Complications arise, from technical difficulties to relationship problems...
On April 7, 2018, the show was cancelled after its first season.
Some of the many tropes included in the first season of the series include:
- The '90s: Includes many oh-so-Nineties cultural items, including Tamagotchi, butterfly hair clips, Tori Amos concerts, and a sea of flannel.
- Surge and OK Soda seen in the school cafeteria. Sodas in the school cafeteria at all, for that matter; there was maybe around a 10-year window where that was even a thing (1996 would've been fairly early on in).
- All Love Is Unrequited: Luke likes and despite knowing she's a lesbian, falls in love with Kate, who has a soon to be requited crush on Emaline, who is a Love Martyr for her boyfriend Oliver, who... probably doesn't feel as strongly for Emaline. McQuaid also develops a crush on Emaline; too bad for him Emaline has already started to fall for Kate by then.
- Almost Kiss: Kate and Emaline in episode 8.
- Ambiguously Bi: Emaline dates and seems to love Oliver and eventually crushes on and kisses Kate and the two start a relationship. So she is probably bisexual. As of the end of season one, it hasn't been officially confirmed.
- She might be gay, though, as her relationship with Oliver had a lot more to do with appearances/theatricality and her lack of a firm self-identity and confidence outside of her relationship. While being attracted to Oliver and being dependent on him for validation are not necessarily mutually exclusive, it's still a possibility.
- Big Damn Kiss: Between Kate and Emaline.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Emaline has an on-again-off-again relationship with Oliver, until she eventually starts developing a crush on Kate.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Kate by her dad in episode 1.
- Creator Cameo: Ben York Jones, who stars as Mr. Stargrove, is co-creator of Everything Sucks! and wrote and directed episodes of the series.
- Comically Missing the Point: Kate’s dad finds Playboy magazines under her bed, and delicately tries to assure her that she doesn’t need to look like the women on those magazines.
- Coming of Age Story: For most of the characters, particularly Kate and Luke.
- Coming-Out Story: Kate discovering she's a lesbian is a large part of the plot, and creates much Heartwarming.
- Confession Cam: Luke's dad left a series of videotapes behind, which Luke and Kate discover amongst some of his old things.
- Cut Short: Since the show was canceled we'll never get to find out what happened after Luke's father showed up at his door, barring a successful campaign to get it Un-Cancelled.
- Did Not Die That Way: It was told that Kate's mom passed away from cancer when Kate was little, her mom's actual cause of death was suicide.
- Disappeared Dad: Luke's father left the family when Luke was just seven years old.
- Drama Club: Emaline and Oliver belong to the Drama Club. A big part of the show is the A.V. Club working with the Drama Club to replace the school play with a movie after the auditorium gets accidentally drenched by sprinklers.
- Drama Queen: Unsurprisingly, a lot of the drama club, especially Emaline and Oliver.
- Driven to Suicide: Kate's mother, we find out episode 9.
- Easily Forgiven: Kate never seems at all angry at Emaline for lying and saying that she (Kate) groped her chest and helping to spread that rumor around the school, almost accidentally outing Kate in the process.
- If It's You, It's Okay: The results of the sexuality test Luke fills out for Kate determines that she is “homosexual with heterosexual tendencies,” and he elatedly remarks that he is probably those “heterosexual tendencies.” It’s Subverted, though, in that this result is reached because of the ambiguous wording of some of the questions, as well as Luke filling out the answers he wants to be true.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Luke catches his mom and Principal Messner in the middle of....something...while they're both in their underwear.
- Loving Bully: It's implied that this is why Emaline antagonized Kate in the second episode.
- Masochism Tango: Emaline and Oliver, throughout much of the first season.
- Missing Mom: Kate's mom died ten years before the start of the series.
- Moment Killer: Kate and Emaline's Almost Kiss is interrupted by Leslie marching in yelling "Disgusting!" It turns out she was referring to finding her retainer on the floor of the school bus and hadn't even noticed what was happening.
- Morality Chain: Oliver isn't a bad guy, but he certainly has his selfish and jerk-ish impulses. He takes a quick liking to Tyler, and is notably more open, supportive and caring towards Tyler than he is towards any other character, including his sometimes-girlfriend Emaline. Notably, Tyler is the only person that Oliver takes the time to write a letter explaining that he ran away. He even gives Tyler his jacket!
- Ms. Fanservice: Emaline often wears revealing outfits. Her explicit goal, as stated by her, is to cause the boys around her to have erections, which she believes gives her power.
- Oblivious to Love: Leslie is clearly into Tyler and makes multiple attempts to flirt with him, but he doesn't even notice.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: When Luke comes home early to find his mother in bed with Kate's dad, he flips out and furiously screams for the man to Get Out!, later muttering to Kate (who had been glad that her father was happy for a change, though she didn't know who with) that it was "disgusting". In fairness, though, it's more to do with his misdirected rage at his deadbeat dad for abandoning him, and when he later realizes this, he becomes more accepting and helps get them back together.
- Pet the Dog: Tyler has had it rough. His stepdad's an alcoholic who doesn't really care, he tries out for the movie by memorizing a commercial because he is in remedial English and can't read well (he is shown reading a 5th grade English book, in 9th grade), when we finally see his house, there's a pick-up truck with its bed full of beer cans. But despite him being some of the comic relief, after a pivotal episode, both Oliver and Emaline hug him after Luke's unjustified outburst towards him, the more popular kids who tormented him in the entry episodes comfort him after his friend tears him down, showing their true natures.
- Present-Day Past: In one episode, Surge soda can be shown even though Surge was released in 1997.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: When Kate exchanges her normal jeans and flannel wardrobe for a slinky dress.
- Spin the Bottle: The A/V and Drama kids play this on one occasion.
- Tomboy: Kate isn't super butch, but she definitely doesn't dress in a traditionally feminine style.
