Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
When we talk about streaming culture, we’re usually enthusing about what’s new, but one of the best things about streaming is how it’s made old and obscure cult hits available to a new generation. Presenting Cult Corner: your weekly look into hidden gems and long-lost curiosities that you can find on streaming.
What if you were the type of person who got high quite a lot? And every time you got high, you met your spirit guide? And your spirit guide was none other than Game of Thrones actor Sean Bean? That’s the reality Wasted proposes, and it’s an equally insane and fun one.
Much like every other stoner comedy, Wasted has a fairly straightforward premise. The series follows a group of friends and pot enthusiasts as they embark on adventure after adventure. Most of those adventures involve trying to score pot as you may imagine. But, between Ned Stark’s (Sean Bean) presence and this particular group of bumbling besties, there’s a sweetly nerdy tone to Wasted. The British comedy plays with the hard lines that were drawn in high school. You can be nerdy and high, cool and high, confident and high, insecure and high, and everything in between.
For all of Wasted’s oddities, and there are many, there’s something wonderfully meta about this stoner comedy. The idea that a spirit guide would appear not as an animal or historical figure but as a Game of Thrones actor who knows he’s in character seems like a plausible psychedelic trip in 2017. Also, the series is packed with casually nerdy references that never feel too winking or heavy-handed. At one point when all of his friends refuse to watch him host a game night in a pub, the series’ protagonist Morpheus — a seeminlgy clear nod to The Matrix — yells back, “You’re all just a bunch of Lando Calrissians.” That’s a very silly line, but it weirdly works in this quirky show.
Wasted is certainly not for everyone, and it has its faults. If characters aren’t white, heteronormative 20-somethings, there’s not really a role for them. Likewise, if you hate stoner comedies, you’re going to hate this. However, if lighting up on-screen is your jam, you’re probably going to like how Wasted puts a fun, modern twist on familiar genre.
