Remembering Judy Blume’s books without replaying our own childhood memories might be impossible. This is mainly a guess, formulated after reading passionate reactions to Mara Brock Akil’s “Forever,” a montage of lip gloss-smacked frames from across ages of girldom.

“Forever,” the TV show, is one of the first coming-of-age shows in a long while about a period of time in the life of a Black girl that rides the express highs and lows of adolescence, and one of the first to place a Black boy in the same place of emotional tenderness.

Akil continues down the road that Blume's 1975 novel forded, accurately capturing adolescence's hidden longing and confusion. In eight episodes, "Forever" strolls us through a year and a half during which the central concern isn’t "will they or won’t they," but whether high school lovers Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.) can hang on to what they have.

Longform dramas like “Forever,” stories lacking inciting tragedies or tensions beyond misunderstandings and a few cases of unfortunate timing, are not easy sells. And yet, “Forever” plainly speaks to something missing from the gratification machinery propping up our age: a view of two people maturing into their understanding of intimacy.

Lovie Simone as Keisha Clark and Michael Cooper Jr. as Justin Edwards in "Forever" (Elizabeth Morris/Netflix). Keisha and Justin are magnets, pressing against each other until, for one reason or another, one suddenly repels the other. Their love story includes stretches of time where Keisha blocks Justin's number and social media contacts, then lets him in, only for him to turn around and do the same to her. Once they reach an understanding of who they are to each other, they become attentive custodians of the other person's anxieties and hopes, even as they weigh what they want beyond their relationship. The sex, when it happens, is sweet and a little clumsy, the way inexperienced love can be. But........

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