Luckiest Girl Alive centers on Ani FaNelli( Mila Kunis) , a sharp-tongued witty New Yorker who appears to have it all: a sought-after position at a glossy magazine, a killer wardrobe, and a dream Nantucket wedding on the horizon. But when the director of a crime documentary invites her to tell her side of the shocking incident that took place when she was a teenager at the prestigious Brentley School, Ani is forced to confront a dark truth buried deep within that threatens to unravel her meticulously crafted life.
Content Warning: This article focuses on the sensitive subject matter of sexual assault and trauma that may be triggering to readers. Reader discretion is advised.
Mila Kunis as Ani / Radio Times
The story of Ani FaNelli hits home for me as it not only Ani belongs to my current profession but also because the Netflix series is based upon the bestselling 2015 novel of the same name by writer Jessica Knoll. The story of Ani who makes me envious of her current profession as a writer for a glossy magazine is forced to face the truth of her high school shooting that occurred at Brentley School along with digging up the incident of sexual assault by multiple of her friends at a high school party that motivated her to actually shoot the perpetrator of the shooting and her assault compounding the trauma faced by her without any actual processing of her emotions. Especially without the support of her mother Dina Fanelli ( Connie Britton) who lacked the warm comforting feeling of understanding what her daughter was going through.
Young Ani played by Chiara Aurelia/United Business Journal
The parallel timelines of her past and present are interwoven with the fabric of truth about the chain of events that led to the horrific high school shooting leaving her rapist with a loss of functioning legs and another survivor with the brutal end of death. While the circumstances of both incidents are all too familiar, a harmless teenage party with booze and drugs turns into the young boys mistaking a teenage girl trying to fit into her peer group to have consent to sexually assault her multiple times to satisfy their primal urges leaving young Ani ( Chiara Aurelia) to deal with the aftermath and shame that the survivors of rape know all too well.
The series breaks down the effects of burying trauma and its aftereffects that seep into all aspects of Ani’s life from her trouble having relations with her fiance to her having flashbacks of her traumatic incident when she hears other survivor stories with one being of her boss.
Mila Kunis as Ani/Netflix
The ending of her series makes the most sense as she realizes the weight of trauma that was affecting her life decisions and makes a decision that is best for her and not what society thinks she should do with her life.
Watch the Luckiest Girl Alive trailer here and the series on Netflix.