the problem with teen dramas
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- čas přidán 17. 07. 2021
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Selected Sources:
The changing portrayal of adolescents in the media since 1950 by Patrick E. Jamieson & Daniel Romer
slate.com/technology/2017/12/...
southblueprint.com/15150/opin...
www.teenvogue.com/story/probl...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...
www.indiewire.com/2019/08/eup...
www.thebatt.com/opinion/the-se...
www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019... - Krátké a kreslené filmy
the idea of “you’re not cool if you’re still a virgin” bothers me a goddamn lotttttt as a teenager
It bothers me at 22 :(
@@aestaeticedits7998 😅
No matter the age, its dumb as shit
Honestly tho, I have always felt ashamed of stil being a virgin at 20. But now that I lost it, I realized I really wasn't ready to lose my virginity at a younger age.
right :(( especially bc it's such a problematic social construct
I wonder why they don't just make these shows be set in university. Everyone would be overage, the actors would look appropriate and these behaviours are much more common in uni than in high school.
I’ve wondered that as well, I agree!
Maybe they decide against that because not all potential viewers attended collage, producers may lose viewers because of this.
I read somewhere that its because alot of potential viewers cant relate to college experiences in shows because many never went to college, so that demographic is lesser than high school
I also wrote a comment about this but recently people have been in college more than before so I think it can happen
This is really random, but a lot of 90s-2000s Bollywood films I watch including a young folk plot that is typically seen on western tv in HIGHSCHOOL, is most often set in a college or university setting. This has always been really interesting to me growing up.
Edit** with college students///ADULTS
the most realistic "student-teacher" relationship is the one in anne with an e. it isnt romanticized at all, it shows a sad a dangerous reality of teenagers being exposed to abuse.
im so sad they cancelled this show😠
@@strawberryshortcake5505 me too!! I'm not very into shows, but I absolutely loved anne with an e🥺
Yep that whow is an amazing show that would be great for teenagers and what do they do? Cancel it
and cruel summer
omg just do not let me get started on that scrumptious pie of a show. ugh
In Euphoria, why does it feel like only Rue’s mom was actually worried about what her children were doing 💀
THANK YOUUUU and she's not even doing it that well either
@@omelettexmoa2995 she really don’t but I mean at least she was concerned 😭
And even then she can't really be all that invested in her kids bc (I assume) she's a working single parent and by default she can't always be there for her kids. Which I think is why Rue is able to get away with a lot of shit.
my joke is because the parents are all Gen Xers. If they were millennials, the children would all have tracking devices and parents who demanded to know where they were every five minutes as we were raised by clingy parents, and Gen Xers were latchkey kids.
Like there's a scene on season 2 when Nate is having a snack and his parents were on the kitchen like "oh I miss my high school" MA'AM YOUR 17 YEAR OLD SON ITS HAVING SEGGS and then yelling at the girl like wth
A lot of teen drama would work if they were set in college. A large majority of teen drama sexualize minors especially young girls and it effects how young girls are perceived in society. It’s weird how the media loves to talk about how “promiscuous” teenage girls are dressing when we literally get sent home for wearing legging or a tank top
It would fix the whole thing
@@lesbiangoddess290 Exactly, but they wanna act like 14 year old freshman girls are boy crazy and can’t form female friendships that don’t end because of a boy
exactlyyy
Exactly. When I was a teenager I was wayyyy too insecure to wear leggings as pants and crop tops. I didn't start showing a lot of skin until my 20s.
Yes, it would also fix the lack of parenting in these shows. Like parents appeared once in a while only argue with their kid. Of course there are parents like that in real life, but the shows only use them as plot devices.
All these shows being extremely sexualized though honestly influenced me a lot into thinking i had a 'boring' life and i was expected to do more things as a teenager and experiment more.
They have this idealized version of youth which is almost unattainable for most teenagers, and they made me feel like I'm missing out on life. They also seem to glamorize so many things teens should rly stay away from, imo
@@heywhat6676 me too. Especially during covid, I feel like I failed myself cause I didn't go to prom or go to a dumb "house party"
My little brother feels EXACTLY like this and it angers me so much that the media feels it’s okay to indirectly make teens have these huge, unrealistic expectations on what their teenage years should/should’ve been like. I mean, you’re still so young, enjoy it. You can still be a kid and no one (especially not the media) should tell you otherwise
I felt like this through almost all of my teenage years. When I went to uni at 17, I felt like a was a failure for barely ever having kissed at that point, and I rushed things a lot by the time I turned 18 to fit in and feel like I wasn't "missing" anything, and in the end I regretted it deeply cause it brought me a lot of trauma, toxic relationships with older men and with myself. I'm 22 now and gladly I can see how damaging it was and got over it, but I feel for the younger girls who might go through the same kind of experience :(
@Sleepy Celeste PLEASEEEE THEY STRESSED ME OUT TOO😭yall i have POC parents i would've been put straight to rest BYEEE
That’s my problem w/ euphoria. I just question the morality of a show where a grown man writes and directs teenage girls…what does he know about being a teen girl or what we went through? Not to mention the show casted teen idols, very shady.
He personally contacted Faye, a former cornstar, to have a role in Euphoria.
And her role is a drug-addicted prostitute. Coincidence? I think not
@@macshaneeee Yeah he “found her on insta” and cast her because “she was so funny” surely not because she starred in a Euphoria porn parody /s 🙄
He absolutely creeps me the fuck out.
@@MsJessala which actress are you talking about? did that really happen damn
@@Dwight_ Chloe cherry (Faye)
people who say that this show shows an "Extremely realistic" representation of ALL high schools in America clearly doesn't have their head screwed on straight
Shout out to “Derry Girls” for having young adults play teenagers nearly perfectly. The clothes, the hair, the preoccupations. I love it.
Yesss the best teen drama, nothing too heavy and sexual. Truly the best
Yep. This is what I clicked in to say. Derry Girls is perfection.
YESS. It’s a teen drama I actually loved watching with my dad 🤣
Yasss maam
While orla and clare are literally kindergarten enfants
I have to admit, I'm getting tired of all the shows just revolving around sex and sexuality all the time. Although it's perfectly fine to include these types of storylines here in there, many of the shows just use sex scenes whenever they get lost with creating a good plot twist or a complex scene that would help develop the character.
This!!!!!!!!!! I always say this about GoT which does use sex in the plot, but also (imo) heavily overuses it for shock factor. It is becoming everyone and their mom's go-to move for shock
@@bikothrifto Yeah like it’s either someone dies or someone gets fucked.
@@bikothrifto What a wild show honestly
Yesss, especially with shows portraying teenagers. Supposedly the point is to portray and critique the reality of teens lives but they never do so and instead just end up creating borderline CP
@@kissesfromkalise ah yes, the two fanfiction types
"Betty and Veronica are dressed like adults" Veronica is constantly drinking like she was a wine mom.
when she said "i feel like teenagers are a fetish for grown people who hate their early teens" i felt like *omg*
it hit so deep it's at the bottom of the Mariana Trench
i fucking love that quote.
Hey I know this video is like 2 years old, but I want to ask a few things, especially regarding media that focuses on adolescents and coming of age.
Do you think the authors intent to potray their characters matter? Like for example, Shuzo Oshimi. He focuses a lot on teen sexuality and body, and most of his works are a explicit. Everytime I read his works, I always think about Euphoria, Riverdale, etc, medias that depict teen in overly sexual/adult situations. But with Oshimis work, he always states that it’s always based on his experience and most of the panels aren’t glorified like Euphoria is. So, does it make sense to compare the two as the same level? Or is it different in a way that Euphoria glorifies teens doing horrible shit?
Gonna be honest, as a teen I literally questioned how anyone found the time/places to have sex. Like, did their parents just not care where they are or something?
me too lmao like dont yall got a math test to be study for or 🤨
same like some of y'all can't even drive yet lmao
same i'm like bro where r u parents
Literally lmao. I couldn’t even go anywhere unless my parents drove me.
exactly like where r yall finding these hotel rooms and frat houses and stuff lmaoo
These shows never talk about school. I can’t tell you how many times I cried myself to sleep because of how stressful it was. Same with so many of my friends who are actually worried about getting into a good college. These characters just get into Harvard and Yale and NYU. It’s always about sex and drugs in these shows which yeah do that if you must but they are completely ignoring the biggest part of being a high school teenager- HIGH SCHOOL.
