Anyone watch this? We started it last weekend and just finished it tonight. Loved it.
Touches on high school in the mid-90s, with a focus on: dynamics between A/V and drama clubs, coming out, loneliness. Very well done, made me laugh out loud at times and get a little choked up at others. Sorta “Freaks and Geeks,” set about 16 years later in Oregon instead of Michigan, without the freaks + more racial and sexual diversity. And an awesome (IMO) soundtrack, although some of the 90s references seemed a bit forced.
At the end of the final episode:
After McQuade catches Kate and Emaline kissing, I asked my wife if she thought that was a legit portrayal of 90s high school, from her perspective (1994-98). My thoughts, from my high school experience (1989-93), were that there would have been more of a “Holy shit, you guys will never guess what I just saw!” reaction from McQuade. The fact he was just bummed and hurt because the girl he liked was kissing someone else struck me as very modern-day. If that makes sense. I mean, there was nobody out in my high school nor my wife’s, so seeing something like that would’ve been earth-shattering back then.
Anyway, I highly recommend this series. Ten episodes long, and I kept thinking throughout that shows like this are why streaming TV is beating network for my time. I don’t start many threads on streaming shows, so I don’t know what the policy or tradition for them in these threads is.
I think what I appreciated about the show: {spoilering in case…}
When it became obvious Kate was a lesbian, I thought it was going to be a wacky teenage comedy about trying to “turn” her. Instead, it became about how they both really just cared about each other and liked each other, without sexual feelings getting too much in the way. But it still had the messiness of two young teenagers navigating those waters. And the black-white thing was never even an issue, sort of like Evangeline’s bisexuality wasn’t. One of the best lines from Luke was in episode 8 after Kate’s failed attempt to bring Luke to his dad: “You’re not my girlfriend, you’ll never be my girlfriend, so why do you keep coming up with new ways to break my heart!” When he said it, I laughed, but it was an ouch-laugh.
I loved it so much. I think my favorite character was McQuaid. At first I thought they were pushing too hard with the stereotype but the actor did such a good job with it. They all did, really.
Bumping this by adding that I really liked it. Those kids were much more into music than I was while I was in high school, but I enjoyed it anyway.
Both the interracial dating and lesbian issues seemed a bit too “woke” for the 1990’s. I think this is something like how MAS*H was set in the Korean War, but was really about Vietnam. Likewise, setting “Everything Sucks” as in the 1990’s lets them say some things that would seem less strange or obvious to us today (like the kiss).
I thought that Peyton Kennedy captured the screen in every scene she was in. According to IMDB she was born in 2004, so is now only 14 years old? I liked the aspect that the kids actually looked like kids!
BTW, perhaps the thread title should be “Everything Sucks” on Netflix, unless you meant to say that everything on Netflix sucks…
