I really enjoyed how the show presents the dichotomy between human rights and punitivism through the perspectives of the multicultural metropolis and the rural cities.
It all gets more interesting because of the lack of clarity regarding the sexuality of the main character (and of his "best friend"), which allows discussions not only about prejudices towards diseases (and the people affected by them), but prejudice as a whole.
Regarding prejudice, I find it appalling (and very realistic) the way "tolerance" happens in Rick's circle. They choose not to see something in a beloved, but keep condemning that in other people. It's easier to divide things between "us and them" when it's with the other one, but inside your house, with one of your one, it complicates things. It isn't so black and white anymore.
It only worsens things, though, since the need to be accepted only generated self prejudice (at least in Rick's case).
Review by RoseBlockedParent2018-06-21T11:00:01Z
The first episode felt like a filler compared to this one, although the former also dealt with some of the issues explored here.
Racism was the first thing that came to mind while watching the first episode, and the metaphor only solidified here. It can be applied to any form of discrimination based on differences in people, such as when someone forms an opinion on all immigrants from a certain area of the world simply based on a handful of rotten examples, ignoring the fact that every society has crime, incidents of bad behavior and so forth.
The way one of the characters treated others vs someone close to them also made me think of homophobia. I remember a few cases of really homophobic preachers or politicians outed as gay. As in this show, conformity must have played a big role in how they thought, so they couldn't put up with the idea of being gay, they wanted to reject it so much or were so afraid to appear as different, that they would speak harshly of anything related to homosexuality.
I liked how the girl emphasized the idea of fighting conformity / social expectations when she talked about dyeing her hair, and her response to criticism.
Then the show managed to convincingly showcase two different perspectives on the value of life. It was only an hour long yet it brought up a number of different and important subjects, and hopefully will teach some people a thing or two.