A year before she made her career breakthrough playing Cassie Howard in Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney starred in a little-known Netflix series that lasted just one season, but depicted a version of teenage life far more credible and relatable that the lives of East Highland’s high-schoolers. It’s a shame that Sweeney didn’t get to play Emaline Addario for longer, because she’s head-and-shoulders above Cassie as a TV character.
Emaline has genuine layers to her, and her ostentatious theatricality is more convincing and age-appropriate than Cassie’s hysterionic and hyper-sexualized outer shell. What’s more, unlike the caricaturish depictions of teen strife we see in Euphoria, the insecurities and identities struggles she tries to keep buried beneath the surface feel all too real.
In discussions about Sydney Sweeney’s best TV shows, her very first main role on the small screen rarely figures as more than a footnote. Yet, Everything Sucks! is a first-rate teen drama, which is as authentically complex as it is funny and endearing. It covers much of the same ground as Euphoria, only with more humility and sensitivity.
Sadly, Everything Sucks! only got 10 episodes to develop its story. While Euphoria ended with a controversial season 3 finale, Sydney Sweeney’s previous teen drama was canceled almost as soon as it began. Nevertheless, it still served as the platform to launch Sweeney’s all-conquering screen career.
Netflix’s Everything Sucks! Set The Stage For Sydney Sweeney’s Role In Euphoria
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Everything Sucks! is a high-school comedy drama set in small-town America during the mid-1990s. It focuses on a group of social outcasts whose involvement in their school’s A/V club and drama clubs gives them a chance to be themselves. As with Euphoria, identity and sexuality are key themes in its story, especially when it comes to Sydney Sweeney’s character Emaline Addario.
Emaline is still discovering herself during her junior year of high school, and her hidden needs and desires are gradually revealed during the course of the show’s solitary season. On the surface, she’s a drama queen in every sense of the word. Emaline is brash, charismatic, and carries her acting performances into everyday life.
Her sassy demeanor sometimes spills over into outright bullying of younger students, but even this behavior is presented to us with care and empathy, hinting at the insecurities which underpin the character’s attention-seeking persona. In this sense, at least, there are clear similarities to be drawn between Emaline and Cassie Howard in Euphoria.
Cassie commands attention through hysterionic behavior, as well as flaunting her sexuality. On the other hand, there are clear differences between how the two characters are framed by their respective shows.
Euphoria received a backlash for portraying Sweeney‘s character undertaking a version of sex work widely regarded as a caricature of real life. This kind of heavy-handed approach to such a sensitive topic is nothing like the grounded, heartfelt tone that Everything Sucks! strikes when addressing themes such as sexuality.
In any case, playing Emaline Addario still set Sydney Sweeney up perfectly for her portrayal of Cassie Howard. Regardless of the tonal and stylistic differences between Everything Sucks! and Euphoria, one was clearly a stepping stone to the other for Sweeney.
Everything Sucks! Is Better Than Euphoria At Representing Teenage Life
Anyone looking for a relatable depiction of teenage life is far more likely to find it in Everything Sucks! than in Euphoria. Fans of HBO’s wildly successful teen drama would argue that the show isn’t meant to be realistic – at least not on the outside. It’s a deliberately stylized and melodramatic rendering of adolescence, which does still tap into the kinds of trauma many teens actually experience.
But there’s no denying that more teenagers will be able to identify with Everything Sucks! than Euphoria, even if the Netflix comedy drama is set three decades ago. It addresses its own fair share of heavy themes, from coming out of the closet to overcoming alienation and social exclusion. But it does so with warmth and biting humor in equal measure.
Choose the movie with the higher Rotten Tomatoes score.
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Everything Sucks! deserved more than to get canceled too early by Netflix. It would have been interesting to see where its group of theater-loving misfits ended up in further seasons of the show.
Euphoria might have captured the imagination of millions of viewers over the past seven years. But Everything Sucks! is a better representation of adolescence, featuring one of Sydney Sweeney’s most underrated and overlooked performances.
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TV-14
Drama
Comedy
10/10
Release Date
2018 – 2018-00-00
Directors
Michael Mohan, Ry Russo-Young
Cast
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Peyton Kennedy
Kate Messner
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Jahi Di'Allo Winston
Luke O'Neil
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Thriller
7/10
298.2/10
Release Date
2019 – 2026-00-00
Network
HBO
Cast
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Rue Bennett
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Hunter Schafer
Jules Vaughn
Euphoria follows a group of high school students as they navigate complex relationships, exploring themes of love, friendships, and personal struggles in a world influenced by drugs, sex, trauma, and social media.Expand
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Euphoria follows a group of high school students as they navigate complex relationships, exploring themes of love, friendships, and personal struggles in a world influenced by drugs, sex, trauma, and social media.
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