Literally I cannot stress this enough. Like we don’t see one scene of the characters studying but at the end they’re moving to Boston because they got into Harvard? Something’s not adding up here.
@@shresthamisra9810 Absolutely, I cringed so hard when Elle in The Kissing Booth got into a ivy league school while that was suuuper unrealistic. Kinds feels like a slap in the face for everyone who works their butt off and does not end up there. I got so mad and I'm not even American xD??
I'm trying desperately to think of a live-action series that addresses schooling and academics consistently and... yeah, nope. The only series I can think of that shows high school kids learning, doing/avoiding homework, struggling with their studies... is the first season of Teen Wolf? WHICH IS LOWKEY HILARIOUS.
I can vaguely recall Gilmore Girls emphasising the stress/competitiveness of academia but I wouldn't call that show a TEEN drama.
Other than family dramas, it's animated shows like "As Told By Ginger" and "Haikyuu" that show genuine school drama - dreading tests, struggling to balance extracurricular activities, unsuccessful studying...
Of course, anime is very, VERY guilty of using high school as a "default setting" and the sexualization of school uniforms is a serious social issue in Japan (and where a lot of globally popular fashion trends/movements were developed, by teen/young girls, in contest). Western animation, cringe "adult" cartoons aside, is far more relatable in its depictions of childhood and schooling.
I think "Never have I ever" and "Dawson's creek" show quite a bit of the studying part, portraying characters cramming, stressing, and even having panic attacks. In "Dawson's creek" particularly, the characters end up in different universities according to their performance in high school and economic background, and one of them does not even go to university at all.
Also, in the 1990's "Beverly Hills, 90210", they show a clear difference in the daily lives of characters who have different studying habits (Andrea rarely goes out to parties and has great grades, Kellie goes out a lot and doesn't push herself academically so she is able to graduate but doesn't do great). Learning disabilities are also addressed, as are some of the faults of the education system, cheating, economical struggles, etc. It's the 90's so the general mentality is quite different from now, therefore there is lot of double standards regarding what's deemed appropriate for girls and what is for boys. But as long as you keep the fact that it is a 30 year old show in mind, it's great!
I know, right! I've always felt like a lot of teen dramas just fail to show people actually study's or caring about their grades and just show them getting into Harvard or Yale. I think this creates a narrative that schools doesn't really matter because colleges will accept you either way
Another thing that teen movies and shows consistently get wrong is the nature of bullying. If a clique of catty girls or gang of jocks tried to show dominance, they would be laughed out of the hall. Few kids are expressly mean like that. Discomfort in high school for me (also six years ago) came from feeling isolated because everyone was extroverted and you weren't. Or joining a class where everyone had a friend group except for you. Or feeling the pressure of picking a whole damn career at 17 while juggling AP classes. Witty banter is virtually nonexistent.
Lmaoo honestly there is no clique that bullies you all the popular kids at my school are pretty chill lmaoo and when I was bullied it was a few people that'd I consistently see and even then they weren't the popular types
As someone going thru puberty, this is so true
Exactly. Even as someone in college who is still going through the same thing and also having to reevaluate my career choices I do not relate at all to a lot of teen dramas.
It’s actually scary how different peoples high school experiences can be. My hs was the typical jocks are popular and band people are not. And yes, people were openly mean to others, in the ways depicted in movies & shows. Some shows like 13 reasons why are possibly a bit of an exaggeration. But, just because your hs wasn’t like it is on tv, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist at all!
Yep bullying for me wasn’t a few catty girl being mean. It was a sort of implicit ostracism where no wanted to hang around with me, no partners for group work, no one to sit with at lunch, no one to talk to and no birthday invited. It was a not organised but everyone was has implicitly heard or saw me as the weird ugly quiet girl.
"Teens are sleeping around"
Bruh i'm a 21 year old virgin who didn't know she was asexual until just a few months ago because all the media I consumed was so freaking sexualized to the point I absolutely felt like the biggest outcast, which also leads me to the lack of asexual representation because they force sex on every. single. show. and it's starting to bother me quite a lot
Omg I feel you. Everybody is putting it on a display and searching for some kind of sexual identity, a very one-sided approach.
o god are you me lmao I am like the exact same as you bro
Finally someone understands too!!
I'm so happy I'm not alone with such an experience. I hope there is going to be more asexual and/or non-sexual media. Maybe we ourselves can try creating it, hah)
Anyway, glad I found your comment. My best wishes. 💜
Yea it’s so annoying oh my god…
Does anyone else wish we had more shows that were stylized like teen dramas BUT set for people in their early to mid 20s? Like, where's the representation for the kids just entering the workforce, rebuilding their life after college, trying to become adults?
I feel like there's almost no media about that phase of life!!!!
right? im 20 and until nowadays i would rather continue watching the early 2010's nickelodeon shows than whatever netflix is releasing lol. i dont get it why sex needs to be a heavy influence on most of these teen dramas. i get it that teens are discovering themselves and all that, but there are others aspects that theyre also figuring out which are mostly faded out completely by sex alchohol and drugs. i made a video on my channel going through this and how concerning it is to the younger generation who have fully access to these shows labeled as 'teen dramas" (sounded like a boomer saying it lol)
i know people either really love or really hate the show, but i think that’s why friends was so popular-because it was a sitcom about all those day to day struggles but in the perspective of 20 year olds out of college who are trying to find jobs, navigate relationships, etc. it also wasn’t overtly sexualized (like they never showed stuff on screen) but they were able to talk about characters having multiple partners/having *snacks* (lol) and it wasn’t weird because they were in their 20s!!
I like the Magicians, but it is a fantasy more young adult version to Harry Potter and Narnia. But it was nice seeing people around my age at the time.
RIGHT!!! Please I’m 20 and I would love that
@@brooke6860 Even in its first release, Friends had a lot of very problematic elements to it that made me hate it. And now, I hate it even more. It hasn’t aged well, and it’s gross how many people continue praising a show that made so many fat jokes, rape jokes (predatory behavior of drunk women), jokes about someone clearly dealing with mental illness, possessive behavior that borders on abusive, etc.
it's so frustrating to me that a very easy fix to most of these issues would be to just make shows about college students instead of high schoolers: you can hire 24 year olds without them looking out of place, it's also a formative time with a lot of rituals (at least in the us), it's more realistic to have characters doing anything but school work because you have more leeway in setting your schedule and you don't live with your parents anymore, and it can be aspirational for teens who will soon themselves go to college, what's not to like?
That sounds so amazing.
College also opens up a lot more world building and plot development. I can only handle some “extraordinary” teenager moving to some small town and getting involved in some weird love triangle before I break
YESSS! That's what I've said too! So many more interesting things happen AFTER high school
it's probably because they know a lot of people don't go to college and they want the audience to be really broad. they also know teenagers are the primary audience for these shitty dramas and want to make the main characters their age.
I agree so much
I got called boring by a grown man because I, a 20 year old, didn't want to do sex stuff with him. It's really sad how stuff like this has caused folks to see sex as the ultimate indicator of being "interesting"
disgusting...
A lot of guys do that to manipulate girls. Disgusting behavior.
I was asked by a grown man whether I was a virgin at 15 (!!) and when I said yes he asked why. And that's like ... what makes you think it's okay to ask that, why do you care, and also just so overall gross.
And I hope you punched that guy in the throat or at least got to cuss him out or something. Wish I had ✌
@@xLiLlyx98sadly... He was asking this to see if you're okay to sleep with men so he think he might have a chance
Believe it or not men really think pretty women cant be Virgin im starting to think about becoming a lesbian at this point
also the fact that all the main characters in euphoria are underage girls undergoing sexual acts... depicts the presence of the male gaze, especially since the director is a male. I think it would be make more sense if the director was a female who actually want to demonstrate teenage girlhood through their OWN experiences, and not through the eyes of a male director, who bases every females storyline through sex. I mean for example euphoria glamorised the fact that Kat, an underage girl, becomes a cam girl, and tries to boost her self esteem by reinforcing the male gaze and undergoing sexual acts. Now euphoria could have presented that in another way, with a moral towards the end or a backlash on what she is doing, or a revelation- such as that she does not need male validation for confidence. however, that does not happen. Hopefully they might fix this in season two, but if not :((. I mean yes it is somewhat realistic that some teenage girls do conform to the male gaze due to low self esteem, however it is not in the glamorised nature depicted with Kat in euphoria.
