Total Eclipse (web series)


Total Eclipse is an American teen drama web television series starring Mackenzie Ziegler, Lauren Orlando, Johnny Orlando, Emily Skinner, Nadia Turner, Devenity Perkins, and Darius Marcell. The series is produced by Brat and premiered on April 5, 2018 on Brat's YouTube channel. It follows a group of high school students and concerns themes of bullying and teen relationships, including friendships, cliques and romances. The protagonist, Cassie, played by Ziegler, finds herself cast out of her childhood circle and seeks to re-establish those friendships, make new friends and negotiate social situations at school and in her community. According to Brat’s Instagram story on 7/26/20, the show’s original title was “Moon School”.

Plot

Season 1

At Millwood High, Cassie is a pensive teenager who is ditched by her childhood friends Diana, Morgan and Jenna. To cope with their bullying, she dreams of a fantasy world where she is an astronaut on the moon, a fantasy that she and her friends had devised as children. Cassie is loyal to her friends even after some of them betray her. Diana is a dominating bully who embarrasses Cassie by publicly revealing copies of Cassie's private drawings. Morgan was Cassie's closest childhood friend, but they have grown apart because Morgan has come under Diana's influence. Kate is a newcomer from Boston who practices witchcraft. She becomes friends with Cassie. Their friendship is complicated when Kate believes that Cassie and Kate's older brother, Sam, are developing a romantic interest in each other, but their relationship does not progress romantically. Sam is an aspiring musician. Jenna has a crush on Sam and kisses him, but tells him to keep it a secret. Jenna's parents have a difficult marriage. Luca is a boy who also practices witchcraft, so he and Kate form a friendship, and later he develops feelings for her. Luca's interest in witchcraft is darker than Kate's.

Season 2

Cassie and Sam briefly grapple with their crushes on each other, to Kate's dismay. Sam then has a brief flirtation with Jenna. Later, Morgan leaves Diana's group, and Kate distances herself from Luca and his darker witchcraft. Meanwhile, Jenna steals clothing from Luca's stepmother's store, which Cassie witnesses, and Cassie takes the blame for it.

Season 3

The girls fantasize from time to time that they are superheroes. Luca offers to produce a song for Sam. Kate and Sam's ailing aunt Bonnie moves to live with them. After Bonnie dies, Cassie tries to help Sam and Kate cope with the death of their aunt, and Sam becomes closer with Cassie than before. Sam and Kate grieve at home for some time, and when they return to school they learn that Luca has taken credit for Sam's song. Sam confronts Luca, who later apologizes to Sam, and the two make amends. The history teacher, Ms. Dawson, takes out old frustrations by singling Cassie out, lying and changing test scores to undermine her academic career. Morgan joins the experimental film club to please her boyfriend Eli, but after he pressures her to choose between the film club and her other friends, she quits the club. Ms. Dawson befriends and manipulates Jenna to alienate her from the other girls, then tries to use her as a weapon against the other girls. Cassie, Diana and Morgan are suspended, supposedly for cheating in history and skipping Spanish, as the vice principal, Mr. Lane, believes Ms. Dawson, who is manipulating him romantically. Cassie and Diana rekindle their friendship through their efforts to reveal Ms. Dawson's unethical behavior. Morgan has an older sister named Jasmine who had been a classmate of Ms. Dawson. Jasmine helps Cassie and Diana discover and reveal Ms. Dawson's real identity and dishonesty, and Mr. Lane finally believes the girls and has Ms. Dawson removed.

Season 4

Season 5

Cast

Main

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2018)

Season 3 (2019)

Season 4 (2019)

Season 5 (2020)

Production

On March 12, 2018, Brat announced the series. Production for season 1 took place in Los Angeles that month. The show premiered on April 5, 2018. A second season of the series premiered on September 6, 2018. The third season of the series premiered on March 21, 2019. Forbes reported that Total Eclipse and another Brat show, Chicken Girls, helped the network accumulate a "loyal audience" of 15 million unique viewers in three months that "the company is beginning to monetize by moving into advertising in 2019".
In 2018, Brat released a special YouTube movie titled Brat Holiday Spectacular co-starring Ziegler as Cassie, Skinner as Diana, and other characters from Total Eclipse, that has been viewed more than 5.7 million times as of July 20, 2020.
The show’s fourth season premiered on September 5, 2019. On March 11, 2020, it was announced that filming had begun on season 5. In the description of the official trailer for season 5, Brat confirmed it was the final season.
The show's fifth season premiered on July 16, 2020.

Reception

Forbes reported that Total Eclipse and Brat’s most popular show, Chicken Girls, helped the network accumulate a "loyal audience" of 15 million unique viewers in three months that "the company is beginning to monetize by moving into advertising in 2019".
SeasonNumber of views
Number of views
17,226,3705,746,477
23,783,2312,376,581
32,732,1271,842,776
42,102,2991,432,715
51,264,407TBA