The series n00b has been created by Victoria Boult, daughter of former Queenstown district mayor Jim Boult, and Rachel Fawcett.
It originally started as a series on TikTok, but quickly gained one million views and 20,000 followers.
Ms Boult said the series, set in a fictitious Gore high school in 2005, revolved around a young man and his double life.
"It follows a young man named Nico Bennett and he"s the king of the school.
"He"s head boy, he"s on the rugby team, he"s got this gorgeous girlfriend — he has a perfect life.
"But he has one big secret, which is that he writes gay fan fiction online.""
When his secret is exposed he is forced to find his place in the world.
"Essentially over the course of the series, Nico sort of has to discover who he authentically is,"" she said.
Ms Boult said the series dealt with the use of the internet and how it helped people connect and feel empowered.
"I think that, for a lot of young people, the first time that they feel truly accepted is by random strangers on the internet, and that"s really insane.""
Ms Boult said the idea for the series came in part from watching her older brother"s journey with his sexuality in early 2000s Queenstown.
"Seeing him kind of struggle with coming out at this time period when he really struggled to be who he was,
"I"ve been able to kind of acknowledge how much resilience and confidence and bravery he had to have.
"He, in a lot of ways, inspired the series,"" she said.
The decision to set the series in Gore was made after remembering an infamous Havoc and Newsboy segment where Gore was lampooned as "the homosexual capital of New Zealand"" and "dirty old gay Gore"".
Ms Boult said she really enjoyed Gore and felt very welcomed when she and a production member came down from Auckland, where the series was predominantly filmed, to get B-roll footage.
"I think it"s super-friendly, super-lovely.
"It feels like it"s a slower-paced place — it"s just so calm and chill.""
Although the series did deal with a lot of intolerant views and behaviours, it focused more on growth and acceptance, Ms Boult said.
"I think the show is trying to condemn homophobia and homophobic views, but simultaneously also allow for acceptance and growth and change,"" she said.
"Essentially what the show is about is finding the beauty and friends and community in your small town.
"I completely understand if some locals are perturbed or struggle to find the comedy in the first episode, but I promise, if you stick with the show, you"re going to find comedy and beauty and a love letter to small towns.""
Gore District Mayor Ben Bell said he welcomed the show as another sign of Gore's growing prominence.
"I think you're being picked as the central location is awesome, assuming it's a positive light, and it was pretty cool to see Gore as the main feature on the most recent Air New Zealand safety video, too.
"So we"re clearly making some sort of way.""
Mr Bell said he had not found the town to be homophobic, but welcomed the conversation.
"Small rural towns definitely have that stigma, but I don"t personally see that in my day-to-day goings-about.
"I think it's exciting that there's going to be a bit of television that centres around Gore.
"And I think facing some of those issues is good."
The show premieres next Thursday on ThreeNow.
