So many criticisms of Dear Evan Hansen revolve around the show being messy/morally convoluted as if that was an overlooked flaw in the writing and not the whole point of the show.
Everything in Dear Evan Hansen is intentionally messy. Everything has two sides. Social media is a positive place where people can come together to make a difference AND it's a breeding ground for hate and vitriol. Evan is a deeply caring, empathetic person AND he does a horrible thing. Heidi is a dedicated, loving mother AND she works so hard that she never spends any time with her son. Connor is agressive, angry, violent, AND he is a depressed, lonely person, ostracized by his peers and longing for connection. Larry Murphy is a domineering authority figure who treats his son like a criminal AND he's a frustrated parent that wants to help Connor get better the only way he knows how. Evan's lies are harmful and manipulative AND they give a family that was tearing apart at the seams time to come together, reflect, and grieve.
All of these things can be true at the same time, and one doesn't have to overshadow or cancel out the other. In ignoring one to focus on the other, you're wilfully missing the point of the story. Real life is messy and complex, and that's exactly what the show is trying so hard to emulate. That's not bad writing, it's just being realistic.
Pasek and Paul said that in its earliest form, the show was meant to look at why people insert themselves into tragedy through a much more cynical lense, criticizing people like Evan. But somewhere in the writing process they found that it's not that simple, because people don't just do that shit for no reason, and it's naive to believe they would. Evan didn't do what he did to be popular or get a girlfriend or gaslight a grieving family. He did it because he saw a chance to help people who were hurting. In the process, he found connection that he had longed for his whole life, and allowed that to complicate things, making him a lot more reluctant to do the right thing and come clean. But the show makes it explicity clear that his initial intention was rooted in helping someone else, not himself. And as bad as it was, it did force the Murphys to come to terms with their loss instead of running away from it, to come together instead of drifting apart.
Yes, the morality of everything that happens in the show is deeply questionable, complex and muddy and that's the ENTIRE POINT. It doesn't mean the show is endorsing what Evan did. The vast majority of the fan base doesn't endorse what Evan did either. Most of us understand what that final scene in the orchard is getting at. It's not arguing that what Evan did was somehow morally correct, or handing him some magical "get out of jail free card". It's acknowledging ALL the consequences of his actions (good AND bad, the healing he brought about AND the hurt he caused) and letting us come to terms with that along with him and move forward. That scene encompasses one of the most important messages of the show: that doing something bad doesn't make you evil. One mistake doesn't have to define you for the rest of your life, and it doesn't make you less human, or any less deserving of growth and self acceptance.
Here is my drawing of the Dear Evan Hansen kids as trolls from the movie Trolls! They are very different shows in terms of tone, but it was only natural for me to draw this.
In order they are Evan, Connor, Jared, Alana, and Zoe :)
alright, I was in class with my friend and he taps me on the shoulder and says "Did you know that Gordon Ramsey has the same amount of syllables as Evan Hansen, so that means you can replace Evans name with Gordon Ramsey in Sincerely, Me!"
So we had a good little laugh about that, but then that gave me an idea
I though for a minute then turned around to this friend and said "Barack Obama has the same amount of syllables as Connor Murphy so you can replace his name with Barack Obama in the song"
AND THEN IT SPIRALED INTO ABSOLUTE CHAOS WITH US FINDS SYLLABLES FOR EVERY CHARACTER. ME AND HIM ARE MAKING THIS AN AU AND YOU CAN'T STOP US.
heere (haha Jeremy Heere) are the sillys
Evan Hansen - Gordon Ramsey
Connor Murphy - Barack Obama
Zoey Murphy - Justin Bieber
Jared (we didnt use his last name) - Kanye
Alana (again we didn't use her last name) - Ed sheeran
Heidi Hansen - George Washington
Murphys - Eminems (Its a first name but shush)
OH AND AFTER WE WERE DONE WITH THIS WE ASKED OUR FRIEND IF HE COULD IMAGINE BARACK OBAMA KILLING HIMSELF
WE MAKING IT OUT OF DEH WITH THIS ONE (insert fire emoji)
we might write a crack fic abt this lol
my boy toy twink malewife Micheal who helped me make this @harmless-potat0
it really chaps my ass when i see dear evan hansen characters get severely misunderstood
jared kleinman is not just the “kinky bathbomb kid”, he is deeply insecure and masks it with jokes and fake confidence
alana beck is not a brat, she, like evan, has high functioning anxiety and is truly trying to help
zoe murphy isn’t entitled, she is a grieving sister trying to come to terms with the death of her brother (who did not treat her very well)
connor murphy isn’t edgy/emo, he’s fucking depressed and struggling with his untreated mental health issues (and he is not innocent)
and evan hansen isn’t an “uwu pure bean”, he has anxiety. really bad anxiety. not to mention he is certainly not innocent in any way, shape, or form
i would do the parents too but 1. they’re so overlooked that they’re hardly even mentioned to begin with 2. i’m sick of typing. i would also go into more detail, but you get the point. it just rubs me the wrong way so much, like did we even watch the same musical/read the same book??
mutual 1: Life update I found a cool tree outside my house but someone saw me touching it reverently and now I’m embarrassed
mutual 2: 🥀 🍃 📚 #420 #w33d #guys who smoke #guys who read #books #smoke #smoking #smoker #book lover
mutual 3: Thank you to the anon who asked me about my views on mental health programs in education! (⌒ω⌒) I’ve compiled a pdf of every post where I talk about this [link to 4.9 gb pdf]
mutual 4: guitar cover of da vinci by weezer #guitar cover #i am so tired of my family goddammit they expect so much from me i can’t handle it
mutual 5: google dto com how tostop bieng an asshole #i acidentalasly killed myfriends pokemon #alos i keep ssying shitty things tj him #idk #posts i made whlie shitting