High School review: A funny, moving and messy teen series
Review Overview
Cast
8Structure
8Feels
8David Farnor | On 14, Oct 2022
High School premieres on 14th October, with Episodes 1 to 4 arriving together, following by new episodes weekly.
“Hey, are you guys twins?” “No.” “Yes.” That’s how Tegan and Sara Quinn are greeted at high school in High School, Amazon Freevee’s unimaginatively titled new series. Based on the Canadian indie duo’s memoir, the eight-part drama takes us back to the 1990s, when Tegan and Sara (played by twins Railey and Seazynn Gilliland) were still finding themselves, let alone finding their musical voices.
Their coming-of-age journey is made even more complicated by the fact that they’re identical twins, a fact that ties them together even as it drives them to strike out on their own. As they begin life at a new school, there’s a chance for them to forge unique identities, an opportunity that’s reinforced by the quietly seismic shift in their dynamic since the summer. After years of them being a triple-act with BFF Phoebe (Olivia Rouyre), Sara and Phoebe have become more than friends, leaving Tegan out in the cold. Even before the opening titles of the first episode, Tegan has lashed out at Sara, setting the stage for a tumultuous falling out.
That messiness belies the neatness of the show’s title, with co-showrunners Clea DuVall and Laura Kittrell turning what sounds like a generic documentary into a wonderfully raw snapshop of teen life. It helps that the star couple are finding their feet at the same time as their characters; after being discovered on TikTok, Railey and Seazynn Gilliland make their professional acting debut here, and they bring a naturalistic quality that’s as charming as it is convincing.
Seazynn’s Sara is achingly excited about her burgeoning romance, while Railey’s Tegan is quiet and resentful, both of them communicating the nuances of their unspoken concerns and crushes with pointed glances. As the school term unfolds, Sara finds escape through substances with the drama kids, while Tegan finds support through the rebellious Maya (Amanda Fix), even as she tries to keep a sensible eye on her increasingly reckless sister. Together they are funny and sweet, even as on their own they shoulder a shared sense of loneliness.
DuVall and Kittrell build their beautifully understated world around the tiny details and gestures of their central pair, deftly capturing the way that music defines and influences their personalities, just as it soundtracks their experiences and arguments. We know that they will go on to provide that same sound and companionship to others in the future, but we also know they’re not there yet – some piano lessons we glimpse are amusingly painful.
The show’s masterstroke, though, is its decision to split each half-hour episode into two parts, with the show switching focus from one character to another every 15 minutes. That structure allows us to revisit events from overlapping perspectives, but the show doesn’t use this Rashomon-like structure to unveil plot twists; it uses it for emotional reveals. Every time we revisit a day, we get an inner embellishment that adds moving layers to what unfolds. One diversion takes us through the unseen professional and personal challenges facing Simon, played with equal parts witty poise and poignant vulnerability by a never-better Cobie Smulders. Another explores Phoebe’s own journey of coming out – or not, as the case may be.
The result is a disarmingly honest teen odyssey that finds a universality in the specifics of its storytelling. A chronicle of two people growing up and growing apart, even as they mirror each other’s growing pains, it answers the earnest question of how to be your own person with a heartfelt reminder that, at some point, everyone has felt like an awkward outsider.
Where to watch online in the UK:
This review was originally published during the 2022 London Film Festival.