After her time as a writer on HBO’s The Deuce it seemed inevitable that author Megan Abbott would bring an adaptation of one of her novels to television. As it turns out, USA was the network with the foresight to do just that, turning Abbott’s Dare Me into a smart, dark thriller that’s as enticingly unconventional as it is deliberately paced, making for a must-see series to close out 2019 and continue on into 2020.
Cheerleading squads aren’t usually the basis for intense dramas about friendship, betrayal, and ambition, but Abbott proves adept at turning the ultra-competitive sport into an almost terrifyingly insular group, complete with its own set of social rules and expectations. In the car of Dare Me, most of those rules are decided upon by Beth Cassidy (Marlo Kelly), the almost brutally driven “top girl” of her high school cheerleading squad. With her right-hand woman, Addy (Herizen F. Guardiola), the two enjoy a certain kind of status among their peers, and wield a frequently abusive amount of power over the younger women on the squad, all of whom are eager to please and terrified of consequences should they fail.
More: Lost In Space Season 2 Review: More High-Flying Family-Friendly Adventure
The series begins at the start of Beth and Addy’s senior year. Expectations are high, as both young women hope to use cheerleading as a means by which they can escape the confines of their suburban existence, and in the case of Beth, the unstable home life brought about by her father’s infidelity and her mother’s prescription drug use. But senior year becomes rife with conflict following the arrival of a new cheerleading coach, Colette French (Willa Fitzgerald). Colette immediately destabilizes the social clique, knocking Beth from her perch as “top girl,” and ensnaring Addy and the rest of the squad with the promise of her new regime, all while cultivating an air of suspicion around her.
Dare Me isn’t a propulsive thriller — at least not in its first hour. The series takes its time establishing a strong sense of place and character, both of which prove useful as the season progresses and the power struggle between Beth and Colette turns ugly. The premiere, ‘Coup d’État,’ at times moves at a leisurely pace, steering in and out of the lives of its three main characters, filling in the details of who they are, what they want, and how they plan to go about getting it. This approach paints Beth and Addy in great detail, revealing not only the inner workings of their relationship and its unique power dynamics, but also the fissures that Colette is able to exploit early on, driving a small but devastating wedge between the besties.
This proves to be the first of many dramatic turns, as Dare Me gradually shifts gears from small, Midwestern story to a dark plot that’s more crime thriller than high school drama. This is very much in Abbott’s wheelhouse, as readers of novels like Queenpin and The End of Everything know the author expertly delves into the kind of crime-oriented territory normally covered by the likes of Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos — the latter is, unsurprisingly the co-creator of The Deuce.
Viewers will be hard-pressed to guess this after the end of the first hour, as Dare Me plays things pretty close to the vest, hinting at a variety of unsettling circumstances surrounding Beth and Addy, and sudden portent that accompanies Coach French’s arrival. Near the end of the first hour, the series swerves dramatically, seemingly putting Beth on the offensive after being upbraided by Colette in front of her squad and seemingly losing the position of team captain. While there is intrigue in that conflict, Dare Me delivers a more compelling set of circumstances in what brought Colette to the small town, and how much of her past is know to those who hired her, and to her husband, Matt (Rob Heaps). The discovery that Colette has secrets to hide and is more often that not living a double life — or seemingly on the run from one — energizes the story just in time. What was at first a seemingly relaxed teen drama soon proves itself to be a skillfully told thriller with a penchant for surprises and twists that don’t undercut the power of the narrative.
As a late-in-the-year drama Dare Me proves to be one of 2019’s best shows, and as it only gets better as it moves along, the series is well on its way to being one of the best new shows of 2020, too.
Next: The Witcher Series Premiere Review: Netflix Delivers A Grand Sword-And-Sorcery Adventure
Dare Me premieres Sunday, December 29 @10pm on USA.