Yesss, 100% agree, i do hope they fix it in season 2, btw love ur kurt pfp 😎☝️
DING DING DING DING YOU GOT IT
Your comment reminds me why I absolutely adored watching ‘Birds of Prey’ - it’s all female-gaze! It was so much fun to experience. It would be very interesting to watch significant Euphoria scenes reshot with the female gaze in mind.
ayy nice pfp
I can honestly agree, my teenage days were a little bit like euphoria, but way less romantic, more traumatizing even. Especially the relationship between Nate and Maddie. Or the drug abuses. This show doesn't really make it seem that way.
Watching this show actually, makes me nostalgic in a way so I forget the overwhelmingly bad things that involved this lifestyle because it puts this shiny and aesthetically cool gloss on it, that I am really concerned for teens because I also used to think I need to experience such traumas, because that only validates how well you spent your youthful times nowadays.
why do teen shows have to sexualize teenagers? and why can’t the producers just make it about college?
Because they're pervs.
because they're targeting an actual audience of teenagers in high school. they also probably dont want to alienate the tons of people who dont go to college.
Because it's a plot convenience when the characters' housing and income are mostly taken care of by their families.
right? makes me worried, cause when i was younger i used to watch disney and nickelodeon, which i watched until i was like, 15/16, but my younger sister and most children nowadays watch more netflix and other streaming services instead of tv, and it somewhat seems easier for them to have access to mature content that is being labeled as "teen drama" and i hate that. i made a video on my channel going in depth on this and how stupid and gross it can be
Because teens are the target audience duh
Something that bothers me is that I am 21, but everyone says I look 15. I feel like that has a lot to do with media representation, as people forget what an actual 15 years old person looks like
YES! i’m 14 but i was watching a more realistic teen show called sister sister. i remember watching it thinking that all these characters looked like they were in middle school when they were all in high school, i think now it makes teens look a lot older than how they really look
@@_zxlyy I love sister sister! It's more realistic than modern TV teen dramas. The 90s actually had TV shows with teen actors playing teens
Same omg I’m 21 too and on my tiktok some of videos get taken down / reported cause they think I am a minor
And even when you're actually 26, they treat you like a teenager.
lmao i'm 19 and recently a lot of people started saying that my younger sister looks older than me. i assume it's because she wears make-up and more stylish clothes (lots of pinterest and tiktok influences) while i walk around with a bare face, boyish haircut and the irresistible combo that is graphic print t-shirts/hoodies and jeans
being told that i look "childish" or "immature" doesn't bother me, but it is kind of annoying how nobody would bat an eye if i looked more like a man in those same clothes
Especially with the glorification of sex, we need to call out more of these pervy writers/producers. Sophia Bush said she fought with her “boss” (probably Mark Schwan) over a lot of her underwear scenes in One Tree Hill because she didn’t think a 16 year old character should be seeking validation that way or perpetuating that behavior to the audience. I’m glad more and more people are recognizing how unrealistic and dangerous these tropes are
I hate that Euphoria is so popular and that there are teens who feel like they should emulate it. Skins was the show that made me feel like I was wasting my teen years but not wild’in all the time, and it also made me feel unattractive when the reality was I just had a baby face!!
Meanwhile when I watched skins I thought "finally, a show for me, that shows mine and my friends lives". Even though we are Australian, it's the closest I've ever seen to an accurate depiction of how my teenage years were.
I'm literally 13, in 7th grade meaning the people in my classes are 12-13, and so many kids in my classes talk about euphoria and it's so odd to me
@@ilovecatssosomuch same here man it’s so weird a lot people my age are obsessed with europhia it’s not even that good
skins was much better tho
@@petscopkid no but fr i got bored like a few minutes in LMAO
As an Irish person, considering most teen dramas are usually american, I just always assumed american high school was way more intense than school here
It was for me but I was in high school a little over 10 years ago I think it differs from place to place and there are usually a few groups of girls who live like this at every high school
I think the same thing being an Brazilian
Same
As an American, I was scared to go to high school because of how Tv shows would portray it. Now that I have actually just graduated from high school, it was never like that at all. Yeah we had kids who were going to parties and being drunk but other than that, everyone just minded their own business
i'm from mexico and SAME
Let’s get into how the gossip girl reboot teachers need therapy IMMEDIATELY
Spoiler:
The first episode you literally had a teacher take a picture of a 14 year taking off her clothes and then they have that whole freshman and almost senior relationship going on😑
@@user-us7py1cy2k What were they thinking
Edit: wording
Absolutely
I really like the reboot if only the teachers could just disappear forever 🙈
i thought funny the blonde teacher looks way more young than the students, for the clips mina presented
This is one of the reasons why I love heartstopper so damn much. it has amazing representation, it doesn't sexualize characters and they don't rely on drugs and alcohol to have a good time. they do normal friend group things like movie nights and sleepovers which doesn't put pressure on anyone. PLUS THEY ALL LOOK THEIR AGE
Yes!! Heartstopper is really AMAZING!!!
YESSS!! Heartstopper actually depicts what real teens act and dress like! Such an amazing show
heartstopper was such a breath of fresh air
The actors are all teens so it makes sense that they look their age
Its so nice
I love that at the birthday party there do seem to be people drinking, but in such a realistic way compared to other teen media! I feel like it could be unrealistic UK to pretend that that party wouldn’t have underage drinking lol
I feel like most teen dramas would be better if the setting WASN'T high school. Why not make them young adults in a work place or college? School is almost never a thing in these dramas (homework, classes etc) anyways, so why not just scrap it? lmao
High school is a more universal experience that justifies having a variety of people being in the same social group. And the "scandal" of these shows is part of the appeal, it just won't hit as hard in a show about adults.
As an introverted teenager, I find that making friends/connections and being social, for me, is always at my extracurricular activities or somewhere else besides school. There are few personalities that actually thrive in that kind of environment, if any.
greek is a great show that is based in college and is about greek life and sororities! the things that happen in that show make so much more sense
A big problem is how many people forget that teens are still minors, we're still kids. Yeah, we may have 'teen' at the end of our age and but we're minors, why the hell are we being sexualised?
I also think that when teen drama portray mental health issues (especially depression), it's highly romanticised and it's not realistic in the slightest bit.
Fr like they don't show the real representation of teens instead they somehow throw some drugs, Seggs scenes and violence and party. As if they are trying to sprinkle more salts onto the troubled and boring lives that we are facing as teens by making it more like its some kind of fun interesting substance driven party than what really is the truth. Enough said😤🙅
y’all woke up today and chose to state facts
I’ve been feeling this a lot more as a senior in high school. I’ve never had a boyfriend/girlfriend (except for that one time me and my best friend dated in 8th grade, but even then we didn’t do the nasty) and all it does is make me feel more and more isolated and separated from what teens actually experience. I know a few of my friends HAVE had sex/smoked, and it doesn’t feel glamorized, but when I see it in media it makes me feel like I’m not getting the full experience and that’s my fault.
Torn on the mental health part of this cause I think Euphoria handles that better than people give it credit for. Rue is a self proclaimed unreliable narrator - her drug addiction/mental illness is glamorized, but it’s also interspersed with the consequences; how it destroys her life and effects the lives of those around her. As someone who suffers from depression and anxiety, I could relate to Rue self-harming by not going to the bathroom for hours/days bc she didn’t want to get out of bed, the forms of self-medicating when you can’t afford therapy (ex. escapism), that you can be high-functioning and social(ly awkward) while being depressed. It’s one of the only current ‘glam’ teen show I’ve seen bring some realism to it, as opposed to others.
Also, they never show mental illnesses besides depression or anxiety, and even with those its like: either full blown panic attacks all the time or crying. And then when they try to show eating disorders its rushed or unrealisitic, and its always skinny girls.
Literally the only “real” teen show I’ve ever seen is Derry Girls. Way less OTT partying and way more your mom making you stay home and wash dishes and stuff 😅
Yea being a teenager is way more boring than a lot of shows make it seem.
That show is great!
I love Derry Girls! The characters are hilarious!
So true
Derry girls is so good!
Euphoria being “aesthetic” and having “cool music” makes people forget that these characters are minors doing ADULT things. For example, the cam girl plot with kat was so disgusting to me? Like I enjoyed seeing her become confident and embrace herself but the way she went about it was weird asf especially because she is a MINOR(in the show). However, Jules being on a gay dating app seemed weirdly common? Like minors are often on dating apps even when they aren’t supposed to. It’s weird but more common than you think.
