Scott Liapis

Reactive State, like the High School series that have come before it, will deal with the myriad of emotions and day-to-day experiences of a typical teenager. But the show will use the storyline of Charlie Baker, an out gay teen, as a souped-up metaphor for the difficulties that all teens face during this transformative time in their lives. Most teens struggle at some point through adolescence. A time when hormones seem to explode from dormancy and infect every waking thought. As their rational minds tries desperately to keep pace with all the new, very demanding urges their body is giving them, their behavior can sometimes seem outright loony-tunes. Now add being the only out gay teenager in a fiercely conservative part of a Red State to the mix and you've amped-up the experience tenfold. What would seem totally acceptable behavior for a gay teenager growing up in a town with a gay majority, will seem outright blasphemous in Charlie's hometown of Libertyville. And while the hetero-normative teens can experiment with their burgeoning sexual impulses through dating, a gay/lesbian teen typically doesn't have the same option. And even the lucky few who do, more often than not, have few adults, or community leaders to look up to and mirror during this emotionally tumultuous time: thus making their High School experience all the more dramatic.