Teen dramashave been popular with viewers, old and young, for many years, and the 1990s and early 2000s were the heyday of the genre. With networks dedicated to telling these stories, actors were thrust into the spotlight at a very young age. These new stars were given a variety of topics to cover in their respective shows, fromteen romance showstosupernatural teen dramas, and some of them aged better than others. Of course, when watching a show from 20 or 30 years ago, it stands to reason that the storytelling won’t be the same. Still, it’s important to have conversations about how some of the most beloved TV characters handled things.
While it’s important to be able to express oneself creatively, some level of self-awareness and respect is imperative. A lot of teen shows wanted to be edgy, subversive, and took on topics liketeen LGBTQ+ representation, sexual assault, teen pregnancy, and gun violence. There’s a danger in introducing such complex issues in a soapy setting, and inevitably, a lot of these storylines did not age well. Then there’s everything that happened behind the scenes. Sometimes pressing play on an older show isn’t quite as pleasantly nostalgic as one might think.
Dysfunctional Families & A Lot Of Privilege
Gilmore Girls
In the fictional town of Star’s Hollow, single mother Lorelai Gilmore raises her high-achieving teenage daughter Rory. Mother and daughter rely on each other throughout their own life changes, romantic entanglements, and friendships.
It might seem a stretch to have issues with this beloved and oft-rewatched fan-favorite, but there’s actually a lot wrong with many of the relationships on the show. Deliberately shocking storylines aside, like Rory sleeping with a married Dean, or Lorelei dating her daughter’s teacher, there’s a lot else to explore.Mom Lorelei Gilmore(Lauren Graham) is presented as the heroine of the whole show. Quirky, hard-working, and charming, she may seem like she’s always in the right, but the truth is far from that.
The issues with her parents stem not only from their controlling nature but also from Lorelei’s privilege and sense of entitlement. Her protectiveness of Rory is often incredibly rude, all her romantic decisions are quite selfish, and she actually isn’t as great a mother as one might originally think. Acting as a friend first and mother second to her daughter backfires a lot, as they argue like teenagers instead of one person being the adult. While the show shies away from problematic topics, the lack of diversity, judgmental attitudes, and privilege all seem to be brushed off with a laugh instead of being addressed.
Glossing Over The Bigger Picture
Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is a drama mystery series that stars Kristen Bell as the titular teen detective who learns the ropes from her father, a California police sheriff. Following a “crime-of-the-week” episode format, each episode sees Veronica tackling new cases while carrying on her High School life, with a more significant, overarching plot carrying between episodes. Veronica’s side career begins following the death of her best friend, which sets off a chain of events leading to several smaller cases.
While trying to emulate the feminist icon that was Buffy Summers, the creators ofVeronica Mars, created another resilient teenager who tries to be a hero. However, setting it in the real world as opposed to a fantasy one, brings a lot of real-world problems with it. It might seem a charming idea to have a young, female private eye investigating mysteries in high school, but other than some “mystery-of-the-week” episodes, the show focused on broader-reaching plots that lasted the full season.
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One of those was having her best friend Lilt (Amanda Seyfried) having an affair with her boyfriend’s father, multiple cases of sexual assault and even blowing up a bus. These stakes feel very high, and they’re not always handled in the most respectful way. Veronica’s sarcastic nature can feel cruel sometimes, especially with people she’s trying to help.
Too Much, Too Soon
Young Americans
A spinoff of Dawson’s Creek, this drama explores themes of forbidden love, morality, social classes, and gender roles in a prestigious boarding school setting, where students navigate complex relationships and face personal challenges while forming bonds that transcend societal expectations.
The show did not last particularly long, in fact, it only aired 8 episodes, but it was able to fit quite a lot of problematic content into that short time. Hailed as the nextDawson’s Creek, the production even set up a crossover event with the successful teen drama. It starred a young Kate Bosworth and Ian Somerhalder, among others, and seemed to feel the need to be as edgy as possible. With the main themes covering potential incest and a class divide among the already very privileged, a lot of the stories seemed tone-deaf at times.
There was also the introduction of a trans-inspired storyline, which the writers must have thought would give them the shock value they needed. It featured a female character enrolling to an all-boys school and developing feelings for her roommate. The language of how to handle such a complicated topic clearly wasn’t developed enough back then, and watching it all now feels wrong on many levels.
