“Brand New Cherry Flavor” is a revenge tale, and the protagonist takes her time in getting her revenge. The story follows a woman who has been wronged by those around her, and she does whatever it takes to get back at them.
On August 13, Netflix released ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor,’ an eight-part original limited horror series. Nick Antosca and Lenore Zion developed this series, which is based on Todd Grimson’s book of the same name. Rosa Salazar, Catherine Keener, Manny Jacinto, Eric Lange, and Jeff Ward are among the cast members.
This film is not for everyone, particularly those with weak stomachs, a poor tolerance for macabre circumstances, or those who have sensitive mental views about problems including gender abuse against women. To be honest, even die-hard horror aficionados will find themselves squirming through some really terrifying moments. The series is an ultimate magnet since it is an ultimate nightmare that pushes one to their limits. To explain how ridiculous and frightening this program is, imagine taking all of Netflix’s original horror shows, such as “The Love Witch,” “Velvet Buzzsaw,” “Eraserhead,” and “Mandy,” and combining them to create a terrible slimy cat, so strap up if this sounds like a feast for you.
‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ takes set in Los Angeles in the early 1990s and seems to exist in its own world. Lisa Nova, an aspiring filmmaker portrayed by Rosa Salazar, is a very bright young woman who is dead set on making her directorial debut in Hollywood. So, armed with her first title, “Lucy’s Eye,” she packs her belongings and goes to the Hollywood dream factory. Lisa encounters renowned producer Lou Burke, portrayed by Eric Lange, in the City of Angels, who promises the success-hungry teenager paradise on earth. Unfortunately, Lisa’s dreams quickly transform into a traumatic nightmare that develops at breakneck pace, leading to a terrifying journey down a rabbit hole filled with vengeance, psychedelia, and witchcraft.
For openers, ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ may be regarded as a highly aesthetic mashup of different genres with a cliched plot. After all, a brilliant young girl in Hollywood is left at the whim of a sexual predator producer like Weinstein. However, nothing is as it appears in this program, which maintains the falsely fruity flavor of its title fresh before decaying all of your jaw teeth.
Each of the characters is beautifully created in their own way. Take Lisa, for example, a young but capable lead female who also happens to be Brazilian and is willing to go to any length to have a piece of the delicious cake. Because of these factors, it’s easy to assume she’ll be typecast as the typical story’s victim; yet, she’s neither the hero nor the villain. She’s as gray as they come, more complicated in ways that defy the audience’s attempts to shoehorn her into stereotypical boxes.
This program isn’t specifically feminist, but it is replete with problems of power and gender, thus it has a lot of appeal for hardcore feminists.
When we see Boro, a very shady card reading witch fascinated with crystals, played with wonderful elegance by Catherine Keener, we realize that her dominance over Hollywood’s elite is as absolute as it is incomprehensible. In Los Angeles, there has been coverage on this topic, reinforcing the old adage that “where there is smoke, there is fire.” So, like Lisa, one would want to think that this evil fairy godmother is the key to her recovering all she’s lost and exacting vengeance on those who have mistreated her.
This series exposes the faulty logic of giving female managers greater control over the same exploitative entertainment structures, particularly when it comes to the debate about male and female psychology. As evidenced by an image of Lisa with a bloody eyeball in her mouth in the series’ cover artwork, ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ features recurring art with eyeballs and voyeuristic filmmaking, and expertly continues to praise moviemakers who strive to shift from the chauvinistic male gaze to a more feminine version.
Though ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ is clearly intended for amusement reasons, it encourages viewers to look beyond showbiz problems, in this instance, gender inequality in Hollywood, and instead focus on the larger picture, which is preventing a society obsessed with mythologizing professional film auteurs. It defies logic when a supposedly prominent people in society discriminates against, abuses, or mistreats another person, regardless of gender, in order to realize their own brilliant creative ideas.
To do this, the program illuminates the hidden side of the culturally impacted metropolis, revealing what it means to be a strong force in such a powerful setting. By expanding the narrative to address more basic and universal societal problems around power and the urge to claim and impose it on those in less fortunate circumstances, it avoids any biases.
To differentiate itself from other Tinseltown programs that focus on showbiz problems, ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ simply utilizes filmmaking and Hollywood as recognizable equipment that viewers across the world know. Its true goal, however, is to go further into the problems of generational trauma, victimization, vicious cycles of betrayal, the toxic element of utilizing sorrow as a creative catharsis, and the use of art as a kind of selfish destruction rather than compassionate creation.
Despite the fact that it covers its primary goal in great detail, this series lacks one crucial element. It’s sad that this film, which is mostly about the mythology and spiritual beliefs of South Americans, the African diaspora, and indigenous civilizations, has an almost all white or light-skinned cast. As a result, one would expect a program dealing with the connection between creativity and exploitation, as well as the sacrifice of others for the sake of selfish creative pleasure, to do a better job. Overall, the series establishes its own point about the many deep-seated flaws in filmmaking.
