by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
I was a sophomore when Facebook came to my college. It was originally something that you needed a college email address for, so the air of exclusivity was a thing. Social media was different in the early 2000s. Between Facebook and Myspace, there were plenty of chances for people to connect online. Social media has gradually evolved so you can connect with people all over the world. The dangers, however, are ever-present, and as a parent, I’m terrified of what social media will look like in five years.
Mood explores these issues with social media head-on, shedding light on issues involving exploitation and toxicity. The miniseries tells the story of Sasha (Nicôle Lecky), an aspiring singer who struggles to figure out how to jumpstart her career. After running into some struggles, she ends up living with Carly (Lara Peake). Together, they go down the path of the social media influencer, while also struggling with the potential impact it has on them socially, mentally, and physically.
Mood creatively tells a captivating story. I didn’t realize it was going to be a musical, but it makes sense, since Sasha is trying to break into the music industry. Lecky has a beautiful voice, and her talent is on full display here. The musical sequences feel like asides in a Broadway musical, and not so much Sasha playing music at an open mic night. Sometimes, the musical sequences feel stylized and beautiful. It’s very dependent on what’s going on in the story. When Sasha is happy, she is upbeat and having fun. When she’s angry, the musical sequences are nightmare fuel.
Lecky is dynamite in the role of Sasha, who is an extremely complicated character to root for. It is a very personal role for Lecky, who is the triple-dipping as performer, writer, and creator of the series. Mood is based on Lecky’s one-woman show called Superhoe, so she is invested in making sure everything about the series is as good as it can be. Lecky can balance being manic, ecstatic, and melancholy all in one six-episode season. It’s striking how much range she has, also while singing and rapping. Props to Lecky for everything she created for Mood.
I struggled to root for Sasha as a character. We don’t get a whole lot of backstory or context until the final episode. If we had some of this context at the beginning of the story, maybe I could have empathized with her a little more. It was a struggle to watch her make strange decisions over and over again. I understand she is down-on-her luck and at a low and vulnerable point in her life; however, she makes a lot of irresponsible choices (my God, I sound like such a dad right now) that I just can’t get behind. It just goes to show how the people surround yourself with can sometimes affect your decision-making capabilities. You can see a clear path as to why she ends up in the situation that she finds herself in.
Depicting the dark side of social media and the life of influencers is the main theme that Mood is trying to convey. This is especially the case for women in social media, who are not only targeted but exploited more sexually online. So trigger warnings for people who are uneasy watching scenes of sexual assault and sexual exploitation, because Mood is full of those scenes. This is an extreme case, and it probably happens more than I think, but I couldn’t help but think that Sasha jumps a little too hard into the influencer life very quickly. From there, things snowball to almost out-of-control levels of influencer life that just felt a little too unrealistic. I was potentially thinking that there might be aspects of social media that talk about how toxic fandom can be, and how someone can spend so much time online that they miss out on what’s going on in real life. Instead, we only see how influencer life leads to sexual exploitation, which no doubt does happen. If this had explored more facets of why social media can be dangerous, I think I would have been more invested.
The other important theme that is in Mood is about surrounding yourself with the right people. Carly is a wolf in sheep’s clothing — she is seen as someone who is looking to help Sasha out when she is at a low point. We eventually find out that Carly cannot be trusted and is a gateway drug into other ways of utilizing social media in more exploitative ways. She is an extreme case of poison for social media, but still an all-too-real depiction of how one person can cause someone to stray off course in pursuit of things like fame or money. It isn’t until she reconnects with people like Melrose (Flo Wilson) that Sasha starts to process her traumas, both past and present. I wish we would have spent more time with positive influences like Melrose, because it would have made things a little less bleak.
Mood elicited a few complicated feelings for me. I is uneasy at times, watching someone fall into the traps that social media-induced fame can have. I also feel that there’s an importance to making more content like this. Being an influencer isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and the dangers are real, especially when it comes to the potential of being exploited. I’m torn on how to rate this, because I’m glad I watched it, even if it made me uncomfortable at times.
Score: 6/10
Mood is currently streaming on AMC+
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