# Dare Me (2019)

> A cutthroat small town cheerleading squad turns a close friendship into a dangerous rivalry after a new coach arrives.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/80435

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 10
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, mystery, crime
- Created by: Megan Abbott
- Network: USA Network
- Cast: Marlo Kelly, Herizen F. Guardiola, Willa Fitzgerald, Rob Heaps, Zach Roerig, Paul Fitzgerald, Alison Thornton, Kaden Hebb
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2983222/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: dark, tense, intense, sultry, melancholic

## What critics say

Critics broadly praise the dark, intense portrait of competitive cheerleading and its lead performances, while finding the mystery plot uneven.

## Synopsis

Dare Me (2019-2020) is an American teen drama and mystery series created by Megan Abbott for USA Network. Set in a Midwestern small town, it follows the fraught bond between two best friends, Beth Cassidy (Marlo Kelly) and Addy Hanlon (Herizen F. Guardiola), whose lifelong closeness is strained once a glamorous new coach arrives to lift their competitive cheerleading squad to prominence. Willa Fitzgerald plays Colette French, the coach whose ambition reshapes the team's pecking order, while Zach Roerig appears as Will Mosley in the orbit of the town's tangled loyalties. The engine of the story is ambition set against loyalty: each episode tightens routines, rivalries and whispered alliances, and the pressure builds toward a violent secret that splits the squad apart. Its single season of ten hour-long episodes is one continuing serialized story rather than a case of the week. Dark, sultry and tense, the series dwells on adolescent intensity, shifting power and the fragile line between devotion and betrayal. Fans of Pretty Little Liars, Heathers and Twin Peaks will find resonance in its small town dread, sharp teen social politics and buried crime. Its arc was cut short with the story unfinished.

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