We Are Who We Are: Season 1

"The kids sometimes seem wise and mature and accepting beyond their years only to fly off the handle and engage in that distinctly teenage brand of solipsism, where the people around you don’t matter nearly as much as you and your own feelings."

"It’s not a traditional television show. It’s poetry. It’s a photograph of a moment in time. Every episode is an invitation to just sit within those verses and pictures and appreciate them, without judgment."

"This story is contemporary, lively, and breathtakingly human, dwelling in the awkwardness of teenage exploration and sensation with an honesty that is at times painful. It is Guadagnino’s talent to make this sprawling, uncomfortable period of life into something that reads, onscreen, as poignant and beautiful."

"Whether you want to read poetry or swim under the Italian sun, “We Are Who We Are” gives you everything you could hope for. Kick back and enjoy."

"An aura of pleasant aimlessness suffuses the production, its evocation of eternal summer mirroring the teens’ approach to their here-but-not-really-ness. But of course the scripts (by Guadagnino, Paolo Giordano and Francesca Manieri) are meticulously crafted, guided in large part by the steady unearthing of the characters’ layers."

"Newcomer Seamón, meanwhile, is a real find: Caitlin has a different identity (and, at times, a different name) for every person in her life, but can be just as raw and vulnerable as Fraser, if not more."

"Despite some flat characters, Guadagnino exuberantly spotlights his cast of up-and-comers, especially Corey Knight as a sweetheart soldier with star-spangled boxer briefs. ... Has there ever been a military base this radiant with hedonistic pansexual yearning? I don’t believe it, but these kids are alright."

"The show losing the thread of those adult characters is a particular shame because everything else in “We Are Who We Are” is so impressively, specifically meticulous."