Betty

With lyrical camerawork that evocatively glides just above the pavement, a group of actors whose work pays greater dividends with every successive minute, and its sharp writing, "Betty" is a spontaneous and deeply sincere drama about living and skating freely.

Director Crystal Moselle and writer Lesley Arfin get to not only explore their lives in more detail, but indulge in more visual and narrative grace notes that make falling into the Bettys’ world that much easier and more immersive. ... Every actor is the kind of good that’s harder to absorb at first; they’re so immediately comfortable in their roles and rhythms that the show often feels more like a documentary than a scripted show. But it is, and an especially well-plotted one given that it only has six episodes to give everyone a decently satisfying arc.

You don’t have to be a skater, know anything about skating, or be a Zoomer to enjoy Betty. Virtually flow with the boards on Betty, absorb the scenery and let the sound of the wheels on concrete sooth you.

Betty gives you the privilege on skating a mile in these womens’ shoes and letting you into their experience, the good and the bad and the sexist and the unfair and the ugly of it all. It’s ambling, whateversville pacing and structure isn’t for everyone, but everyone’s still invited to join in.

Betty, beautifully and unselfconsciously queer, resides somewhere on the hazy spectrum between matriarchy and endless summer. ... Some viewers may complain Betty goes nowhere, or moves too muddily. I found its languor soothing, an emancipating celebration of femme self-acceptance.

Electric, energetic and certainly freewheeling. ...

Betty succeeds by expressing the unregulated joy of skateboarding—especially its grounding in the streets and outside of societal prescriptions of success and respectability. In fact, it’s a relief to watch a show about young women that does not demand their superiority or achievement in any conventional sense, but instead shows what might happen if you leave them be.

The series, like Skate Kitchen, features beautifully propulsive sequences of skateboarding across New York, but shines brightest in its most stripped-down, documentary-adjacent moments of mundane girl talk.

“Betty” may be imperfect, but it is incredibly refreshing in its girl power politics.

With each character allowed the space for their own personal journeys, Betty nicely expands the Skate Kitchen universe with a dramedy that is an authentic and endearing look at sisterhood and the trials of burgeoning adulthood.

The improvised scenes are where the show crackles with energy, even if old farts like us can’t understand 100% of the skaters’ lingo. ... Also, the energy among the five stars is palpable, given the history that they’ve had in the past few years. When the group splits up, things get more stilted.

The elevated aesthetics of skate vids permeate “Betty,” elevated by the saturated hues of a sweaty New York summer and technicolor scenester fashion. The perfectly curated music choices add to overall alluring vibe of the show. It’s unfortunate that “Betty” is mostly style over substance, especially when the style is this valid.