Unadulterated Loathing
Popular
Popular is a television series centered around the lives of Brooke McQueen, a popular cheerleader, and Sam McPherson, the editor of the school newspaper, as they navigate high school challenges. The series explores their evolving relationship when their single parents become engaged, intertwining their contrasting worlds.
Themes of popularity are abundant in teen shows and movies, and having a whole series dedicated to it was just a matter of time. Rival cliques are represented in the most stereotypical ways, as a blended family navigates their two teen daughters developing a relationship despite being on opposite sides of the high school food chain. Brooke McQueen (Leslie Bibb) is bubbly and popular while Sam McPherson (Carly Pope) is the more goth, alternative person who shuns the shallow notion of popularity.
The show’s writing is quite witty and biting, as it tries to tackle subjects like anorexia, teen sex, and peer pressure. It’s jarring to see conventionally attractive cast members being referred to less than, and bullied for their appearance, and as was prevalent at the time, the humor can be construed as cruel. The language lacks inclusivity, and the show found it hard to handle subjects, especially connected to LGBTQ+ issues. There are a lot of interesting aspects of the show, but watching nowadays requires a lot of preparation.
Not Quite The Same As The Original
90210
Beverly Hills 90210, the 2008 series, is a spin-off of the iconic ’90s show, focusing on a new generation navigating the complexities of high school life in the wealthy world of Beverly Hills. The series takes drama to new heights with more modern issues as it follows the Wilson family and their friends between their personal relationships and dark secrets.
Like its inspiration, this teen drama wanted to shock and delight, with edgy plot points designed to keep viewers on their toes. Unlike the original, the show tried to make the cast more inclusive, and try and blend humor with melodrama. On some levels, it succeeded, but the use of popular-crowd tropes meant it lacked any originality that was such a draw ofBeverly Hills 90210, which was very much one-of-a-kind at its time. The nostalgic connection to the source material was severed quite quickly, and the stories descended into chaos.
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An affair with a priest, working as an escort, and a hit-and-run all just happened to one character, Annie (Shenae Grimes), and there are quite a lot of abandoned plot points. The show had a few good years, and viewers did enjoy going back to the famous postcode, but it faded into obscurity among the long list of teen dramas.
Bordering On Self-Indulgent
Dawson’s Creek
In the small town of Capeside, Massachusetts, fifteen-year-old Dawson Leery and his friends — tomboy Joey, class clown Pacey, and many more — experience the highs and lows of teenage life and coming of age.
Through the lens of nostalgia, this may seem like one of the best teen shows of all time, and while there’s a lot that’s great about it, watching it nowadays can have its issues. With four very strong leads in James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, and Michelle Williams, the characters had some of thedefining relationships in ’90s teen dramas. It kicks off with a parental affair that affects the (already self-absorbed) main protagonist and is immediately followed by a student-teacher romance and race issues.
Soapy in nature, and filled with mundane situations which seem like life-and-death occurrences, the characters are all very dramatic at every turn. The dialogue was groundbreaking at the time, as Kevin Williamson’s wordy scripts were mimicked by viewers across the world, but some of the pathos and earnestness feels a bit off after all these years. Not to mention the choice to unnecessarily kill off one of the most interesting and beloved characters of the show at the very end.
The Opposite Of Gleeful
Glee
to escape the stressful reality of high school, a group of misfits decides to join William McKinley’s glee club. Fox’sGleewas created by Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk,and Ryan Murphy, with Leah Michele, Jane Lynch, and Matthew Morrison leading the cast. The series ran for six seasons between 2009 and 2015 and won six Primetime Emmys.
Groundbreaking and incredibly successful at the time, it’s hard to watchGleein the same way now after all that’s happened. With scandals behind the scenes andthree notableGleecast members passing away, there’s a sinister feeling among all the perceived glee. First, there was Corey Motheith, who died of an overdose while the show was still on the air. He had his own dedicated episode, “The Quarterback,” which served as a way of healing for his castmates but it feels impossible to watch now. The drama between Lea Michele and the late Naya Rivera also adds to the experience, as the tension is palpable.
