Teen dramas are often a genre looked down upon by adults. Most teen dramas deserve our disdain. But there have been a few over the years that I think have been filled with such quality writing and acting that they transcend the genre. My picks...
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The title sounds pretty silly. The premise sounds like the title. But what you're missing is the brilliant metaphor at the core of the series: High school is Hell. Joss Whedon has crafted a show that perfectly captured the adventures of a group of teenage outsiders who save the world from demons on a weekly basis. (And unlike his more recent TV creations, people actually watched this show!
) It's also filled with great witty dialogue. BONUS: The spin-off, Angel, is the greatest TV series of all-time.
Roswell. I just started re-watching this show. I hadn't seen it since it originally aired 10 years ago. I suspected that it wouldn't hold up, especially not after gorging myself on Buffy DVDs. Pleasantly, shockingly, I was wrong. Roswell posesses an earnestness rarely seen on teen shows. The characters aren't trying to be ultra-clever or set fashion trends. They're just good people trying to do the right thing. It just happens that some of them are a bit... different. More than anything, this show has one of the strongest casts I've ever seen. I especially love Liz & Maria. And on re-watching this show, I'm actually starting to understand what Max & Liz see in each other.
Veronica Mars. Part teen drama, part detective show. Most of Veronica's cases were pretty trivial. Occasionally a murder would slip in there. But no matter the stakes, the real fun was seeing Veronica constantly outsmart everyone else, including Sheriff Lamb. And yet Veronica wasn't infallible. Often, just when it seemed she could do no wrong, we'd find out that her father was still a few steps ahead of her. This is one of the few TV shows to deal with class conflict. Neptune was the ultimate clash of ultra-rich "Haves" and working-class "Have-nots." Veronica & her father belonged to the latter category and their outsider status made their victories all the jucier.
So what are some of your favorite teen dramas? Why?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The title sounds pretty silly. The premise sounds like the title. But what you're missing is the brilliant metaphor at the core of the series: High school is Hell. Joss Whedon has crafted a show that perfectly captured the adventures of a group of teenage outsiders who save the world from demons on a weekly basis. (And unlike his more recent TV creations, people actually watched this show!
) It's also filled with great witty dialogue. BONUS: The spin-off, Angel, is the greatest TV series of all-time.Roswell. I just started re-watching this show. I hadn't seen it since it originally aired 10 years ago. I suspected that it wouldn't hold up, especially not after gorging myself on Buffy DVDs. Pleasantly, shockingly, I was wrong. Roswell posesses an earnestness rarely seen on teen shows. The characters aren't trying to be ultra-clever or set fashion trends. They're just good people trying to do the right thing. It just happens that some of them are a bit... different. More than anything, this show has one of the strongest casts I've ever seen. I especially love Liz & Maria. And on re-watching this show, I'm actually starting to understand what Max & Liz see in each other.
Veronica Mars. Part teen drama, part detective show. Most of Veronica's cases were pretty trivial. Occasionally a murder would slip in there. But no matter the stakes, the real fun was seeing Veronica constantly outsmart everyone else, including Sheriff Lamb. And yet Veronica wasn't infallible. Often, just when it seemed she could do no wrong, we'd find out that her father was still a few steps ahead of her. This is one of the few TV shows to deal with class conflict. Neptune was the ultimate clash of ultra-rich "Haves" and working-class "Have-nots." Veronica & her father belonged to the latter category and their outsider status made their victories all the jucier.
So what are some of your favorite teen dramas? Why?
