‘Forever’ review: Netflix series strays from Judy Blume classic, but that’s a good thing

For 50 years, Judy Blume’s Forever… has served as a rite of passage for young readers everywhere thanks to its honest, stigma-less approach to mature subject matters like sex and birth control. Now this long-celebrated tale of first love comes to the screen in Netflix’s Forever, created by Mara Brock Akil (Girlfriends).

For devotees of Blume’s novel, this take on Forever might not feel familiar at first. Yes, the bones of its central romance are the same, but Brock Akil transfers Blume’s narrative to 2018, examining how phones and the internet can complicate a first relationship. She also reimagines the novel’s leads as Black teens and conjures up rich new interior struggles for both. What follows is a sweet, heart-wrenching account of young love, one that significantly diverges from Blume’s original novel but is still very much a companion piece to it.

How is Netflix’s Forever different from Judy Blume’s book?

Lovie Simone and Xosha Roquemore in “Forever.”
Credit: Elizabeth Morris / Netflix

While Forever… introduced us to Katherine and Michael, two white high school seniors living in Westfield, New Jersey, Forever‘s leads are Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.), two Black high school juniors in Los Angeles. Former kindergarten classmates, the two now attend different schools, and both have dreams of athletic greatness. Keisha’s a track star hoping for a full ride to Howard University, while Justin’s striving for basketball glory at any Division I school that will take him.

When the pair reconnect at a New Year’s Eve party, sparks fly — literally. Fireworks accompany their first kiss, while Justin’s first touch of Keisha’s wrist is scored by a blooming orchestral sound cue. It’s the perfect amount of dramatic flair for teen romance, where every touch or every text back can feel like a life or death situation.

And texts back certainly are a concern for both Keisha and Justin, especially as their early flirtations fly over cutesy text messages and giggly video calls. But whenever either of them mess up — and trust me, the two make several mistakes before they get together in earnest — the block button becomes their biggest weapon.

The fear of blocking and losing that digital connection is just one of the many ways in which Brock Akil brings Blume’s story into the 21st century. Another factor? An oral sex tape between Keisha and her ex Christian (Xavier Mills) that’s been circulating, prompting waves of slut shaming — both digital and in-person — so bad that Keisha has had to change schools. It’s a pertinent update to depictions of bullying that permeate Blume’s work, and a reminder of the new challenges that come with intimacy in the digital age.

Netflix’s Forever examines sex and intimacy, but not quite as much as Judy Blume did.

Michael Cooper Jr. and Niles Fitch in “Forever.”
Credit: Elizabeth Morris / Netflix

Intimacy is another key aspect of Forever. After all, it would be impossible to adapt Forever… — a novel about all the “firsts” of first love — without it. Keisha and Justin are each other’s firsts, prompting a sex scene that’s both tender and sweetly grounded in nervousness.

For the most part, Forever remains frank about sex. Keisha and Justin discuss what they’re comfortable with and often ask for consent before going any further. In one of the show’s funniest scenes, Justin’s father, Eric (Wood Harris), demands his son practice putting condoms on a cucumber while he watches. (And yes, like the novel’s Michael, Justin nicknames his penis Ralph.)

Still, there’s a sense that the series is holding back from the taboo subjects that made Forever… such a hit, not to mention so controversial it frequently winds up on banned book lists. There’s very little sexual exploration in the lead-up to Keisha and Justin’s first time, nor does the series discuss birth control beyond condoms. (In the novel, Katherine takes birth control pills.) Without some of these elements, which are important for young adult audiences to understand and see represented on screen and in literature, Forever occasionally stops resembling Forever… and instead becomes a regular teen drama.

Forever offers up two wonderful romantic leads in Keisha and Justin.

Lovie Simone and Michael Cooper Jr. in “Forever.”
Credit: Elizabeth Morris / Netflix

But what Forever lacks in Blume’s approach to sex, it makes up for in character depth. Keisha and Justin are two fully fleshed-out romantic leads, to the point that while I love to see them together, I’d just as easily watch the two of them apart.

And that’s a good thing, because Brock Akil has given Keisha and Justin major roadblocks to overcome in addition to their relationship. Keisha continues to deal with the blowback from her sex tape, even if she hasn’t told her single mother, Shelly (Xosha Roquemore), about it yet. The worry builds up in her over the series, compounded by the fact that star athlete Christian wants her back, to an unknowing Shelly’s delight. Keisha’s family’s financial woes accrue too, coming into stark light when contrasted with Justin’s affluent family. (Seriously, one comment about sensor lights speaks volumes.) Yet despite all these anxieties, Keisha remains headstrong and knows her worth, qualities a nicely confident Simone contrasts with Cooper Jr.’s more anxious turn as Justin. (The two young leads are dynamite together.)

Unlike Keisha, who’s dead set on her future, Justin isn’t quite sure what he wants from life. Basketball at an elite university is his parents’ dream, one that’s led him to a predominantly white high school where he feels like an outsider. But what’s a dream he can call his own? As college anxieties grow, and as Justin tries to manage his ADHD, could his relationship with Keisha be a distraction, or the key to him learning how to communicate and ask for what he wants?

With these major expansions from Blume’s original novel, Forever proves its ability to carefully recontextualize Blume’s story, unpacking issues of race and class in addition to sex. Keisha and Justin may be very different from Michael and Katherine, yet their love still has firm roots in the original romance. As Blume puts it on her own website, Forever… came to be when her daughter Randy “asked for a story about two nice kids who have sex without either of them having to die.” And, spoiler alert, that’s exactly what happens in Netflix’s Forever as well!

Yes, Blume’s novel is already a key lens through which young adults can unpack their own adolescent experiences. Thanks to some thoughtful adaptation choices, Brock Akil’s series may be able to serve a similar purpose, as well as introduce Blume’s work to a new generation.

Forever is now streaming on Netflix.