EVERYTHING SUCKS! Well, Not Everything After All

Netflix surprisingly often turns to youth-oriented formats – and they do it well enough that Everything Sucks! is unlikely to be their last series featuring kids in the lead roles. Amid smaller hits (Atypical) and bigger ones (Stranger Things), sometimes controversial (13 Reasons Why), often complex (Dark) or simply subversive (The End of the F***ing World), they have so far managed to avoid reusing the same formula. Each of these shows has its own vibe and tackles similar topics in completely different ways.

Everything Sucks! holds its own too, although there are already signs of fatigue – and I admit, it was mainly curiosity about whether Netflix had gone one step too far that made me watch the series. I don’t regret it.

Nostalgic returns to the ’80s and ’90s are the bane of contemporary cinema, and with every new production, the risk of oversaturation grows. Apparently, this hasn’t occurred to the creators of Everything Sucks!, who – deliberately or not – test our tolerance for this trope quite heavily from the very first minutes.

The series takes place in the dullest town in the United States (yes, Boring is real and located near Portland), where people only stop to take a photo by the sign but never actually enter the town. It’s September 1996, the start of the school year at Boring High School. Just in case we weren’t convinced by other period props, the school news broadcast helpfully provides the date.

The main character is Luke O’Neil (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), a VHS-obsessed freshman dreaming of a film career, who, together with his two friends – McQuaid (Rio Mangini) and Tyler (Quinn Liebling) – hopes to find a girlfriend in high school. Classic teenagers. They join the film club, where Luke immediately notices Kate Messner (Peyton Kennedy), a sophomore and the principal’s daughter.

Each of the boys is a bit different – Luke is precociously mature, chatty, and confident (for a freshman), something like a mix of the main character from Everybody Hates Chris and Chris Rock; McQuaid is the typical nerd, outwardly emotionless and coldly analytical; Tyler is a not particularly bright but very endearing guy who’s always ready to back his friends.

Altogether, their group fits into the nerd archetype. In some sense, Kate belongs to this category too – withdrawn, not particularly eager to meet people, visibly uncomfortable in social situations – though Everything Sucks! avoids portraying outright nerds. It seems even the cheerleaders and football players in Boring deviate from typical norms, and the school is actually run by the drama club led by Emaline (Sydney Sweeney) and Oliver (Elijah Stevenson). Unsurprisingly, the two student clubs don’t get along.

The creators put a lot of effort into developing Luke and Kate – both are well written and directed (unless these kids are just naturals – either way, respect). Sydney Sweeney also stands out, undergoing the most significant on-screen transformation and convincingly portraying each stage.

Her on-screen boyfriend is less developed, but Elijah Stevenson also makes an impression. Unfortunately, beyond this core group, other characters are poorly presented (or not at all), even though they seem to have equally interesting stories. Overall, the Everything Sucks! script isn’t perfect, but after early turbulence (mainly due to the overdose of nostalgic references), we get a very engaging and at times genuinely touching coming-of-age story, covering key themes like discovering one’s sexuality, searching for identity, and strained parent-child relationships.

Everything Sucks! consists of ten episodes, each between 22 and 27 minutes long.

It was created by Ben York Jones (the series’ creator and the film club advisor on screen) and Michael Mohan (co-creator and director of some episodes), with Ry Russo-Young also directing – all of them associated more with indie cinema. It’s hard to say what their exact intentions were, but it seems like a way for filmmakers born in the mid-’80s to revisit their youth. The series features nearly every hallmark of ’90s teen culture, from Tamagotchis to Oasis’ album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? It’s so stereotypical that even the Black kid is raised by a single mom! The placement of these artifacts is also peculiar – almost all appear in the first two episodes, clearly testing our tolerance for nostalgic mush.

But if you feel discouraged, don’t give up. Once Jones and Mohan get all the clichés out of their system, the atmosphere significantly improves.

To the question Should you watch Everything Sucks!?, I say: Yes. Netflix’s latest series is clearly aimed at a younger audience, but thirtysomethings will also find it a bittersweet reminder of a long-lost childhood. Only those misled by the cheeky title and expecting something akin to The End of the F***ing World may be disappointed.

That’s a dead end – any comparisons should rather be made with the cult classic Freaks and Geeks starring James Franco. There are no gimmicks here; the story feels painfully ordinary, and that’s likely the greatest strength of Everything Sucks!. The humor is light, even the most poignant moments serve a purpose, and any clichés are tempered by emotional sincerity, which leaves a pleasant aftertaste – slightly spoiled by a cruel cliffhanger.