Most actors only get one breakout, but Maddie Phillips already has two. As Cate Dunlap in Gen V, she was a mind-controlling student whose secrets weighed heavier than her powers. The role cemented her as a rising star in the ever-expanding The Boys universe. But long before she was bending memories at Godolkin, Phillips was sharpening an entirely different skillset.
In Netflix’s Teenage Bounty Hunters (2020), the actress steps into the role of Sterling Wesley, a seemingly typical Southern teen with a not-so-typical after-school pastime. She hunts down fugitives with her twin sister, Blair (Anjelica Bette Fellini). Overall, the show takes a vibe, you’d never quite expect — it’s a clever dramedy with dark undertones that allows Phillips to showcase a certain quick timing and charisma you don’t often get to see in a superhero spin-off. Needless to say, it’s a performance so good it almost makes you wish the show had gotten a second season.
Maddie Phillips Is the Star You Know, With the Range You Don’t
As Cate Dunlap in Gen V, Maddie Phillips became the show’s unexpected knockout. Her mind-control powers were scary enough, but what was truly haunting was the barely concealed guilt and loneliness underneath. This wasn’t some one-note villain. You could practically read Cate in a raised eyebrow or in the way she’d hesitate before reaching for someone’s hand, and it’s like, “wait, who is that actress?” Netflix had the answer to that question all along. Three years before Gen V, Phillips was already leading Teenage Bounty Hunters as Sterling Wesley. This role was a far cry from what she served audiences on Gen V, as the only thing that was out-of-this-world about it was the idea that a teenage girl’s side hustle was catching criminals.
What’s more, the series gave something rarely afforded to young women on TV: the freedom to want without judgment. Sterling’s breakup with her longtime boyfriend was not handled as a scandal or anything unusual; she just needed to figure out who she was outside of him. And how? The turning point comes in Season 1 Episode 7, “Cleave or Whatever,” when Sterling is forced to work on a joint project with April (her academic rival). In an unexpected twist, Sterling kisses April right in the middle of a conversation about her family. There’s a brief pause, but then April leans in and kisses her back. Phillips plays that moment with such authenticity and vulnerability that it’s hard not to get sucked right in. Cate Dunlap may have broken the internet, but Sterling Wesley walked so that she could fly.
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The High Stakes/High School Blend: Why This 94% Rotten Tomatoes Hit Was Canceled Too Soon
On paper, the premise of Teenage Bounty Hunters sounds like a joke. Two prep school girls stumbling into bounty hunting after denting their dad’s truck and suddenly needing cash? In what world? But that is exactly the point, and who doesn’t know that absurdity is right in executive producer Jenji Kohan’s wheelhouse? (Weeds made audiences root for a soccer mom running a drug empire; Orange Is the New Black turned a minimum-security prison into one of TV’s richest ensembles.) With this one, Kohan and creator Kathleen Jordan hit the same nerve: ordinary suburban life colliding with danger and scandal. And not to mention the emotional weight between the gags. Sterling’s romance with April (from academic rival to secret first love) gave the series its pulse. It really felt like Jordan was going somewhere with these two, peeling back layers of identity, faith, and desire in a way that teen shows almost never get right. The show dove headfirst into subjects of religion, sexuality, and privilege without ever losing its sense of humor or its nerve
The genius of the show is how it plays its satire completely straight. The characters are never in on the joke, and that’s where the real humor comes from. They approach bounty hunting and Bible study with the same dead- ass seriousness, and Maddie Phillips, in particular, sells it by leaning into Sterling’s earnestness. The whiplash between how she prays for forgiveness with the same conviction she brings to aiming down a gun barrel is hilarious. It’s Veronica Mars by way of the Bible Belt, all wrapped in a slick Netflix package.
Critics adored it, hence the glowing 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. But just as it found its rhythm, Netflix swung the axe. The decision felt especially cruel because the foundation was already laid for more: sharper cases, deeper satire, and twin chemistry that only got better as the season went on. It’s been five years since Netflix pulled the plug, but Sterling, Blair, and Bowser still feel like they’re mid-chase. Their single, near-perfect season is a testament to what happens when sharp writing and fearless performances collide with a completely unhinged premise.
So, if you loved Maddie Phillips in Gen V, or if you’re just hungry for a teen drama that actually has something to say, Teenage Bounty Hunters is your next binge. It’s sitting on Netflix right now, a classic that never got to finish its sermon.