Stranger Things seems to have done a fantastic job in transitioning the main characters, El, Will, Max, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin, into high school, without aging them considerably through the costume design, despite a few of them being 20 (Still they are definitely closer to age with high schoolers than teen dramas so that helps too). El and Will dress similarly because they are siblings now, with El experimenting with mismatching patterns because she is new to the experience. Mike and Dustin dress nerdy and wear club t-shirts, while Lucas wears sporty basketball clothes, showing they 3 are trying to fit in somehow with this new environment, whether it's through a club or a team. Max's high school wardrobe is probably my favorite, just because it fits her situation this season so well. She is grieving and is having to tackle through counseling during school, so her clothes are muted, dark, and disheveled. None of these kids are wearing glamorous updos or makeup, instead plain faced, even tired, and some with unkempt hair. Some of their classmates have more elaborate looks and makeup, but it's all very fitting for the time period. They act act and look like freshmen, and it's quite refreshing to see. It's weird, because in season 1 and 2, the main cast that were in high school at that time were Nancy, Johnathon, and Steve, with some other minor characters like Billy, and they were treated more with a "teen drama" direction. There was more alcohol, partying, sexual scenes, and they generally looked more grown up. I think they were still dressed well for the characters they were, such as Nancy, being smart and a good student, wore cardigans and skirts, Steve with a rich boy polo look, Johnathon wearing poorly fit clothes since he was poorer, and Billy with more tight, hip clothes since he was displayed as your more typical bad boy. Anyway that's a rant LOL.
I totally agree with you they handled it so much better than shows like riverdale,euphoria Ect.
You can't make a show that's a "commentary" on how young girls and teens are sexualized while ALSO sexualizing them. Make it make sense, y'all.
this is how I feel about euphoria
THIS!
^ Literally what I said about that gross movie "Cuties" on Netflix
@@janefins261 i think cuties was going for the shock effect but i agree it neutralises the message.
Yes!!!
The thing that bothers me the most is that no one is normal. I mean, don't they actually study? Work? Spend time with parents, siblings? Walk their dogs? House chores, nothing? Only party, sex and drugs? I understand there are teens with those type of lives, but they aren't the majority, and these aspects aren't simply neutral, but problematic and should not be romanticized the way they are being. Also, NO ONE HAS A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR PARENTS! How? I loved my parents when I was a teen, they were my best friends, and I'm sure I'm not the exception. They use complicated family dynamics so the teenagers portrayed can be more vulnerable to bad influences or prone to making wrong decisions, thus maturing faster, whatever that might mean.
Same i am 15 and a virgin , never kissed a boy / girl ,never broke any rules , have a great relationship with my parents and always stayed home and studied and whenever I watch this teen dramas/ movies i always think my life is boring or i am normi or a basic girl 😓or i am not living my teenage life properly .
Well I mean it’s a tv show, nobody is gonna wanna sit down and watch someone do the same thing they do for escapism.
@south paw Honestly same, don't let it keep you down though. Just keep living your life and doing what makes you happy and let relationships come naturally 😊 that's what I've been doing! 👍
ik what you mean and i hundred percent agree but it wouldn’t be “entertaining” for viewers because it should be melodramatic. it’s always overkill but i think that’s what ppl think teens and young adults wanna see?
One show that comes to mind for having actual teen actors is Saved By the Bell. Yet that show helped set some of the most unrealistic expectations for how teens should look.
Nobody above the age of 23 should play a teenager, I'm sorry.
I agree it should be 18-23 year olds playing as teenagers.
problem is they're all still in drama school
Exactly
most actors are not around that age tho
Or "behind the scenes" videos of these shows should clarify the actors are much older than teens.....
I always wonder why some "teen dramas" have to be set in High School, like, why is Euphoria based in a HS?, why can't it be during college?, some of the stories don't have to be set during our teen years
Also, I always had uniforms during my school years so idk how accurate this might be in other places but I still to this day can't understand how can a teenager be allowed or even be able to wear high heels during school, like yeah, fashion and whatever but how can a 16y/o walk from class to class in heels. The clothing choices really don't make any sense in some of these shows at all
euphoria deals a LOT with finally dinamics each more teens are going for than college students
Having adults portray these teen characters just adds to the oversexualization of young women. Teenagers are not these model-esqe beautiful people. They are awkward and still developing humans with acne. This kind off portrayal just adds to body- dysmorphia. These characters are so sexualised and it's really predatory
Facts
I don't disagree with that feeling, but there *are* teenagers who mature (in a physical sense) faster than others, and not recognizing that also leads to fucked up results. I remember being one of the most awkward girls in middle/high school and seeing people bully girls and boys that looked older than the rest of us. Sometimes it was because the girls were "too good looking", sometimes it was because the guys had beards already. Not all teenagers look "awkward and still developing" throughout their whole teenage and treating those who don't as rarities almost lead to a s*icide in my school.
Sure, grownup-looking teens being the norm in TV and movies is fucked up, but you get what I mean.
@@mariaah3073 I 100% agree with you and I wish people would realize that portraying all high schoolers as awkward, less matured ( physically and mentally because I also feel that some high schoolers who are more mature mentally get seen and treated as adults in some cases ), and not hot but not all highschoolers are normal type of looking attractive ! I have seen many high schoolers who do look like high schoolers which ofc can make you question if they’re really high schoolers or not but it’s reality , so ofc it’s not taken to a serious extent and you obviously believe they’re high schoolers !
Completely agree!!
@Ana Clara Oliveira Koski do you mean young royals? in that case ahem omar who plays simon is literally gorgeous i-
Honestly: where are the teen dramas about studying and actual high school shit? Like bRUH come on make a whole commentary about the education system! Talk about cheating scandals, kids trying so hard to balance school life, home life, and an existential crisis about what are they gonna do after hs. Ugh where are the writers who can accurately portray how social media is like without being cringey? There’s no real most popular girl or guy in hs, it’s all cliques now even.
The writers of these shows are just outdated with the cultural aspects of hs and don’t even think about today’s teenagers.
The writers still think its the 80s when they were in school. 😂 And even then it probably isn't 100% accurate to that either.
There are some movies that comment on the education system. But those end up being those inspirational movies with the sports team or the bad school that ends ip turning their test scores around. And those focus on the teacher/principal/coach instead of the students.
I honestly wonder why they didn't just base these teen dramas in college?
Try SKAM Norway or asian Dramas. They potray the struggle of school life very well
Watch Skins!!!
Derry Girls portrays very well the highschool struggles in a religuous school lmao
If you read manga, Ao No Flag (a romance manga about three highschoolers who are figuring out their dubts in love and life path) and Tetsugaku Letra (a manga that follows a highschooler with depression caused by an act he is guilty for and he's trying to find passion on life again with some friends and some flamenco girl shoes) are good portraying less-representated subjects and feel relatable.
I’d fully recommend you to watch “Young Royals” it’s on Netflix and even if the story isn’t really focused on academic stress etc. The storylines are very realistic and the characters actually look like high school teenagers
In year 8 (I was 12/13) , I liked and adored my history teacher. I was obviously a child and it’s natural, but because of shows like riverdale and pll, I was genuinely convinced I had a chance. I feel sick thinking about it, thanks god I never acted on it. these shows are harmful.
One of the reasons I like Anne With An E so much is that the teen actors actually look like teens. I sort of subconsciously believed all 'real' teens looked like mini adults, when most people mature much more slowly
Frrrr
I get that they don’t want to hire actors that are under age, but it’s not like they hire 18-21 year olds they’re usually around 26
Some of it may be that they don't make a big deal about someone who is just out of high school playing a character a few years younger. The ones who get mentioned are the ones who were almost a decade older than what they were playing. When we keep hearing about the few were able to pull off playing a teen at almost 30 we ignore that the rest of the cast was much younger.
@@conniethesconnie I second this. For example the actors hired for the two main characters in Teen Wolf were both 19, which is old enough to not deal with the pretty strict child labor laws in the acting industry, but still young enough that they were believable as high schoolers (at least relative to other teen shows). But just like with most news, the more "exciting" topics are talked about more often, which leads us to believe that these events are more common than they are.
Because 16-18 year olds are SUPER difficult to work with!
Thats because they want the actors to actually have some acting skills and experience. There are some young actors who are very talented but they are also expensive, and if you want a good performance, you ll look for a more experienced actor/actress.
