Netflix’s latest teen drama Incoming tries to walk the thin line between being raunchy and crass and offensive. While the film succeeds at capturing the atmosphere and energy of a raucous teenage gathering, it often crosses the line, needlessly.
One of the most egregious examples of this occurs right at the beginning. Benji tells his friends, Eddie, Koosh, and Connor, about his recent encounter with his crush, Bailey. The scene takes a disturbing turn with his friends reacting with inappropriate comments. This moment, intended to be funny, perpetuates harmful stereotypes. There are other examples too. A chemistry teacher engages in illegal activities and makes inappropriate comments in front of students at a party.
Each time he leaves a small group of teenagers at the party, he bids them farewell, but then sticks around anyway. Eventually, he sets himself accidentally on fire and jumps into a pool to save his life. The kids shout his name as though he pulled off an ingenious bit of street performance, and the teacher revels in the applause. With the humour not really coming through, you are just left to consider the implications of the portrayal.
Incoming also struggles with its understanding of consent and healthy relationships. In one scene, Benji tells Bailey that she can have sex with him if she wants without having to seek his permission. This scene sends a harmful message about consent and respect. But of course, what else can you expect from a teen comedy where a character peeps through a CCTV control room in the hopes of finding someone to have sex with?
The film’s attempts at humour rely almost entirely on derogatory language.
A character encourages Benji to get himself high on Ketamine. He tells Benji, “It’s like, for cats, I think. Might be horses.” The operative word is ‘horse’ to describe a woman, of course. Now, some might put all this down to “That is how teenagers talk” and “This is just a teen comedy”, but the conversations head nowhere. Even if the director duo Dave and John Chernin got the tone of teenage conversations right, the content does not add value to the plot, neither is it funny. There is no insight whatsoever to be gleaned from the portrayal.
Occasionally, the film threatens to come into light, like the Willy Wonka reference about a car full of human waste, but these moments are far and few. And, Incoming settles to become a disappointing teen comedy that does not deliver on its promise of a fun experience.
Director: Dave and John Chernin
Genre: Rom-com
Platform: Netflix
Language: English