Pop culture has been focusing its laser on the 1990s — and “Everything Sucks!” is the latest addition to that period in US history.
“If you look at the pattern of these things, there’s a 20-year nostalgia gap,” says “Everything Sucks!” co-creator Michael Mohan, 38. “For shows like ‘Happy Days’ or ‘The Wonder Years,’ there’s a 20-year gap from when they took place and when they aired. [That’s] apparently how much hindsight we need before we can look back on something and define it — so right now, it’s natural that there’s nostalgia for the ’90s.”
The 10-episode Netflix series, premiering Feb. 16, is a coming-of-age story following members of the AV and drama clubs in a 1996 high school in Boring, Ore. (which is a real place). “Everything Sucks!” has drawn comparisons to the 1999 cult classic “Freaks and Geeks,” but its focus on nerdy young friends also makes it similar to “Stranger Things” (without that show’s sci-fi elements).
Mohan’s co-creator, Ben Jones, 34, says they thought the title “Everything Sucks!” had an appropriately ’90s vibe. “There’s something that felt very ’90s to us [about] having a very general or banal-sounding word combined with an aggressive hard word — like ‘Reality Bites,’” he says, citing the 1994 movie starring Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller. “The exclamation point [in ‘Everything Sucks!’] just kind of drove it home.”
Unlike other recent ’90s-era shows and movies — “I, Tonya,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” “Waco” — “Everything Sucks!” doesn’t focus on a particular event but uses the decade as a backdrop. Still, don’t expect to hear the characters listen to grunge; they shirk Nirvana and Pearl Jam in favor of Tori Amos and Oasis.
“We wanted it to be very specifically 1996,” says Mohan. “[That] was a transition year, where grunge was kind of on its way out and [music] was just starting to get into power pop. Oasis’ record [‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’] came out in ’96.”
Because many of their young actors weren’t alive in the ’90s — “Everything Sucks!” star Peyton Kennedy was born in 2004 — the creators gave their cast pop culture homework. “I wasn’t really familiar with much of the music at all, so it was really great to go into that generation of music,” says Kennedy. “I prepared a lot using pop culture, [listening to] Tori Amos; [watching] ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ and a foreign film called ‘Show Me Love.’”
The creators maintain that they want the show to appeal to a wide array of ages.
“Hopefully [‘Everything Sucks!’] is accessible to both adults and kids. Our goal was to make something that would speak to both,” says York Jones. “So if you grew up in the ’90s, you can watch the show and relive those memories — not watered-down but authentic, awkward and real. And for kids who watch the show, they get to look at it the same way we watched shows like ‘The Wonder Years.’ Like, ‘This is the olden days,’ even though the emotions underneath it all remain the same.”
“Everything Sucks!” Series premiere Friday on Netflix