Whatever you do don’t…. PANIC

When you take a small town, usually in the south, where nothing exciting ever happens, what do you get? The cliché backdrop of a teen drama. Panic follows a group of newly graduated teens who compete in a dangerous competition for fifty thousand dollars that is orchestrated by unknown judges every year. The series also offers a murder mystery element that is way more believable than any of Riverdale’s seasons. It tackles suicide, toxic home environments, corrupt law enforcement, and the need to escape a suffocating small-town life. The ending has an open feel leaving room for another season. But with how Panic is structured could a season two feature a new cast to coincide with the game panic’s rules. Or would it follow the same cast with new ones added and have “the rules have changed” storyline.

When I first started to see advertisements of the new Amazon Video Prime Series Panic going around the socials, my first thought was this was basically a small-town version of the 2016 movie Nerve. There were a lot of similarities such as playing a dangerous game for the amusement of others in the hope of winning money. The main protagonist being the “average” looking girl who has never done anything rebellious in her life. But that is where the similarities ended.

Like with most teen drama shows the most unrealistic thing about the series is the cast of almost thirty-year-old’s playing eighteen. Besides that, the whole cast gave great performances. I did find an interesting celebrity connection one cast member has. Ray Hall played by Ray Nicholson is the son of acclaimed actor Jack Nicholson. You can totally see the father son resemblance.

I didn’t expect to find myself to be invested or to find myself enjoying Panic like I did. I didn’t find myself binge watching all 10 episodes in a day. But it was an entertaining show nonetheless. I will say Panic has me wondering what small town life is really like.

My rating 3.5/5

You can watch Panic on Amazon Video Prime