Teen shows, oh how I love them
A friend of mine, The Big Brain, contends that there are no such thing as bad teen movies–they’re either good, or so bad that they’re good anyway.
In my current TV rotation, I watch several teen shows: Veronica Mars, Life as We Know It, The O.C. and Joan of Arcadia.
Previous beloved teen shows include Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I contend should have ended at the end of Season 5), Daria, and the much-lamented, short-lived My So-Called Life. There were other teen shows that I tched for a while, but then gave up when I couldn’t stand them anymore: Roswell, Smallville, and way, long ago, Beverly Hills 90210.
As you can see, I’ve long been a fan of the genre. I’m also a fan of young adult literature, and the novels I’m writing are YA. It’s easy to figure out why I’m drawn to teen shows, at least the well-written ones. Being a teen felt complicated, but it wasn’t, compared to parenthood and mortgages and jobs, etc. So it’s a lovely escape to watch people who think their lives are complicated, when they’re not. Also, being a teen was confusing and largely sucky. Good teen shows capture some of that confusion and suckiness, but edit out all the truly awful parts as well as the mind-numbing boredom as well. So viewers can empathize and laugh at the moderately tough stuff, sub-consciously be glad that they’re not seeing the really brutal stuff, and not have to endure the dull stuff, all the while living vicariously in a skillfully written and edited much simpler time.