“Cheerleaders tend to be the cool people in school,” Meghan Hooper, Lifetime’s SVP of original movies, co-productions, and acquisitions, told Glamour earlier this year. “It’s just this weird cultural thing we have. I think a lot of people weren’t necessarily part of that or resented it or maybe didn’t even care about it. But there’s something fun, I think, in watching this comeuppance about it. It’s a little bit of the perfect people being knocked down. It’s like Mean Girls—people have a really fun time going along with that ride.”

There is one major difference between Dare Me and Lifetime’s cheerleader fare, though. The latter is meant to be fun, campy, and over-the-top; however, there’s real nuance in Dare Me. Beth isn’t a mad-with-power Queen Bee who would make one of her teammates walk blindfold on the edge of a building just because she can. (No joke: That was a plot point in one of the Lifetime movies.) Rather, she’s a three-dimensional human being whose choices are fully understandable (or at least comprehendible). Dare Me, at its core, is an exploration in why some girls turn into mean girls. And those reasons, more often or not, aren’t funny or shallow—like Cady Heron crushing on Regina George’s ex, Aaron Samuels. It’s usually messy, muddled, and sad. I think, on some level, we know this—hurt people, hurt people—but it’s nice to have a reminder.

Don’t get me wrong, Dare Me is deliriously fun. It’s chock-full of quippy one-liners, dumb, hunky guys, and neon-soaked cityscapes. But underneath all the pom-pom chanting is some real, palpable tragedy. So buckle up, my friends. Big Red has nothing on these girls.

Dare Me premieres Sunday, December 29 at 10 P.M. ET on USA Network.

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