Drama
The Pitt
Max’s new hospital drama The Pitt strives to be medically accurate. But while that’s a noble goal, this show comes with a whole lot of content, too.
If you were to catch a show by comedian Daniel Chen, you’d have no idea that he spent four of his teenage years in prison — until he joked about it as part of his routine, of course.
Before he changed his name, Daniel was Dean Sheyman, a troubled teenager with a knack for subverting authority. And as we see in the Netflix series Bad Boy(loosely based on Chen’s own life), we’re not talking about just typical teen rebellion: Dean was dealing drugs around his neighborhood, which swiftly landed him in a juvenile detention facility.
At first, Dean is sure his sharp wits and sharper tongue will get him through his sentence with no problem. A shocking act of violence between his fellow teenage inmates puts that thought to bed fairly quickly. Now, he’s a witness, and the leaders of the prison’s gangs are out for blood.
Thankfully, we know that Dean makes it out in one piece, as 20 years later he turns his traumatic experiences into a career as a comedian. But “Daniel” isn’t out of the woods yet. One of those gang leaders has finally been released, and he’s ready to settle some unfinished business.
The story of Bad Boy is disturbing enough on its own. But it’s even worse knowing that it’s based on true events. Daniel Chen is a real comedian who served multiple prison sentences as a teen (he even plays his adult self on the show). In real life, Chen shares his experiences via cynical humor; in one Instagram post, he thanks his mother for “her good intentions that paved a road straight to hell.”
Chen’s dark sense of humor is reflected in the adaptation of his life, which toggles between his teen past and adult present. Horrible acts of prison violence are followed by mockingly-upbeat pop songs, and Dean treats even the most frightening of situations with trademark sarcasm.
Most of those frightening situations aren’t shown explicitly onscreen, but that doesn’t make them less impactful. We don’t need to see the brutal murder of Dean’s friend by a gang of teenagers to find it disturbing. Graphic crimes are described in detail, and the boys make references to drugs and sexual activity (again, we don’t see anything explicitly depicted).
What’s most unsettling, however, is the brutality and hatred embodied by the teen inmates. Think The Lord of the Flies, only we’re stuck at the very end.
Bad Boy may not be the most graphic of prison dramas, but that doesn’t make it much easier to watch. Human depravity and violence between children are on full display in this Israeli series — all through an uncomfortably sarcastic lens.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
(Note: This review covers the English-dubbed version of the episode. Language concerns may differ slightly in the original Hebrew with English subtitles.)
Troubled teenager Dean Shayman is arrested for dealing drugs and sentenced to a juvenile detention facility, where he must navigate the complex and violent organization of prison gangs. Twenty years later, Dean (now a comedian going by Daniel Chen), learns that one of his old prison enemies has been released.
Dean finds himself in danger throughout the episode. He’s handled roughly by police and prison guards, punched by his mother’s boyfriend, and threatened by his fellow inmates. A fight breaks out between teenage prisoners, though no one is seriously hurt. Dean’s friend Ankheisi describes the violent murders committed by one of their fellow inmates.
The most disturbing moment comes near the end of the episode, when one of the boys is murdered by a gang of inmates. They punch him repeatedly until he coughs up blood, then kill him by kicking in his head while Dean watches. None of this is shown in graphic detail, but it’s obvious what’s going on. Blood covers the floor when the boy’s body is taken away.
Dean spends most of the episode in his underwear, as he was arrested in the middle of the night and refused to put on clothes. A prisoner offers to help Dean solicit a prostitute before he’s locked up.
Both Dean and his older self, Daniel, make several crass jokes. Daniel makes references to drug use and sexual activity during his stand-up routine; he also makes a joke about killing people who identify as transgender. When Dean arrives shirtless to his holding cell, he jokes about being a stripper.
One of the boys in prison compares himself to God when exerting control over another boy. Ankheisi tells Dean that there is no God in prison.
Characters smoke cigarettes throughout the episode.
The f-word is used ten times, “b–ch” is used four times, and the s-word is used three times. “A–” is heard twice, while “b—-rd” is heard once.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
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