Its attempt to tackle extremely complex issues through the medium of song and dance is also difficult to execute. While Jane Lynch’s skilled performance includes enough of a mix of comedy and seriousness to warrant her controversial character, the same can not be said of Matthew Morrison. His relationship with the students feels almost inappropriate, and it’s no wonder he did not stay for the full run of the show. The latter seasons seemed to flounder a bit, with more stunt casting and less substance. After such joyous and happy beginnings, after nearly 10 years,Gleeleaves a bitter taste.
Drama In Front Of & Behind The Scenes
One Tree Hill
Set in the fictional town of Tree Hill, North Carolina, One Tree Hill chronicles the complicated and intertwined lives of its residents. Following half-brothers and rivals Lucas and Nathan Scott as they compete both for positions on their school basketball team and for the affection of their fellow students, Tree Hill’s community is built around community spirit and the complex workings of the ever-growing Scott family.
It wasn’t set in a particularly glamorous city, the clothes weren’t over the top, but the drama was amped up in every episode. The premise itself is already quite problematic, with two rival sons who share one father. One of them, Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) is less well-to-do, and his single mother, Karen (Moira Stewart) seems to have been ostracized for the teen pregnancy that resulted in Lucas being born. Meanwhile, his brother, Nathan (James Lafferty), lives the high life in their father’s mansion and is the star of the basketball team. The reasons why there’s so much hate among this group of people seem very difficult to comprehend in modern-day society.
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As the storylines got more and more salacious, the show’s big focus was a love triangle between two best friends and Lucas and the many issues between the brothers. There was a distinct lack of feminist threads, and a lot of the focus seemed to be on the more outlandish melodrama. Behind the scenes, a whole other story was developing. With the creator (allegedly) making many of the female leads feel uncomfortable, and even seeing Hilarie Burton leave because of this, a lot of negative stories had come out since the show ended.
Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare
Gossip Girl
Set among Manhattan’s elite, this drama series follows wealthy teenagers whose scandalous lives are exposed by an anonymous blogger. The show delves into themes of betrayal, ambition, and the complexities of high-society friendships, as the characters navigate interpersonal conflicts and personal aspirations.
There was a point whenGossip Girl reveled in its shock value and how offended some parents would get. A whole marketing campaign was structured around the outraged reviews, using racy imagery from the show, which was innovative and very successful. Some of the topics tackled were obviously exaggerated for dramatic effect, with the characters acting in outlandish ways despite allegedly being teenagers. Sex, drinking, gambling, and drugs were never off the table, and its central theme of cyberbullying was a novel one.
However, knowing now who Gossip Girl actually ended up being, there’s a lot that doesn’t add up. The way Dan (Penn Badgley) was portrayed at the beginning, doesn’t comply with everything it took to be the famed blogger. Everything he did to his family and close friends would border on sociopathy, and the fact that he didn’t suffer consequences feels wrong. Chuck (Ed Westwick) was clearly not intended to be such a hit with viewers, because having him try and assault multiple women in the first few episodes seemed to be swept under the rug quite quickly.
A Lot Happened In Orange County
The O.C.
When troubled teen Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) is taken in by his public defender (Peter Gallagher), he suddenly finds himself on the right side of the tracks. The O.C. follows as Ryan tries his best to fit into the affluent California community while navigating the relentless drama of teen life, but his new home of Newport Beach is a town filled to the brim with secrets and scandal.
With the Adam Brody renaissance going strong thanks toNobody Wants This, many viewers might feel the need to revisit the show that made him famous the first time around. While the show remains an important part of teen drama history, there are a few things that need to be considered when watching it with fresh eyes. The debauchery and hedonism were intended to shock audiences and impress young viewers, but painting Marissa’s (Misha Barton) character as this aspirational heroine was quite dangerous. It glamorized all the struggles she went through, which could have given viewers the impression that it was OK to self-destruct, as long as there were people there to save them.
Quite a few instances of tokenization could be seen in the show’s 4-season run, with some storylines seemingly introduced for the sake of ratings. Most notably, the same-sex relationship between Marissa and Alex (Olivia Wilde) didn’t seem to serve any purpose other than to cause a stir. Most of the characters themselves were quite problematic in their behavior, which, considering how popular they became, could be an issue. Even Brody, as Seth Cohen, had many flaws that affected those closest to him but were perceived as charming quirks that made him so magnetic.