A lot of the times a 21 year old looks the same as a 26 year old tho.... younger people seem to think that you age a lot in your 20s but you actually don't. Your face stays relatively the same unless you're like a heavy smoker or some shit
There’s no reason for a show about highschool to be rated R… it’s a show about HIGHSCHOOL
euphpria im looking at u lmao
Exactly, at most tv 14
literally as a teenager I've never watched any of this contented and I AM HORRIFIED . we are not super hot 20 year olds !! o my life teenagers who watch this must have such bad body image issues ! I'm so glad , I never went near this stuff . I had to skip throughh loads annd i'm not watching the rest because I'm so shocked at now we''re portrayed and I don't wanna freak out
@@omelettexmoa2995 but aren't some r rated things true
@@Coolbeans-bd2yw i mean yeah true but with euphoria they exaggerate what goes on in hs. there are plenty of rated r movies/tv shows that are very informative and true, euphoria just so happens not to be one of them
I feel like Euphoria is really messed up. you can't let a teenager watch that. it was all about s3x and drugs and never faced an actual problem (for example they could have talked about parents not accepting their lgbtq+ kids, which it's a big issue). all it showed was a completely wrong portrait of young people and it was really really bad in my opinion. also, the fact that Kat was the only overweight character made me fell like I'm a minority because I don't have a perfectly flat stomach. being a little overweight is extremely common in real life - especially for teenagers who are going through a lot of changes - and tv shows always use skinny, "perfect" teenagers.
True, it’s only the one token overweight boy or girl when in real life being fat is so common!
Especially the seggs scenes...like why did they make them so graphic?? It was sort of uneccessary.
Not to sound like i'm defending how graphic the sex scenes were (cause i agree they were far too graphic) but majority of the sex and drug use had almost immediate consequences. Kat's whole internet thing got interrupted when she encountered that really creepy guy, Cassie was slut-shamed by her peers, Madi and Nate is it's whole thing, and Rue describes her few sexual experiences as awful. As for drug use we see what happens with Rue and how it effects the people around her. And Cassie takes molly and embarasses herself infront of everyone on the Merry go round.
@@jena9853 yup haven't really finished euphoria yet so take this with a grain of salt but i feel like show itself doesn't really romantice does things (to some extent), rather shows how teenagers romanticise it and how it affects them, and because the narrator is a teen it is portrayed in a fucked up light
Euphoria is a show for adults, and not every show is supposed to show what real world looks like or world issues. Tv show are meant to entertain you, not be like real life. Real life is boring, that's why people watch films and tv shows. And most of the teenagers I know are "skinny" so I don't see the problem?
I think a really toxic mindset I’ve had ever since I was at least 11 (I’m 18 now) is that I was missing out on my high school years because I never snuck out and I never had a boyfriend, I didn’t even start smoking with my friends at school it was with my brother at home. And I only ever had like two friends at a time. But thinking about it after this video I had a great high school experience, I went on class trips and I was never bullied. I just didn’t do what everyone else was doing. I never really clicked that these types of shows
I knew I wouldn't have the experiences that many teens in these dramas had because of my parents, but I would still feel a bit left out....
You're not alone, and honestly I'm thinking many teen dramas have aged like milk.....
It’s a shame that ‘everything sucks’ got cancelled as the teenage cast were actual teenagers irl. It feels more genuine and better role models for teens when they see people their own age and not 31 y/o Ross Butler playing a 16 y/o boy.
Yeah and then sydney sweeney from that show went on to Euphoria and we saw so many scenes where she was nude for no reason and it didnt drive the plot / story in any way. I just hope she didnt mind showing off her body but it still felt bad to look at it.
I loved that show as a teenager, I was so sad when it was canceled. Netflix cancels some of its best shows so easily and doesn’t really give them a chance. It felt very real to the highschool experience and dating as a teen.
But Sydney was older than her love interest who was 14 at the time,that's gross
That show was amazing
Yeah. I'm not okay with this was also a great show.
Romanticizing "ezria" was the worst thing pretty little liars ever did. Having them end up together is gross bc they knew their audience was mostly teenagers. At least in the books it ends pretty quickly (doesn't mean it should have even been included at all though)
there were so many other weird teenager-adult relationships (that were more short-lived) - Just the adult men hitting on teenage girls and that being normalized was disgusting
@@DD-hb9gr wren and Spencer are typing...
I never liked those two. It was such a weird dynamic.
i hate that my cousin who's my best friend im close with was like "you wouldnt understand unless you watch the show" when i told her that was a shitty thing. that was the first time i rlly felt my relationship with her crack. we're still besties but i still think about this from time to time cause i never brought it up again so idk what she thinks about it anymore
They appealed to people like me who as a teen used to be into older men. Their relationship was the only reason I tuned into the show. Now as an adult, I see the problem with it.
Honestly I see a lot of myself in Rue from Euphoria because we both have very similar life stories and it hurts to see younger people thinking that her life is cool and edgy, they don't realize the true hell that addiction and mental illness are.
Yeah, I think people should be blaming how teens thing of these shows instead of the creators of the shows. People will twist things and make things seem more cool than they are. All kids glamorize messed up stuff and it isn’t til they are older that they realize it was bad. It doesn’t matter what an adult or tv program is trying to say, the kids will interpret it the way they want.
Y’all should give Young Royals a chance!! It’s honestly such a good show with well written characters and realistic backgrounds. It not only portrays an mlm relationship but also gives representation to neurodivergent people, not stereotyped latino characters, teens who aren’t that build up, real skin texture and so much more. The actors literally look like 16/17 and 18/19 years old which are the characters ages (one of the actors was actually 17 when the series was filmed). It is honestly such a refreshing seres to watch and if you ever watch it make sure to rate it everywhere so we can get a season 2!
FINALLY someone talks about young royals!!! i’m so excited for season two!
And heartstopper too! It's such a wonderful representation of teenagers and relationships.
YES and skam as well
the "but it's realistic!!!" excuse makes me laugh bc not really. kids are boring, they're doing none of that. like maybe three or five of their classmates do have crazy hbo drama moments but most teenagers just hang out with their friends sometimes, go online and do their homework, when they're in normal circumstances. that's it.
ikrr like sure it may be realistic for YOU but not for the vast majority lmao
ikr!! like where is the stress about grades? what about the constant flow of homework? struggle to get into college? also how are these teens meeting up at places when they wouldn't be old enough to drive and their parents CLEARLY wouldn't take them there. Also... where the heck are the parents???
Yeah really. I hate that excuse too. Sure we have kids who have sex or do drugs, but the way that tv shows portray teenagers makes it seem like:
1) They're doing it openly with the parents knowing and not caring. I think most parents would be pissed to say the least.
2) That EVERYONE is doing these things, when in reality, most students are just trying to get through school and get decent grades and stay out of trouble.
3) They are normally extreme (most of the time they are not).
4) It's "romantic" or "beautiful" like tv shows and movies often like to portray underage sex or drug use as. It comes with many negative consequences.
Adults who did the whole sex, drugs, and rock n roll crap as teens don't speak for everyone. Not every kid was/is rebellious or had lenient (or possibly naive) parents.
Plus, I'm tired of seeing that aspect of adolescence portrayed ALL THE TIME. There are other aspects of living as a teenager in a middle or lower class upbringing that can be explored. It feels less like they're trying to be relatable and more like an excuse to sexualize underage characters. There are shows with teen characters who explore sex and drugs but aren't sexualized as much. It's good to acknowledge that these teens exist, but I don't think that the way Euphoria portrays teens in a responsible way that they should. I admire Euphoria for trying to be more honest, but I think that it could be handled better. It seems like they're trying, but they're missing the mark like with a lot of teen shows.
@@elizrebezilmadommdo1662 Yes, all good points. Honestly, in intercity areas/rough neighborhoods, most teens are sexually active and using substances. But in affluent white neighborhoods like the ones in these shows, it is not realistic at all; there is so much more parental oversight in these communities. And honestly better guidance. Teens with attentive parents usually have a lifestyle that is quite tame.
@@starboxamira girl this isn't an opinion...it's literally a FACT. Statistically we're having way less sex and doing way less drugs than our grandparents. Search it up. Most of us are "boring".
stranger things did a good job with the characters. they actually look their age, they dont act like adults and they don’t look “perfect” or “glamourous” all the time.
it was really comforting to watch stranger things cause when the first season came out, I was the same age as the characters. it kinda felt like I was aging with them with every season and they looked relatively similar to how I looked. it helped erase the idea that I had to look like a 20 year old at age 14
That's right!! The characters do look and act like real teenagers.
