Eccentric

Eccentric is a Martonian television series created by Leroy Brodrick for PCSN. The series is set in the fictional city of West Isle, Kentona and follows a group of teenagers with little to no parental authority who carelessly take drugs and have sex. Almost every episode has a different character as its focus, opening with a flashback of that character's past. The series stars Lorenza as Luna Leonard, a teenage girl attempting to find her place in the world who also serves as a narrator for the series.

Brodrick began developing Eccentric in the late 2010s, not long after his first series, Achievers, ended. The series is written by Brodrick, Michael Marlon, Steve Brayden, Julian Liu, and Mark Southworth. Executive producers of the series include Brodrick, Brayden, Seth Muir, and Lorenza. The series is principally filmed in Brookshire, Brunova at The Village Studios and Joseph Grazer High School and in Saintsboro, Kentona at NBT Studios East. A few episodes of season 2 were filmed along the coastline of Kearney, Kentona. Eccentric is produced by Leroy Brodrick's own Brodrick Productions, in association with Gray Bird Films, South Shore Pictures, and PCSN Studios.

Eccentric premiered on June 3, 2022 on PCSN. In September 2022, acquired the international distribution rights to the series, and it premiered internationally on October 1, 2022. The show received mixed critical reception; it was praised for its cast (particularly Lorenza, Payton Sampson, and Daymond Perez), music, and production design but criticized for its unrealistic and excessive depictions of drug use and explicit sexual content due to its main characters being minors. It won three MFTA Awards, two Velvet Awards, and two Freddy Awards. The series' second season premiered on May 5, 2023.

Premise
Eccentric revolves around teenagers living in the fictional city of West Isle in Kentona, and its story is told through the eyes of protagonist and narrator Luna Leonard (Lorenza). Topics such as, , , , , , and.

Main cast and characters
The "default character" who serves as the series' narrator. She is a teenage girl struggling to find her place in the world who befriends her classmate, Casey. Her quirks and insecurities make her a target for bullies. An older boy who struggles in school and uses drugs to cope with his misfortunes. An insecure boy who Blake coerces into taking drugs with him. Blake's ex-girlfriend. A bossy, upright girl who is controlling over her boyfriends. She and Blake briefly get back together before she decides to move on. A vindictive but intellectual boy whose friendships do not last long. An energetic girl who wants to explore her sexuality. Bobby uses her to make his former friend, Benito, jealous. She later enters a turbulent relationship with Blake. Blake's former friend. He becomes increasingly volatile over the course of the series. A transgender girl who befriends Luna and eventually becomes her girlfriend. A girl with a troubled past who finds herself in various relationships, including one with Benito. Eugene's ex-girlfriend. She eventually finds herself in a bizarre but brief relationship with Blake's dealer, Carlo. A man in his 20s who works at a local diner and deals drugs to teenagers in his spare time. An old friend of Andrea's who begins interfering with Casey and Luna's relationship. Blake's younger sister and an aspiring musician. A college freshman who becomes obsessed with Andrea.
 * Lorenza as Luna Leonard:
 * Logan Becker as Blake Beckham:
 * Kevin Charles as Eugene Dobson (season 1)
 * Kennedy Frasier as Andrea Cooper:
 * Greg McGowan as Robert "Bobby" Leland:
 * Louise Oakland as Stephanie "Stephie" Vaughn:
 * Daymond Perez as Benito Dizon:
 * Payton Sampson as Casey Hubbard:
 * Donna Tavares as Jessica "Jessie" Braxton (seasons 1–2):
 * Hayley Vincent as Michelle "Shelly" Moore:
 * Baxter Brad as Carlton "Carlo" Magnum (season 2–present; recurring season 1):
 * Lucita Grayson as Christy MacFarlane (season 2–present; guest season 1):
 * Juliana Lewiston as Shannon Beckham (season 2–present):
 * Stevie Yeung as Dominic Lee (season 2–present):

Development
Broderick based the show on his own teenage years. He said in a 2023 interview with XYZ News:


 * When I was a teen, I went to a real bad public high school in Wanbarra. It was awful—kids were smoking weed, trading porn... I can't even count the number of times I walked in on two classmates having restroom sex. I just want to incorporate my personal experience into my art. That's what Eccentric does.

Broderick began working on the show in the early 2010s, shortly after his previous series Achievers, reached the end of its run. He brought the show to PCSN in 2018 under the title Eccentrics. PCSN's President of Entertainment, Francisco Gomeiro, wanted the title to be changed to Eccentric, fearing an "S" in the name would convince viewers that the show is related to Achievers.

Writing
Broderick writes most of Eccentric. Michael Marlon, Julian Liu, and Mark Southworth co-wrote season 1. In episodes where Broderick was joined by a co-writer, the co-writer would mostly write dialogue and some of the actors' actions, while Broderick focused on both the story and dialogue. Broderick simply describes the co-writers as "guests".

