Film and television rarely take teenagers seriously. They’re treated as naïve innocents or hormonally crazed lunatics or slotted into a handful of predictable stereotypes (the jock, the geek, the prom queen). What I appreciated most about the writer of White Christmas was her willingness to make her adolescent characters smart, complicated individuals. She captures the emotional intensity of the age without ever losing sight of the intellectual growth that accompanies it. These young people may not always act wisely but they don’t act thoughtlessly. She also captures youth’s unique combination of idealism and cruelty, that odd result of too much knowledge and too little experience. It is hard to judge the cost of anything until you have lived long enough to lose it. While I found the characters compelling, the narrative structure was bumpy at times. The first several episodes felt taut, chilling and inevitable, but things got rougher in the second half, with builds that didn’t quite pan out and plot holes large enough to drive a killer truck through. Also, for all the inherent darkness of the premise, the writer seemed hesitant to poke around in its more controversial corners. There was a lot of odd sexual innuendo that never really went anywhere (unless we’re supposed to read popping champagne corks as metaphors for other types of explosions), and while I’m glad the show didn’t go the slasher film route, really raising the physical stakes instead of simply pretending to would have heightened the psychological stakes as well. Some of this may have been producer-imposed censorship given the age of most of the characters, but it felt a bit safe in the context of the story. Finally, the philosophical questions about the “making” of monsters seemed rather academic when exploring what one does when actually confronting a monster. Choosing to do evil in a vacuum is a very different thing from making morally problematic choices when someone is actively trying to destroy you. Despite these issues though, the show remains a beautifully filmed, haunting piece that’s at its best when it’s exploring the hidden strengths and horrors of the adolescent mind. Its young cast brings varied skill levels to the table, but their schemes, betrayals, alliances and desires are fascinating to watch.