The characters look and act like actual kids and teenagers
I mean, it started with 10 year-olds. Since they wanted to keep the cast throughout the seasons it would be weird to make them look or act older than they are, especially because older teens and adults watching the show probably still see the cast as little kids lol
yeah but it's also not good and quite boring
I think Gilmore Girls did a good job in their portrayal of teenagers where it isn’t sexualised and over the top
Off topic, but I do think the Spider-Man movies in the mcu also has great teen representation too
Agreed.
There is a new serie called “Young Royals” and almost all the cast are the right age, also it represents really well teenagers, and it doesn’t sexualize them, also I want to add that it shows naturally acne in teens, also it’s not that cliche
young royals is absolutely amazing 🤌
@@lou7707 FRR 🗣🗣
it’s so good !!
The best!!
One thing I also noticed and liked about Young Royals was how one of the main characters was a male LGBTQ plus teen I know a lot of shows targeted for teens are adding LGBTQ plus characters now but I rarely see any male LGBTQ plus characters as the lead. Usually teen shows will just add the stereotypical “gay best friend” character who has barely any lines and no backstory or character development. They also showed him questioning his sexuality without making that the only focus of the show which was nice since several of the other characters had character development and the plot didn’t only revolve around one character.
I feel like these teen dramas gave birth to "i'm not like other girls" girl because they give such impressions about girls when in reality most teens or girls are not really like how they portray it.
the "not like other girls" girl often boasts about how she eats junk food, wears sweatpants, hangs out w boys, doesn't wear make up, etc which are all things teen dramas would never show on screen. in reality, the majority of people won't outright judge girls for those things.
riverdale is one of the grossest things ever when it comes to adults sexualising kids. it's so so unbelievably GROSS.
The fact that grown ass adults are showing glamorized sex between two (or more) MINORS on camera will forever make me uncomfortable. Even if the actors are legal adults, in the context of the story they are minors (CHILDREN). It truly doesn’t need to be on screen especially if it’s not going to be portrayed consciously. I’m a 16 year old girl currently in high school who loves high school dramas. But, the constant portrayal of kids my age being ruthlessly sexualized (especially teenage girls) makes me uncomfortable and objectified.
Also, Sexual liberation is a common plot point and portrays a female character (who is supposed to be a child) as mature. I think this feeds into victim blaming and the whole “your mature for your age” that almost makes fun of grooming and feeds the stereotypes about victims of grooming.
An 18 year old and a 15 year old dating is pedophilia on the adult’s part. A kid who literally just got out of middle school dating an adult ready to go off to college is grooming but it’s normalized in film because they are both in high school and the younger partner (often a girl) is seen as mature because, again sexualization and being played by an adult actress.
And in most shows, people who didn’t engage in sex are nerds or the virgin main character who is ‘not like the other girls’. Sex is either glamorized or condemned and all of this is being pushed by adults (often older men, might I add) writing a story about actual children.
Teenagers are not adults and they aren’t mature. Sex Education did a good job of exploring the teenage experience as something in between a kid and an adult. They also broke down unnecessary and sometimes harmful stereotypes of teenagers and created a cast of three dimensional people.
I have more but I just needed to get that out. Sex can be incorporated in high school shows/movies, but it does matter how it is portrayed. Just because they aren’t kids, to treat them as adults is irresponsible and creates harmful stereotypes that lead to even bigger issues for teenagers like me, especially teenage girls.
100% Thank you!!! People often forget that People under 20 are Children just because you call them different from 13-19 doesn't make them adult.
And that it's pushed by older men is the most important!
as a 16 year-old, i don't care about snack scenes in teen dramas but i think it's very weird when the scenes are super explicit like in euphoria.
Same. I’m just like.. okay cool they’re having sex. But euphoria is just so graphic and over the top
Id prefer more snack scenes for real
I agree even as a 22 year old it makes me super uncomfortable. Like it's so unnecessary 98% of the time, I didn't need to see Jewels have snacks with Nate's dad or see the p3n1ses in the locker room scene/when Cat was being a cam girl. We could easily understand those scenes without the visuals.
Exactly. There's ways to do it where it's not sexualized or explicit. I thought the sex scene in Booksmart was great because it's awkward, there's no "sexy" framing or lingering on their bodies, and it serves as real character development (don't want to give anything away.) The difference may be that Booksmart was written and directed by a woman and Euphoria is written and directed by a man. So, an adult woman who was once a teenage girl is likely to be more sensitive to her portrayal of them on film than a man who never had that experience.
I'm pretty sure they did that to show how awful and uncomfortable it is, it wasn't supposed to be sexy
As a teen myself, I just wish teen dramas were more realistic. Like no, I’m not trying to get high in the bathroom I’m worried about getting a decent grade on this math assignment.
Exact same!
This is why the early seasons of Degrassi: TNG were so good. It dealt with these intense issues, but there were also side plots about the more mundane stuff like struggling in school.
see this is why i watch almost exclusively asian dramas and anime now lmao like none of these teen dramas speak to me at all. Instead they make me feel like im behind in life lmao
the amount of sex scenes in euphoria is absolutely insane. i couldn't get through the show without cringing at the thought that the characters engaging in these sexual acts are mostly teenagers. it made me feel so icky
it's so weird why can't it be just adults in college and why is it even aimed toward teenagers at all?
I'm 16 and I've been having issues over how boring my summer is currently and how it doesn't look like summers in books or film. It's taken me so long to realise, and I'm still not all the way there, that these romanticized and dramatized versions of the teenage experience are not real. It's incredibly toxic actually :(
Glad you're realizing the truth now.
Me, I kinda knew my teen years wouldn't be like the ones in movies because of my family background.
the only 20-year-olds-playing-teenagers-show I accept is Sex Education, because they don't use that as an excuse to sexulize those characters
Edit: I'm very happy we are all sending love to this beautiful show in the comments
Their characters feel so HUMAN too
The whole concept of Sex Education is amazing!!!
I fucking love this show!!!!!
YES!!
And Derry Girls, frankly just because it's hilarious
The “student-teacher” relationship troupe panders to older male audiences.
Mainly the Older female teacher and the younger male student is a fantasy centered around gaining power. It’s usually the fantasy of “the nerd” / “the outcast” reaching adulthood/manhood through sex with an older woman. It’s “cool” in society for young men to sleep with older women because it shows sexual power, that is linked to manhood.
The older male teacher and younger female student is about asserting power. It’s the fantasy of “well she wanted it too” and “I have a younger woman all to myself”. It’s about maintaining power over a woman(really a girl) who can’t really fight back and probably won’t be believed. It’s a pedophilic fantasy that revolves around using a young girl, who “consented”
Obviously both troupes are toxic and I’d love to see a relationship like this be apart of a teen drama, but the teen realizes that they don’t have power and should leave as soon as possible.
I was going to say it’s more of a male fantasy- which is a weird choice since I’d wager the demographic of teen drama viewers skews more female than male.
But yeah you hit the nail on the head about why guys like it and at this point I’m just waiting for something to send the message that this is not okay. Like Riverdale eventually killed off the teacher and made it clear she is a predator (I think they outright called her one) but the scenes of her looking at boys somehow felt glamorised. And I remember in an interview KJ Apa made it sound like an aspirational romance.
I’m honestly not sure how best to dismantle it as it currently exists. Like on the one hand there is something inherently patriarchal about it being beneficial to either older men or young boys but then there’s the toxic masculinity that does not acknowledge that any boy having a relationship with a teacher could not consent.
I think it’s something that could and should be dismantled but I don’t think a teen drama would be the format for it. Maybe a show where an adult man talks about a relationship he had with a teacher to someone like it’s a brag and his friends point out that’s not okay- he begins to unpack things and realise it’s not okay- and off screen the teacher is in prison? Idk
this czcams.com/video/C0s5nq3PYHA/video.html
@@MrTwentington I think they tried to do that in the show The Teacher on Hulu.
(spoilers!)
The boy realizes that what happened wasn’t cool or right and that it really damaged his psyche. It’s also interesting because the teacher is in denial about being a predator even after they face jail time, which I feel like is really true for how these adults see themselves and what also makes the relationships so dangerous.
