcus was just using her and Marcus wasn’t sure what he wanted. I wish their story had been covered more. However, this isn’t a story about them so I think the show writers handled that aspect well.
Here’s what I hated. The last few episodes saw a few of the characters turn into something that was nothing like who they were at the start of the series. It wasn’t as if that change made sense either. Ginny and Max became really dislikable and I tried to accept it, thinking it would be resolved by the end of the series. But it wasn’t. Ginny had changed completely, became totally closed off, and unbelievably selfish, even after seeing how much her mother (Georgia) did to protect them. Max goes from being someone who loves making friends, to pushing her friends away if their behaviour doesn’t suit her.
Basically, it felt like the writers just couldn’t decide by the end and wanted to leave every single question unanswered which is ridiculous and a waste of time. I understand what they tried to do, but in my opinion, they failed. Here’s what I would have accepted. Ginny didn’t want to run away from love and she confessed to loving Marcus. If she needed to run away, I would have accepted the ending that Marcus and Ginny leave together. That would have at least resolved a large plot point that was started in episode one.
In conclusion, it’s a great concept that has a well-written first half, with amazing actors and actresses. However, I wouldn’t recommend that you watch it until Season 2 is confirmed. This show left me feeling the same way as after Sanditon. They leave everything unresolved so that they can get a season 2. Well, Sanditon got cancelled so that meant there were a lot of pissed-off fans. Hopefully, Ginny and Georgia will get a chance to redeem itself.
My rating - 6/10 (if the last couple of episodes were better or at least some of the plot concluded, it would have been 8/10).