By Kaelyn DiMartino ’25
“You couldn’t control everything, because it wasn’t all meant to be perfect. Sometimes things needed to be messy.”
In My Life with the Walter Boys, after losing her family in a horrible accident, 15-year-old Jackie Howard (played by Nikki Rodriguez) leaves her beloved city, Manhattan, and everything in her life behind. She goes to live in Colorado with her mother’s best friend, Katherine (played by Sarah Rafferty), and her husband, George (played by Marc Blucas), along with 10 kids. Sometimes things don’t go as planned and become a little messy, but she learns that in the end everything will be okay.
Katherine and George live on a ranch and are raising 10 kids. The oldest son is Will (played by Johnny Link), who has moved out and is living with his fiance, Hayley (played by Zoe Soul). Living at home with them are their sons Cole (played by Noah LaLonde), Alex (played by Ashby Gentry), Danny (played by Connor Stanhope), Nathan (played by Corey Fogelmanis) , Jordan (played by Dean petriw), Benny (played by Lennix James), and their only daughter, Parker (played by Alix West Lefler). They also are raising their nephews Isaac ( played by Isaac Arellanes) and Lee (played by Myles Vincent Perez) and, of course, they took in Jackie.
I love how family-oriented everyone is, and how they always work together and do everything together. That doesn’t mean that everyone gets along, though. Ever since Jackie had moved in, Alex has had a crush on her. That caused tension because there was always something between Cole and Jackie as well. That tension created the iconic love triangle of the show.
This show is an American teen drama series. The genre is adolescence, romance and drama, and is an adaptation of Ali Novaks 2014 novel of the same name. This series was released on Netflix on December 7, 2023. After watching this series, I realized that there were other very similar ones like The Vampire Diaries, The Summer I Turned Pretty and One Tree Hill. All of these series are alike because of the love triangles, teen relationships and competitiveness between two brothers.
This series has a 4.0 rating and a lot of reviews. Most reviews I saw were really positive. User Nicole J. from Google Reviews says, “This has got to be the most under-rated teen drama. The ending is just perfect, although some looking for a traditional male-centered cliche love story might be disappointed.” User Avani, also from Google Reviews says, “I absolutely LOVE this show. It is everything that I’m looking for. I love the diversity and how considerate the show is in showing diverse love relationships.” Lastly, user Eszter Bona from Google Reviews says, “This show is definitely worth watching.” I completely agree with all of these reviews.
I think that people that have been through similar situations as Jackie would really appreciate watching this show. Jackie gives people hope that starting in a new school won’t always be so bad. Jackie made friends fairly quickly in her new school. Her closest friends were Skylar (played by Jaylan Evans) and Grace (played by Ellie O’Brien). Jackie also gives people the hope that bad things will turn around into something good. Even when her life was at the lowest it has ever been and she was just so unhappy, she had so many people around her, supporting her in everything that she did. The Walters truly flipped her life around and gave her the happiness she truly needed. They gave her a family.
Not only did she have a family, she also had a boyfriend. After a confusing love triangle between Jackie, Cole, and Alex, Jackie ended up choosing Alex in the end. Most people say Alex was the easier option, and Cole is really the one she should be dating. I can’t choose. I think they are both good for Jackie in their own ways: Alex and Cole truly cared for Jackie like no other, although Jackie is the reason that Alex and Cole would constantly fight and not get along. It got so bad to the point where the fights got physical. The tension between them got so bad that it caused their brother, Nathan, to faint and end up in the hospital where he found out that he had epilepsy. That was truly the climax of the show.
Luckily after that, everyone realized they had to get along. In an episode at the end of the show, Alex had a rodeo and he had some technical difficulties which made him go off on Cole because of how mad he became. Alex and Cole were able to hash things out and sort out their differences though. They finally got along. That was until the end of the show in the last episode after Will and Hayley’s wedding when Jackie left without telling anyone.
Even though Jackie was dating Alex, she was still unsure of who she wanted. The night of a wedding Jackie kissed Alex and Cole. Jackie’s uncle Richard came to Colorado to get Danny who was going to New York to do theater, and Jackie ended up going home with them but never told anyone. I think Jackie couldn’t handle the stress and needed to take a break, and that’s where the show ended on a cliffhanger.
Fortunately for everyone who loves this show, it has been renewed for another season! The actors and actresses were absolutely amazing and the filming was also well done. I really enjoyed watching this show and recommend it to anyone looking to watch a new series.
The Raider Press 