10 best shows you slept on in 2018

Everything Sucks!

A nostalgic love letter to the 1990s and the outsiders and geeks who suffered through high school in this era, Everything Sucks! is destined for cult status, if there’s any justice in the world. (Netflix canceled the comedy after just a single season, a fact which is one of the greatest tragedies of this television season.)

The show rang true to nearly every aspect of growing up during this awkward generational space sandwiched between boomers and millennials, casting real teens instead of Riverdale-esque models, and is is both sincere and sensitive in its treatment of them. Everything Sucks! reminds us of a time before cell phones and wireless internet, but also one that existed before teens had any language to really talk about discovering who they were. The show features a particularly delicate and deft coming out story, as young Kate Messner not only figures out, but embraces the fact that she’s a lesbian, in an era where she would have had few role models to guide her.

The season ultimately comes together as the Boring High A.V. Club and drama department join forces to make their own science fiction movie, and the result is as hilarious and ultimately heartfelt as you might imagine. While the ‘90s feel sets Everything Sucks! apart, its stories are universal ones that ultimately remind us that despite our different cliques, there’s more that unites us than divides us.

The show also sports a killer soundtrack, with everything from Oasis to the Verve Pipe making an appearance. A whole episode is structured around a clandestine trip to a Tori Amos concert, and whew if that wasn’t my 1990s life, is all I’m saying. In short: Banana slug forever, Everything Sucks!.