“My Life with the Walter Boys” is an adaptation of Ali Novak‘s book. Originally, Novak published the book on Wattpad— a fictional website. After recieving over 100 million viewers, Novak then released the book in 2014, so all could read.

Background Information:

Like the book, the show is a teen romance drama. “My Life with the Walter Boys” was produced by Nomadic Pictures, Sony Pictures Television, and iGeneration Studios, and released on Dec.7, 2023. The show is currently #1 on Netflix, with fans raving about it all over TikTok. The leading actors are Nikki Rodriguez (Jackie Howard), Noah LaLonde (Cole Walter), and Ashby Gentry. As of right now, there is no definite answer as if there will be a season two, but fans hope so.

Rating and where to watch:

Rating: TV-14

Streaming: Netflix

How long it is:

Episodes: 10

Minutes: 5o for each episode

Overview:

As everyone knows, death is a familiar part of life. But being just 15 years old, Jackie experienced too much death in a single day.  After receiving the news of the loss of her parents and sister, she moved to Colorado, to stay with her mom’s best friend. When arriving at the house, it is not just a shock to be living with 12 other people. but also a cultural one. Jackie is used to the tall buildings, hectic traffic, and runways, but now she needs to get accustomed to country life.

With the comfort of her mom’s best friend, Dr. Katherine Walter (Sarah Rafferty), and her sons, she sees that life is not too bad. Each and every Walter boy is kind enough to show her the ropes. When trying to find peace, Jackie finds herself stuck between two boys: Alex and Cole.  And to her luck, they are brothers. It should have been easy for her to pick the shy book nerd, but how can she deny the rule breaker? Who does she have to hurt to finally be at peace again?

Opinion:

Honestly, I did not like the show. Like every other viewer, I went into this show thinking it would be similar to “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” But, I was wrong.

The first reason why I was not so in tuned to the show, is the actress of Jackie. I feel like there was a better choice for this lead, since she was not believing what she was saying. It was like there was no real emotion behind her words. Anjali Kachwalla, a junior at Colonia Highschool elaborated, “While watching her performance [Rodriguez] I didn’t feel the true emotion of many scenes because of her lack of expression and struggled to relate.” With the other leads like LaLonde and Gentry, they made sure you felt what their characters were feeling. And honestly, that was exactly what I was looking for, from each and every character.

In addition, I would have loved it if they dragged out the love triangle. Like, give us more! I wanted more jealousy, more sneaking around, and more glances that were full of passion. That is what I believe everyone was looking for, since in “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” that is what we got.

When talking to Jessica Basara, a junior at CHS, about the book and what she believes the show will be like, she expressed, “The characters don’t look as I imagined. Seems like they just made it cringe.”