General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

High School

High School is an American coming-of-age comedy-drama television series based on the 2019 memoir of the same name by twin musicians Tegan and Sara Quin, the Canadian indie-pop duo known for songs such as "Walking With a Ghost" (2004). It premiered on Amazon Freevee on October 14, 2022, ran for eight episodes, and was canceled in May 2024 after one season.¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Source material	Tegan and Sara Quin's 2019 memoir High School, a New York Times best seller¹
Network and run	Amazon Freevee, October 14 to October 28, 2022, 8 episodes²^•⁴
Creator	Clea DuVall, who also executive produced, wrote, and directed six of the eight episodes⁵^•⁶
Leads	TikTok creators Railey Gilliland (as Tegan) and Seazynn Gilliland (as Sara), in their first acting roles¹
Setting	1990s Calgary, against a backdrop of grunge and rave culture, as the twins forge separate identities⁷
Critical reception	Metascore 82 ("universal acclaim") on Metacritic; 100% Tomatometer and 93% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes⁸^•²
Cancellation	Cancelled May 2024 after one season, even though all Season 2 scripts had been completed³

Spoilers

Premise

The series tells a story about finding your own identity, a journey made more complicated because each twin's struggle and self-discovery closely mirrors the other's. Told against a backdrop of 1990s grunge and rave culture, it weaves between the parallel and often discordant memories of two sisters growing up down the hall from one another.¹ The story covers the Quin twins' formative years in Calgary as they attend high school, begin writing and performing music, and navigate relationships with friends and family.⁷

Season 1 opens with tensions between the sisters on their first day at a new school, their relationship fractured over the summer because Tegan felt cast aside by Sara and their shared best friend Phoebe. In the fifth episode, "Freedom," the sisters discover their father Patrick's old guitar, and their newfound shared love of playing music begins to repair the relationship. By the finale, "The Con," they prepare for their first live show at a party.⁹

Production

Clea DuVall, an actress, writer, and director who has known Tegan and Sara for fifteen years and directed their 2016 music video for "BWU," read an advance copy of the memoir and told the pair she would love to adapt it for the screen. Development of a television adaptation was announced on October 20, 2020, and the project was officially greenlit on May 3, 2021, for Amazon Freevee, then called IMDb TV.⁵^•¹⁰

Casting. DuVall and the producers cast Railey and Seazynn Gilliland, twin TikTok creators from Fresno, California, discovered via TikTok by Tegan and Sara themselves. Railey plays the high-school version of Tegan, a gregarious and extroverted teenager who turns to music to explore her vulnerabilities; Seazynn plays Sara, a reserved, observant 15-year-old who begins to access her self-confidence through playing music. Neither had acted before.¹ Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer play the twins' parents, Simone and Patrick.³ The supporting cast includes Amanda Fix as Maya, Olivia Rouyre as Phoebe, Esther McGregor as Natalie, and Brianne Tju as Ali.⁷

Filming and crew. The eight episodes were shot in Alberta from late March until early June 2022.¹¹ DuVall served as co-showrunner with Laura Kittrell and directed six of the eight episodes; she also shopped for the cast's wardrobe at thrift stores in Calgary to match 1990s fashion.⁶^•¹⁰ Executive producers alongside DuVall, the Quin twins, and Kittrell included Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Carina Sposato of Plan B Entertainment, and Brad Pitt.² Each episode's title is the name of a pre-existing Tegan and Sara track.⁶

Release and reception

The first two episodes premiered on October 14, 2022, with subsequent episodes released weekly through October 28.³^•⁴ Critics received the season strongly. The Hollywood Reporter's Angie Han called it "a tender portrait of two teenage girls that draws its strength from its knack for unvarnished details and uncommon sense of empathy"; Variety awarded 90 and praised DuVall's direction for taking the characters' interior lives seriously; Rolling Stone's Alan Sepinwall scored it 90 and called it "specific in all the best ways."⁸ Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 100% Tomatometer from 22 reviews and a 93% audience score, with a critics consensus describing the show as "as effervescent and sensitive as a Tegan and Sara album."²^•⁹ Reviewers noted that the series works for viewers unfamiliar with the duo: RogerEbert.com wrote that it "functions on its own as a slice-of-life coming-of-age series that's digestible for everyone," and Entertainment Weekly called it "a moody and touching tale of queer adolescence told with artful simplicity and excellent '90s alt-rock."¹² The Guardian was more reserved, scoring it 60 and calling the early episodes a slow burn.⁸

Cancellation

Amazon executives were initially bullish enough on the series that showrunner Clea DuVall opened a mini writers' room in late 2022, and scripts for an entire second season were completed. The cancellation was nevertheless confirmed in May 2024, nearly two years after the season finished airing; according to reporting relayed by TVLine from The Hollywood Reporter, the completion rate for the eight-episode first season was not high enough to justify renewal.³ Yahoo Entertainment's report framed the decision as another blow for LGBTQ-themed programming, which it described as shrinking amid belt-tightening and a push toward broader-skewing content.¹³ The series remains available on Prime Video.²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Adapted and franchise screen series › Literary and classic serial adaptations › Romance and comedy-drama adaptations

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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