Palo alto kinda taps into that , its a great movie where a teen girl (emma Roberts) has a small crush on her coach (james franco) but slowly realizes how wrong it really is and theres a bunch other main characters with awesome storylines as well . I really loved this movie and i think jts one of those movies everyone should watch at least once just as a reminder of how messed up things in life can be
@@MrTwentington
The male fantasy has always been pushed in female-targeted works. Most rom-coms, teen dramas, and even YA fiction is directed by adult men. If women were barred from writing, they’d be written by men too (and often used to be).
The male gaze proliferates all media, regardless of it’s audience. That’s what makes it so insidious. Young girls are literally conditioned and socialized to benefit predators in our society (especially considering how many big film producers/directors have had allegations made against them).
Why are so many young girls attracted to older men?? Because society tells them that they’ll gain financial stability and “power” from this dynamic, even though it’s clearly just a predator exploiting a girl who thinks she knows what she’s doing. Why do girls “fight” for men? Because society tells us that men are valuable and we must depend on them for money. We must keep them interested, meaning all other girls are competition. Yet turns around and also tells us they’re not accountable for cheating because they’re helpless and women must coddle them and cater to them, lest they be tempted into infidelity by another woman.
Obviously, this doesn’t apply to all men. But this is an idea is reiterated time and time again through the male gaze. They write female teenage characters this way as part of some sexual fantasy, simultaneously shifting all emotional accountable on the girl in question while the older man is benefited/rewarded.
That’s why I’m hesitant to support the institution of sex work, especially for girls under 21. I’m not demonizing sex workers or trying to shame them for getting money. They deserve to choose their means of work, and shouldn’t be shamed for it. But the problem is that many young girls are lured into this false and twisted narrative that sex work is empowering for all women, when in reality the institution is literally built off of misogynistic ideals and the exploitation of girl’s naïveté. This “empowerment” mostly benefits men, and the worst kind of men at that. They often don’t realize the psychological trauma that can come form sex work (it’s on par with PTSD) and think they’re in control when they’re ultimately perpetuating an incredibly ped ophilic subset of customers (specifically girls that fall into the “barely legal” area). Again, I’m not trying to blame the girls, I’m blaming the system.
I’m over 40 with no kids, so I’m not the one to say what the kids are doing. But the vibe I get from the teens who are saying”Euphoria is realistic! This is what high school is like!” are the young people who are NOT having these experiences. When you are 14, 15, you are convinced everyone else is doing something, and your the only one who isn’t. You’re getting your info from shows like these, and other young people who are put under tremendous pressure to look and behave a certain way
I just started watching the original gossip girl, and I think it’s crazy how these “15-17” year olds are out at bars and stuff drinking with each other and adults. Like were they most carded?
Can we talk about how tweens don’t really exist anymore. You can see 12 year olds dressing the same was 20 year olds now because of the media
tween more describes the age of the kids right? 12 year olds dressing well and having fashion sense and 12 year olds dressing sexual are different. but because of people associating young people of today with themselves at that age, its hard for them to talk about it. the media is definitely a big play in the way kids dress nowadays. youre right, this is a needed convo
Ikr i felt soo bad about myself seeing everyone my age wearing such “fancy” “cool” “grown up” clothes while me and my friends always wore missmatched clthes or clothing that tweens would wear during the early 2000s
Yeah it’s horrible because I saw a girl who was 13 I believe on TikTok, she was wearing clothes that was completely appropriate for her age but got bullied by so many people for dressing childish, which then leads to these young teens feeling the need to dress more mature.
This reminds me of Jojo Siwa, a kid who dressed like a kid and got made fun of for it. I remember there were so many videos bullying her for acting her age. I’m not happy to admit it, but I unfortunately got on the hate-wagon as well. The funny thing is that I’m 14 and now dress/act my age, I look like the lofi-hip hop girl 🗿
millie bobby brown is an example i think. i feel like she’s older than me and she’s a whole 4 years younger but it’s because of the way she dresses and how she acts
Don’t get me wrong, teen dramas aren’t bad but some of them just don’t include things that most teenagers THESE DAYS go through. It’s just “drama” that older people think teenagers go through.
fr! in my experience, the only people that really watch high school dramas like that are middle schoolers since high schoolers just watch this stuff and go "...wow this sure was written by a 40 year old man wasn't it."
Honestly! A lot of this drama are things kids who are in richer areas go through, or young adults, but played up and dramatized
I don’t think the fans of these shows want them to be realistic. It’s a fantasy precisely because it’s so different from reality
@@heathersaxton8118 that also be true tho, that reminds me in middle school, i liked Riverdale because i thought it was semi-accurate to what high school must be like, then in high school i hated it for being stupid and unrealistic, and now i love it because it's so stupid and unrealistic. Like that show is just so batshit insane
@@aba4055 I also like to watch stuff that’s batshit insane lmao
This is the reason that my favorite series is Skam, all of the actors are either teens or just hit their 20s and the plots and characters are based off of real stories that the creators based off of interviews with teenagers. In the original Skam (Norway) a lot of the actors brought their own clothes and did their own makeup. Definitely recommend!
@Hania Nayla I remember each season followed a different character, I think one season was about a girl struggling with her boyfriend, another season was about a boy figuring out his sexuality, I think another had to deal with being the new kid and living away from her family. It’s been awhile, but I know that all the “main characters” for each season were friends, and characters overlapped between seasons. I also don’t know where you could watch it, so you’d have to dig around
I love the way the characters are handled in "for all the boys I've loved before", is a movie with a lot of cliches but honestly is one of my favorite, and Lara Jean, is frequently seen wearing pajamas, having messy hair and a insanely messy room, which, honestly, I can relate lol
These are professional writers. If they're worried about the show not being entertaining enough without s*x scenes, then maybe they shouldn't be writing for big companies like Netflix. A talented writer can make a "regular" high schooler's life entertaining enough for a show. And at the end of the day, that's what the majority of teenagers want to see; realistic representation of high schoolers. (love ur vids!)
I agree! The key is find the interesting in the mundane! So many writers don't understand that good writing is taking someone who is living a typical life and making it interesting and compelling -- this is what teen dramas are always pitched to be. Instead writers seem to think that normal teenagers are boring, so they throw in super unrealistic stuff like threeways and drug parties which are things that most teenagers don't even experience!
Yup! Realistic in an interesting way. Life as a teen is quite limited due to the time they have to invest in studing, the lack of money that are not from their parents and all the legal limitations that they wouldn't have to deal with if they were adults. But even as a teenager stuff still happens and life is not always boring. I can even give a few exemples that could be interesting for a story based on my own classmates and stuff done in high school (is kinda long and maybe not that fascinating, so I'm apologising in advance.):
Ex. 1: I had a classmate who did taekwondo (and I suppose still does). He had gone to a lot of competitions and even won some medals.
Ex. 2: Six or so of my classmates were in traditional dance bands. They were making money from dancing at events like weddings, parties or cultural events. Two of them had even paticipated with their band at Romanians Got Talent (but sadly didn't qualifiqued) and another televised contest (at this one they did well from what I remember).
Ex. 3: There was also a girl who sung traditiomal music and who also participated in a few contests.
Ex. 4: Another one of my classmates was pasionate about literature, history and psihology, paticipated in competitions in those subjects, became the president of the student council, was not just a quite nice friend of mine but also the source of most of my annoyance during the last two years of high school, participated in cultural events, promotional stands for our high school and in some delegation to participate in a meeting about the education in Romania, had shaken hands with the president during the National Day (For context, it was the 100th aniversary since our country finally became one piece and there was a big celebration at de Fortress of Alba Iulia where the Unification Act was voted and signed in 1918 and of course that our president had to be there. When he prepared to leave he shake hands with multiple people on the sides and my classmate happened to be between the lucky ones. We came to Alba Iulia as part of a prize we won in a contest that spring. So there they were, my classsmate and my 14 years old little brother (who took the place of our other classmate who was supposed to come but didn't want to), in the first line where they must have had a good time..... while I was losing my last bit of mind somewhere in the crowd trying to figure out where those two weasels were and praying for two things: that I find my little brother and THAT OUR PARENTS NEVER FIND OUT ABOUT THE FACT THAT I LOST HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE.), etc., etc. In short, this classmate has a lot to brag about.
Ex. 5: This one is too tragic so I'm not going to give many details, but when I was in either sophomore or junior year one of my classmates got in a car accident. She miraculousy survived but still had to spent a while in hospital. Fortunately she didn't remain with any permanent damage (at least from what I know).
