Plus Points:
Kinsey’s Character is written as the impulsive one who makes poor decisions because she does not think about the wider consequences of her actions, a character trait that is most commonly (to my knowledge) reserved for male characters.
Tyler’s Character is written and acted out as the more empathetic character which is not a common way in which male characters are written
Uncle Duncan is treated as a character who happens to be gay and not a ‘Gay character’ and same goes for the character Logan Calloway who is also treated as a character first who also happens to be disabled. Normalise this.
Teenagers are shown as individuals who think they are grown ups and think they can take care of themselves but at the same time do not do a stellar job of it and also childlike in the sense that they are trusting even in the face of imminent danger (giving the Key to Ellie)
Negative Points:
Major characters as always are white, thin and good looking (No surprises) also POC characters are on the periphery at best so comes across that showing diversity was an after thought (TBH the story surrounds the Locke family so maybe showing diversity could only come through in the way they did)
Could have spent more time exploring how trauma affected the kids and the parents
Overall:
This show tries its best (And sometimes fails) to explore how trauma affects the characters. Everyone in the family has unresolved trauma and not addressing it will only lead to more problems in the future. Like in the case of the mother, Nina, not resolving her own trauma makes her come across as an uninvolved parent in almost all her kids lives. Kinsey removing her fear out of her head is something that seems empowering in the moment but really stupid in the long run and could have been missed if she’d had someone with whom she could access her trauma with (ahem a trauma councillor). Tyler does have PTSD and blames himself throughout most of the show which could have been explored more rather than giving us more examples of how Kinsey sans fear is a constantly making cringe worthy choices. Bode needs someone to look out for him.