Season One Episode Six: Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

October 17, 2021

Dear Evan Hansen was originally released as a Broadway musical on July 10, 2015, at the Arena Stage, Washington D.C. On November 29, 2018, the success of the musical lead Universal Pictures announced a film adaptation. The movie is a box office failure because the opening weekend grossed eleven million dollars even though the budget is twenty-seven million dollars. The underperformance can be caused by being released during Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings or the coronavirus pandemic. Another reason is the movie is borning a dumpster fire.

The beginning establishes Evan Hansen writing a fake email to himself as an assignment for his therapy section. During a school orientation, Jared Kleinman talks to Evan about his crush on Zoe Murphy. In the library, Evan writes another fake email while Connor Murphy signs his cast. When Evan accidentally prints his email, Connor steals it. The next day, Evan gets sent to the principal office because Cynthia Murphy and Larry Murphy states that Connor committed suicide. Also, they say the email shows Evan is his friend and invites him for dinner. During dinner, Evan lies that Connor took him to the Autumn Smile Apple Orchard. Evan continues the lie by hiring Jared to help him make fake emails about his trip to the orchard. During Connor's memorial, Evan has a speech about nobody is alone, which quickly becomes viral. Alana Beck created a hundred thousand dollars Kickstarter to reopen the Autumn Smile Apple Orchard and rename it to Connor Murphy Memorial Orchard. Then, Alana questions Evan’s friendship with Connor until he sends a fake email causing her to post the email on Instagram. Due to the viral post, the internet hates Larry and Cynthia because they believe Connor’s parents do not care about him. Evan believes that Murphy gets unjustified hate, so he tells the internet about his lies about being friends with Connor.

The illogical storyline often makes scenes unintentionally hilarious. Evan states he got sweaty hands and run away when he talks to Zoe is stupid because nobody would run away from their crush when they have a perfect opportunity to talks to them. When referring to Zoe, Evan says, “who I don’t even know and who doesn’t know me”, revealing his crush is vague. Also, Connor's mood switch from being happy to anger is ridiculous. There is no reason for Connor to think Evan writes about Zoe to make him crazy because the email is private, and Connor should not read it.

Even though the songs are great on their own, they are stupid in context. For example, “Waving Through a Widow” never brings the plot forward because the beginning email scene shows his fears of going to school. “Sincerely Me” has a boring music video since it shows Connor walking around. One uninteresting part of the music video is when Connor is at the library because he is the only person who dances, which provides no energy in the background.

The worst parts of the movie are the characters because they are unsympathetic jerks except for Zoe and her parents. Connor emotionally hurts his family, especially Zoe. He constantly threatens to kill her. Another way Connor hurts Zoe is that he runs away and lies to her about him missing his family, but he asks for money. Also, he throws a printer at his teacher during second grade because he cannot be a line leader. Even though Jared fails as comedic relief, the main problem is his willingness to help Evan write fake emails about his friendship with Connor for money, even though he knows the action is wrong. Evan is the worst character because he takes advantage of a grieving family and their emotions. He lies about being a friend with Connor after his death, and he takes Evan to a sacred family place.

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