Broderick sought to make frequent use of dream sequences to "pull the viewers into a character's inner psyche", and to show their strengths and weaknesses. However, season 2 slowly phases out of using these scenes, along with miscellaneous other vignettes, to focus more on the story and avoid "stretching" the runtime per episode.

Casting
The original pilot episode's cast consisted of Lorenza (Luna), Logan Becker (Blake), Kevin Charles (Eugene), Jenna Robin Green (Andrea), Greg McGowan (Bobby), Louise Oakland (Stephie), Daymond Perez (Benito), Payton Sampson (Casey), Donna Tavares (Jessie), and Hayley Vincent (Shelly). However, Jenna Robin Green backed out of the project last minutebecause she was "rattled" by the show's explicit depictions of teenage sex; she was replaced by Kennedy Frasier.

In November 2022, Shawn Quan was cast as Dominic, but he left the show in December 2022 due to filming schedules conflicting with his role in the film Adventure Dangerous, and near-identical Stevie Yeung was cast instead. Baxter Brad, who had a recurring role as Carlo in season 1, was promoted to the main cast for the second season. Juliana Lewiston was cast as Shannon, and Lucita Grayson was cast as Christy.

Filming and cinematography
Eccentric is mostly filmed NBT Studios East in Saintsboro, Kentona and The Village Studios in Brookshire, Brunova. School scenes were recorded at Joseph Grazer High School in Brookshire, which is used for the fictional West Isle High School. 4842 Showarba Street in Las Manzanas, Kentona was used for the exterior of the Leonard house. The last three episodes of season 2 were additionally shot along the coastline of Kearney, Kentona. The show is funded by the Martonian Film and Television Foundation (MFTF), Screen Brunova, and Media Kentona.

In June 2023, it was confirmed that season 3 will not be filmed at The Village Studios. In July 2023, it was announced that filming will instead resume at Blue Island Studios in Saintsboro due to a reduced budget and Screen Brunova's wavering interest in "gritty modern teen shows" like Eccentric. It was also announced that filming will also take place in Southtown and Frank Island, both in Kearney County, Kentona.

The pilot episode was filmed using digital camera. The rest of the series, however, is filmed on, which Broderick says the cinematographers chose because they preferred the picture quality of film scanned at a high resolution over high-resolution digital video, as the film stock has a softer picture and is better at capturing color contrasts. They also noted that "something shot digitally 10 years ago looks horrible today", and they did not want the video quality to "age poorly", with Broderick comparing the pilot and finale of Achievers to one another.

Critical reception
Eccentric's first season holds a holds a 73% score based on 40 ratings. Season 2 holds a 70% score based on 50 rating. Neither season is "Certified Fresh". The show also has an score 7.7/10, though on Lookbook it has a 48% score, the lowest of any PCSN original series.

Lorena Parker Gordon of the Corberra Tribune praised the series for being "a refreshingly realistic take on teenage life", even though the show is actually very unrealistic. Mark Melvin of the Brookshire Times praised the main casts' "excellently emotional" performances, as well as the episodes' direction, particularly Kenneth Pearson's. Media Journal writer Logan Chan was less positive, criticizing the show's "blatant stereotyping" and call the story and dialogue "monotonous and several overcooked". Michael Alvarado with The Kearney Times called Eccentric "courageously stupid" and called the writing staff brave for "having the guts to shamelessly develop this garbage".

Criticism and controversy
Since its premiere, Eccentric has been criticized for its mature themes and content. Several critics have cited the series as having gratitous and excessive amounts of strong language, uncensored nudity and sexual content, drug use, and graphic violence. Criticism quickly increased after the series was released internationally on Netflix. Many people have compared Eccentric to the American series , which was similarly criticized.

MediaWatch, an organization that rates media's suitability for children, gave the series an "18+" rating, noting the strong adult themes and content and strongly discouraging teenage viewership. Conservative advocacy group Parents of the Media described the series as "disturbing, disheartening, rife with rape, and disgustingly homosexual", called PCSN "the lowest [c]able TV can go" for producing and distributing the series, and demanded that the series be cancelled and removed from all streaming platforms. Moreover, the Organization for Drug Abuse Education (ODAE) strongly criticized the show's drug content, accusing it of "justifying, normalizing, glorifying, and rationalizing [drug] abuse and addiction" and said that it "casually and knowingly depicts such behaviors as a part of everyday teenage life".

Studiosity writer Glenn Daily said the series "actually lacks the maturity required to deal with its very real and very adult subject matter", and that it "glorifies rape, organized crime, and drug addiction". Michael Paulson of the American magazine Screensaver counted 72 shots of breasts and/or genitalia Eccentric's pilot episode alone, which he called "irrelevant to the plot and very much uncalled for". Louise White Cheung from the U.S.-based website OEN wrote that the writers should find ways to shock the audience that do not involve sex or violence. Canadian critic Peter Prince of Prince & Prince wrote the series off as "just another teen show pretending to be 'mature' by showing genitalia and drug-induced every few seconds. Euphoria is also the name of the American series this was probably attempting to emulate."