But what nobody in the show realizes is that this blasé bliss won’t last forever. Like its title implies, there’s a defiant nonchalance to the proceedings.

Mostly, We Are Who We Are just drifts, leaving you with the impression that whatever captures his camera’s attention at that moment will suddenly become the most important thing on the show. There are two central teen characters, but Guadagnino occasionally moves them to the side so he can focus on their friends or their parents. It’s 2016 and the action takes place mostly at and around an American army base close to Venice. Guadagnino is the Oscar-nominated director behind I Am Love and the 2018 remake of Suspiria, but his HBO series most closely recalls Call Me by Your Name, which like We Are Who We Are is set during a hot, sticky summer in Italy. That’s what being a teenager felt like - especially now when it feels so long ago. We Are Who We Are could end after four episodes or go on forever.

What we’re seeing feels so ephemeral, yet so potent, because both are true about being young. But as a sense memory of adolescence, the show is astute about teendom’s transient nature. HBO only made the first four (out of eight) episodes available to critics, and even so, I couldn’t give you a great sense of what happens in this series or where it’s going. Television is filled with programs about teens - everything from Euphoria to 13 Reasons Why presents itself as a snapshot of What the Youth Are Up To Today - but there’s always room for one more, especially one with the languid fragility of Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are. No wonder people get nostalgic about being young: It’s a state of mind as much as a time of life.

Viewed with hindsight, your teen years are this wonderfully naive period where everything seemed possible before adulthood started to impose limitations on the person you could be. It’s very easy to romanticize your adolescence, a period where you discover so many firsts - first crush, first kiss, first love, first heartbreak - that lay the emotional foundation for so many of the relationships you’ll have the rest of your life. What’s beautiful about being a teenager is that it doesn’t last - and by the time you find that out, you’re too old and it’s too late.

We are who we are hbo