The new show “The Society”, released on May 10th, follows a group of teenagers who must fend for themselves as their parents and every other adult disappears in their hometown. They all must remake the world in their own image to survive, but it turns out to be very difficult for them because they all have different ideas, and for that reason their lives in this new society will turn out to be chaotic.

“The Society” takes place in a wealthy town in New England called West Ham (which the teens later renamed as New Ham). The show kicks off with everyone in the town of West Ham smelling a weird smell. No one can figure out what it is. Fortunately, the teenagers are about to head out for a camping trip that will take them away from the town, and the smell. It also appears as though West Ham is trying the get rid of the smell because they called in someone to look into it. Suddenly Harry (Alex Fitzalan) stumbles into a very tense meeting with a man named “Pfeiffer” and his mom. When the meeting was over, Pfeiffer gives Harry and his girlfriend Kelly (Kristine Froseth) a look. Another important thing to remember is that football player Grizz (Jack Mulhern) sees writing on the side of the church: “Menemene tekel upharsin”. He realizes that it’s a verse from the Bible that translates to: “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting”. The teenagers of the local high school were going on their upperclassmen camping trip. After saying goodbye to their parents and family members, the classmates board the bus for the long trip. However, to their surprise, when they woke up from their naps they realized that they have returned right back in their hometown. Except now a couple of things were different: all the adults have disappeared, they cannot make any phone calls, and to their dismay, they realize that there’s no way out because the city borders are suddenly surrounded by endless forestlands.

Initially, the teens embraced their newfound freedom by partying and just being downright reckless. All the recklessness continued until it really started to sink in that they are completely isolated. They started freaking out about the limited supply of resources they had like food, electricity, and medical materials. The teens were faced with medical emergencies like life threatening allergies and a pregnancy in a world without doctors, and they had to seek for medical help within themselves and considering the little to no experiences they had it would inevitably lead to a lot of problems.

Yale-bind class president Cassandra (Rachel Keller) takes the role as their leader when people started forming cliques. She tries to set new rules and she gives jobs for everyone in order to maintain a stable place to survive. Cassandra’s know-it-all attitude rubs people the wrong way and slowly some of them begin to hate her. Cassandra’s sister, Allie (Kathryn Newton) struggles to step out of Cassandra’s shadow. Meanwhile, Will (Jacques Colimon), Allie’s best friend, strives to set a new lifestyle by the sisters’ side. The show wouldn’t be complete without the presence of a more ‘villainy’ type of person, which in this case is the diagnosed psychopath Campbell (Toby Wallace). Elle (Olivia DeJonge), the school outcast, looks for someone for security, but she ends up getting involved with Campbell who abuses her. Other important characters include Harry (Alex Fitzalan), a privileged football player who has very different ideas than Cassandra, his ex-girlfriend Kelly (Kristine Froseth), Sam (Sean Berdy) who is deaf, and his best friend Becca (Gideon Adlon) who is pregnant.

Cassandra suggests that they all stick together to figure out what’s going on, but Harry doesn’t want to. So he leaves, and then Campbell alerts everyone else in the town that they are completely isolated, which causes the kids to panic which then resulted in them raiding the grocery stores like savages. Cassandra is furious with Campbell for causing panic so she gathers everyone in the town’s church to try and ease everyone, but once again Campbell causes panic because he brings in a weapon into the church.

Later on, while everyone is gathered on the town green, they witness a total solar eclipse that freaks everyone out. After the solar eclipse, they start to think that they might be in an alternate reality or parallel universe. Becca and Sam go through old photographs of the town trying to find some sort of clue. Sam then finds a letter from Pfeiffer demanding $1.5 million for the removal of the smell, but the town refuses to pay. Sam was going to show it to Becca but his brother, Campbell, convinced him not to.

Since there is no one else around, they start to think that they are in fact brand new settlers in an uncharted land. As soon as they all realize that they’re going to run out of food, they start figuring out how to farm. Meanwhile, some of them try to figure out where they are by looking at the stars. Later on, people start to grow tired of their ‘leader’ so they call for a democratic election. The show is more than just how the teens try to survive when the adults disappear. What’s frustrating to viewers is that the first season asks more questions than its able to answer.

The teenagers of West Ham are used to things just given to them considering they’re all very privileged, but they learn the hard way that all the principles of democracy don’t come easy. “The Society” explores topics like gun ownership, the death penalty, and how much power one should have. Without a police state, more than likely people will wreak havoc, and “The Society” does a good job at demonstrating how difficult it is to maintain order among themselves without a police state. The murders, mysteries, and middle ages lifestyle of the 21st century teenagers is what makes this show so intriguing. After the ending, which left at a major cliffhanger, people could expect another season around the same time next year.