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Ogden is the scene in hip new YouTube Red series ‘Youth & Consequences’ — well, sort of

<b>Television • </b>Ogden High stars as Central Rochester High in series that’s a cross between “Mean Girls” and “Gossip Girl.”

The new streaming series “Youth & Consequences” is on youth-obsessed YouTube Red, it’s headlined by social-media star Anna Akana, and it wants to be the most lit thing on TV.

And it was filmed in Ogden.

Y&C,” which starts streaming Wednesday, isn’t set in Utah. It doesn’t specify a state. Just a city — Rochester. And there are Rochesters in 18 states, so that doesn’t narrow it down a lot.

But it’s clear to anyone who’s ever been to Ogden where this series was shot. Just moments into the first episode, viewers see the iconic Art Deco-style Ogden High School.

(Photo courtesy YouTube Red) Social-media star Amy Akana stars in the made-in-Ogden streaming series "Youth & Consequences."

We love that high school,” said creator/writer/producer Jason Ubaldi. “It’s the perfect look for us.”

There’s a closeup of the sign out front that clearly shows the Big O for Ogden with a tiger inside it. While there’s no reference to the real school, its mascot and orange-and-black colors are on full display.

It was a great place for us to work,” Ubaldi said. “But this show is about teenagers who could be anywhere.”

Anywhere with mountains, that is. They’re often visible in the background.

Akana — who’s been performing on YouTube since 2011 and has more than 2 million followers — stars as Farrah Chutney, a teenage diva whom we meet as she defends speaking rudely to one of her classmates.

I did him a favor by recognizing his existence,” she says.

The narrative begins with the death of the high-school counselor, Mr. Chadwick.

Well, this day just got interesting,” Farrah says. And then she and her friends make snarky comments. The guidance counselor died under, um, unseemly circumstances in his office. And his death is then used in the race for student-body president.

Not even a hanging Chadwick can stop student council elections,” Farrah says.

Like so many teen dramas or comedies, the kids in “Y&C” act like adults. The school principal (Marcia Cross, “Desperate Housewives”) actually says she hates that the students are “smarter than us.”

And like “Mean Girls,” “Easy A,” “The Edge of Seventeen” and dozens of other movies about teens, “Youth & Consequences” exists in a world where high school is life and death. The goal is to be “a clever, biting commentary,” said YouTube Red president Susanne Daniels. (She knows something about teen dramadies that become pop-culture icons; she was running The WB back in the days of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Dawson’s Creek.”)

Y&C” is a more adult iteration. It owes a lot to “Gossip Girl” — someone at the school is running a TMZ-ish website loaded with gossip about Central Rochester High.

It’s called “Croch — C for Central; Roch for Rochester. And, yes, it’s pronounced “crotch.”

There are language and attire that would not be tolerated at the real Ogden High.

Nothing terribly shocking for 2018, but it would, perhaps, surprise some viewers that the eight half-hour episodes were filmed in Utah.

And if “Youth & Consequences” becomes a hit, Ogden High will end up in the pop-culture lexicon. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened in Utah — “High School Musical” fans still take selfies in front the East High building in Salt Lake City.

It doesn’t always happen, however. Ogden High was featured in a couple of movies — “Three O’Clock High” (1987) and “Drive Me Crazy” (1999) — that didn’t become big hits.

Ubaldi is hoping that changes.

It’s an amazing location for us,” he said.

Streaming • All eight episodes of “Youth & Consequences” begin streaming Wednesday on YouTube Red (youtube.com/red). Subscribers get one month free when they sign up; it’s $9.99 per month after that.