(Michelle Faye via Amazon Freevee)
Everything and everyone can change over a single summer. This is a hard lesson to learn and it’s one of the core themes in Amazon Freevee’s “High School.”
The show stars two up-and-comers from TikTok, Railey and Seazynn Gilliland, who, despite their lack of experience, shine brightly.
The series is an eight-episode story about a set of twins in their teens, Tegan and Sara Quin, who deal with matters of life, love, identity, sisterhood and friendship. It’s based on a bestselling novel by the accomplished pop duo Tegan and Sara themselves.
This mid-90s book-turned-series follows the twins as they enter their new school in Alberta, Calgary. After a summer of drifting, they attempt to start fresh and make new relationships.
Despite Tegan’s immensely prevalent interest in a closer relationship with her twin, she immediately connects with Maya — the type of person Tegan thinks she could find a best friend in. She loves music and playfulness. But most of all, Maya values loyalty.
Sara, on the other hand, has absolutely no interest in Tegan, feeling like she needs space from her life-long best friend. She’s glad to make new friends but is altogether more focused on her best friend (formerly her shared best friend with Tegan) Phoebe. However, life happens as it always does and Sara finds herself growing apart from Phoebe and toward an adventurous girl named Natalie.
Natalie is out-of-the-box and introduces Sara to drugs, parties, drinking and ragers. While Tegan is apprehensive to this new lifestyle, Sara becomes more and more involved.
But then, the twins find their (almost) step-father’s guitar, the beginning to a decades-long musical career. They begin to rebuild their relationship and find their identity as they begin to write and play music together.
As this is the twins’ first acting opportunity, the beginning does start out a bit rough. But their performances quickly even out for a smooth viewing experience.
“High School” is a beautiful story about love, identity and family. You will feel the pain of the conflicts, the joy, the sadness, the guilt and so much more.
The best writing advice I’ve ever been given is to make the conflicts and hardships cleansing for the reader. This series does exactly that. The realness of the story that can only be found from true history makes it easy to identify with, watch, cry, laugh and love. It is in no vague terms a ‘must watch.’
I give it a 9.5 out of 10 stars.