The TV adaptation of the 2012 novel Dare Me is a coming-of-age crime series.
The creative team behind the adaptation, author Megan Abbott and Gina Fattore talked to Variety about the series, which debuted on USA this week.
The story explores the themes of friendship, sexuality, competition, murder, and power through the world of high school cheerleading.
Fattore told Variety: “I have told coming-of-age stories on so many shows; it’s really my favorite kind of show. I looked at the book in that way and saw instantly the chance to make the first season really a classic coming-of-age story about a relationship with an older person that changes your life. Sometimes that’s a romantic relationship, but sometimes it’s not, and in this case it’s a mentor relationship. That territory felt perfectly applicable to TV.”
But a lot has changed, especially in terms of young people talk about sexuality.
“It was a much more binary world in 2012, and now one of the most exciting things about this moment is all of those binaries that were false to begin with are being dismantled. That was something that we really wanted to explore,” Fattore said.
“It is great to be able to not have to put on a label on it — because it allows for the subtlety and the complexity and for things to go places,” Abbott added.
Dare Me premiered December 29 on USA.
