It can be argued that Netflix’s latest coming of age show, Everything Sucks!, removes some of the nostalgia Gen Z has built around the 90s. The charmingly quirky show illustrates that adolescence was just as awkward then as it is today. The clothes were a little too baggy, the dial-up internet was dreadfully slow, and sexual exploration was limited to stealing copies of your dad’s Playboy magazine.
The realism of Everything Sucks! Are surprising, considering its young cast was born post-Y2K. However, the internet has allowed these budding actors to become impressively familiar with 90s pop culture. During our conversation, the actors ping pong a dizzying mix of 90s references, including Beavis and Butthead, Kris Kross, and Reebok x Shaq Instapumps. As I sit there and talk to the budding stars, I quickly realize there is one big difference between today’s teens and those of the 90s. These young stars casually dive into conversations surrounding identity issues, politics, and cultural trends and then swiftly go back to goofing around. They’re woke and youthful at the same time.
“This is us presenting the 90s to our generation in a way they’ve never seen it before,” says Jahi Winston, who plays the hopeless romantic, AV Club member Luke O’Brien. Everything Sucks!presents us with hyperrealistic portraits of American adolescence, harkening back to the quiet, slow pace of 90s shows like Freaks and Geeks and My So-Called Life. Glamorous parties, fever-dream romances, and buff jocks are noticeably absent. Instead, the dramedy focuses on the interior lives of Boring High School’s outcasts, presenting us with plenty of acne, bad kisses, and nerdy jokes. “You’re seeing young kids be vulnerable in an unmanufactured way,” Jahi says. “It’s not this grown up’s idea of what it’s like to be a teenager.”
Peyton Kennedy, who plays Kate Messner, echoes a similar sentiment. “It’s teenagers playing teenagers,” she says, her voice filled with a Gen-Z brand of confidence that some Millennials would kill for. “There are so many shows where like 30-year-olds are playing teens. People grow up and think, ‘Oh, that’s how teenagers talk, look, and act.’”
There was a swift, unanimous answer when I asked the cast what they related to most when playing their characters. “Insecurities,” they answered in unison.