DARE ME: Cheerleaders Also Have Their Secrets

In American pop culture, the image of the cheerleader has become established as that of a beautiful, not particularly bright girl waving paper pom-poms, cheering athletes on, and fixated on athletic boys, for whom a relationship with her would be the fulfillment of her dreams. Of course, this is a stupid and harmful stereotype, which in the series Dare Me on USA Network undergoes a complete deconstruction.

The production, which can now also be watched on Netflix, begins like a genuine drama straight out of the Sundance Festival. Somewhere in the American provinces, a quiet tragedy of youth plays out, trapped between a lack of financial resources and a sense of hopeless, aimless life in a place forgotten even by God. Addy (Herizen F. Guardiola) and Beth (Marlo Kelly) have been friends since childhood, so they spend a lot of time together, also outside school. One has more money thanks to her family, the other is doing a little worse, but both share the need to forget the omnipresent boredom.

Strolling through town together, evening parties—always, of course, in the light of the setting sun—their small town offers no other attractions.

Day after day passes, nothing serious happens. A jittery camera delights in observing their muscular, well-trained bodies as they practice new cheerleading routines, or as they sway through the streets in search of Godot.

As is usual in such stories, change comes with the arrival of a mysterious person introducing chaos into the existing reality. In Dare Me, this role is played by the newly hired coach of the cheerleading team, Colette (Willa Fitzgerald). She quickly sets strict conditions for her charges and tries at all costs to suppress any signs of rebellion. While Beth refuses to bow to the not-much-older supervisor, Addy slowly begins to grow closer to her, helped by discovering Colette’s deepest secrets.

A quiet, tension-filled war begins between the three protagonists.

Watching Dare Me is a frustrating experience. On one hand, viewers are faced with a very formulaic story, consisting of obligatory elements—a mystery that tears apart the bonds within the local community, violence, colorfully lit parties carried by heavy hip-hop beats—all shot with a handheld camera, sometimes in slow motion, just to make it more spectacular.

At times, USA Network’s offering resembles a slightly milder version of HBO’s Euphoria.

Other productions of this kind have also been made, ones in which the darker side of youth was sought, bringing with it far more problems than positive aspects. Examples include 13 Reasons Why and Assassination Nation. In this respect, Dare Me represents yet another form of lament over the hardships of life in the American provinces, where young people see no prospects before them.

Without denying this theme—likely extremely important for a certain age group—it must be emphasized that the conclusions drawn in the USA Network series are in no way different from those proposed by its predecessors.

However, within this cliché, one can find a few fragments that elevate the series to a much higher level. This primarily concerns the conflict between the three protagonists, which is rarely conducted in an unambiguous manner. There is a great deal of tension between the women, including sexual tension; alliances change from hour to hour, making it hard to keep track of which character is winning at any given moment.

The stakes of this war are also extremely important—it is not about position in the pack or the ability to influence other teammates. It is about which approach to life will prove more effective and safer. It is about being or not being.

Equally important is the deconstruction of the stereotypes about cheerleaders mentioned at the very beginning of the text. The creators of Dare Me give a voice to the protagonists without viewing them through the prism of relationships.

In this story, they are there for themselves; they do not need men for their emotions to come to light. They are not silly flirts, but finally flesh-and-blood people whose lives do not end with dating.

The empowerment implemented in the script is sometimes carried out instrumentally, especially when the girls are forcibly entangled in violent plotlines to show how much evil lies within them. At times, however, it is painfully sincere, when one can finally get to know elements of femininity not defined in the context of romantic relationships.

Dare Me impresses and does not impress. It certainly provides space for discussion about how young women are portrayed in pop culture, both in terms of their physicality and sexuality, and in terms of their character traits.

On the other hand, many formal solutions are already well known. The American series is not an example of revolutionary thinking. Rather, it is a form of consolidating certain achievements made by the creators of earlier productions, while adding a small brick to the ultimate reformatting of the language used to talk about the troubles faced by women.