The series features several high-profile social-media stars and celebrities—including Liza Koshy, Hayes Grier, Meghan Rienks, Leo Howard, and Aislinn Paul—and focuses on a group of high-school students who are trapped inside their school when a nearby chemical plant explodes, resulting in residents and other infected students turning into mutated freaks.

The series follows a group of students who gather for school detention on a Saturday at Kent High.

When a nearby chemical plant explodes, they must work together to find a way to survive with only limited resources and protect themselves from those who have turned into freakish zombie-like creatures as a result of the fallout.

Sonia Saraiya writing for Variety called the show "a silly, lightweight half-hour, somewhere between horror thriller and teen soap" and ultimately said "The show never quite becomes interesting enough to transcend either the dully predictable beats of zombie horror or the plodding angst of young adulthood.

"[5] Neil Genzlinger for The New York Times said of the show "Here in the age of zombie TV, lots about 'Freakish' seems familiar, but with the episodes shorter than a half-hour each, the series goes down easily.