Ex. 6: My profile in high school was Economics and every year there was a contest in which some students from my profile and from the Trade one would participate with some made up businesses. Basically we had to prepare anything that someone could need for their business and then go to the place where the contest was being held in and try to "sell" as many products as posibile (just on paper, the products we brought were just for the aesthetic). The entite experience was really fun. Especially the part when I and my team prepared our stand as we didn't care if we got a prize for it or not, the part where I went on a quest to sell jam, marmelade and pickles derssed as a grandma (I was the mascot) and the part where our homeroom teacher came to check on the girls from the room next to mine and some of my male classmates that were there had hidden from her and she didn't even realised it (and someone filmed the entite scene). 😄 So everything was nice except for the part where we all somehow forgot to notify our homeroom teacher when we got home and she got really pissed at us.😅 And from then on we were known as Jigodiile (The Scumballs).
Ex. 7: And finally, the last one I am going to write about. I had to stay home during my second semester of my senior year due to the pandemic. So everyone paticipated in classes throught either Zoom, Meet or Discord (depending on the teacher). And that's how we also finished our senior year: throught Zoom. So we didn't got any end of high school party, no graduation ceremony, no robes, no ribbons (there is a tradition that we as seniors had to wear some ribbons that we would give to the juniors at the end of the ceremony), no stupid hats that look ridiculous and could very well be made out of cardboard that we have to throw in the air because they are totally not rented. All we had left was a teary last meeting with out homeroom teacher. But did that stop us from anything? Well, of course not. After the lockdown was over we surprised our homeroom teacher by visiting her at her house with flowers, cake, amd some peronalized present (we plotted the entire thing with her daughter so she would be prepared to receive guests). We even sung for her (again, tradition). After that we choose a weekend, rented a cottage in the forest on a period of two days and celebrated there our graduation. After all, if nobody organizes a party for you, you are free to make yourself a BBQ.
AND EVERYTHING WAS DONE WITHOUT SEX IN THE MIX! (probably)
I suppose that teens don't have a totally boring life after all.
Not really Elite by Netflix wich is basically porn with story is rumored to be one of the most succesfuls shows of the streaming service, so teens really don't want realistic films otherwise your indie darling with a realistic aproach would be a mainstream hit, life is not a textbook about moral i am not saying that any of these things are ok at all but the hollywood machine is moved by money if people want realistic stuff we would have that!
Yeah, I mean Gilmore girls for an example, never had a sex scene, just showed a kiss and then they cut the rest and show another scene, and the amount of people who love this show is insane. Same thing with outer banks, which is a recent show made by Netflix.
A good show in that sense is Katie and Alexa
As an asexual, it really bothers me that every single character in these shows HAS to have sex. First of all, that's just not realistic and it also made me feel really anxious when I was younger because I felt like it would only be a matter of time until I had to do this too. But it's totally fine to not date anyone or lose your virginity in high school, or ever! Literally none of my friends dated anyone in high school, and we never get to see that in TV shows
watch sex education on netflix!! they show this in a really great way
@@aksdjkdksja2090 i did and i love this show!!
SAMEEEE
Watch generation!!!
Gosh I was just going to comment that! As someone whos also an ace spec its sooo frustrating.
growing up I tbh just thought something was wrong with me for not having sex or not having this super intense life because yes, I went to school with people who at least in my eyes, were living similiar lives to a typical character in a teen drama and since that wasn´t my case I always felt like a boring insecure kid among all these super confident interesting people.
Hi! You're not alone in those feelings!
"What parents would be okay with their teenage daughter having a relationship with their teacher??" Unfortunately, America has a huge problem with people marrying off their underage daughters to much older men. There's a reason that a lot of states' age of consent laws includes a clause about "parental consent". Again, it's unfortunately a thing that can and does happen to real life teenagers, but it is a traumatic, horrible phenomenon in our country that should be framed as such and not as romantic.
Especially with Gen Z being raised on the Internet, we need some nuanced, GOOD teen TV content that explores online grooming in an honest light. It happens scarily often, particularly to young girls, and under the false assumption that they're more emotionally mature than their peers and can thus enter into a manipulative, problematic age gap relationship.
Yeah so many young girls are in relationships with waaay older guys that tell them that they are "mature for their age", which is a huge red flag.
@@aspannas seriously "mature for one's age" is starting to trigger me so much and I think it would be great if some mainstream media actually criticised it...
You should check out Cruel Summer! It’s a recent Freeform teen drama that portrays a predatory grooming relationship between a principal and one of his students in a VERY negative light. It’s incredibly disturbing at points, but feels like an important message for young teens watching
Sex Education is a great sure and has a Episode about harassment
Weirdly enough, Derry Girls is the most accurate representation of high school I’ve ever seen. The characters are heightened for comedy but still feel WAY more real and honest than anyone on Euphoria or the like
Yes, yes, yes! And even though the cast is in their late 20s (or 34 in Nicola's case) they have a wonderful, authentic awkwardness about their performance and costuming. The show is entertaining while still reflecting the average experiences of high school kids.
i loved the show!!
i love how Derry girls doesn't take itself too seriously but still manages to cover serious issues
EXACTLY THIS! I love Derry Girls!
This and like Inbetweeners as well!! Like Inbetweeners has its flaws but by God do they make me think of guys I know
i think “i am not okay with this” did a good job of making realistic teens for the most part
Another coming of age movie that I think captures being a teen really well is Booksmart!! I watched it and I cant help but recall my life in high school and felt seen after watching it. Would highly recommend!!
Honestly, I love Euphoria, but why can’t they just set it in college? Are they trying to cash in on the sensationalism of minors engaging in this behaviour?
or maybe rather spreading awareness for the fact that teenagers DO go through these things? everyone in the comments is only talking about how unrealistic the plot lines are which,, i don’t understand at all. ive been through a lot of the things portrayed in euphoria, drug addiction, underage sex & exploitation in order to take care of myself, abusive relationships. if there’s THIS MANY people who genuinely think that MAJORITY of teens don’t experience these things, there’s a real problem. it’s more common than some might think and it’s only becoming more common despite the fact that people continue to deny it and bash any portrayal of said issues as “glamorizing” them.
@@summers9052 also even if people don’t relate or think some of these things happen, it’s a drama show. It’s not to showcase a boring life with no overarching themes of hardship
@@summers9052 they are glamorising them tho……. a bit
@@summers9052 ive overdosed and even that was glamorised
@@alina-wh3he bro what...she was vomiting, seizuring, she had to go to hospital, therapy, it wasn't glamorizing
riverdale was absolutely ridiculous for MANY reasons but one of the worst was betty's strip tease in front of all of those adults. gross. the most realistic show was degrassi with its teen actors and realistic clothing, behaviour, and issues that teenagers face
Yeah and they were actually in class and school
The fact that show got 5 seasons (and is still running?) while other shows like Anne with an e got cancelled after 3 is beyond me. I've never watched an episode of Riverdale actually, the edits that exist on YT was enough for me.
i was done after betty's strip tease. no, thanks.
Degrassi come across fairly realistic in its earlier seasons.
Degrassi was so good first few seasons idk about the rest cause I haven’t watched next class and I don’t plan on doing so but the first seasons of Degrassi were so realistic and I actually related to some of it
See this is why I adore Derry Girls! It actually feels like teens without being too graphic and unrealistic. It made me feel so much better as a high schooler to see people who reminded me of myself and my friends
If they really want to cast an adult to play a teenager (because tbf, the labour laws are a good point), then why not cast an 18 or maybe 20 year old as a 16 year old? Because while that's not perfect, they're close in age and relatively close in development, too. Why cast 28 year olds instead??? .....Or just make it about college but I suppose that would be too hard 🙃
I’d also love to see more shows with adult virgins; mostly because NOT ALL ADULTS HAVE SEX. So when Teens see those adults, they realize there isn’t a rush to have sex before adulthood. Not everyone has sex in high school, not even in college! I think the only two examples I can think of regarding adult virgins are “the 40 Year Old Virgin” and on Drag Race of all places. (Maybe Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds? I never finished the show but it was a rare viewing experience to see)
Like? There is no time limit. Hell, you never HAVE to have sex. I just???? Yeah.
Kinda wish there more asexual representation
Maybe Jane the virgin
April Kepner on Grey's Anatomy was a 28 or 29-year-old virgin and was constanly made fun of. The show makes it seem like being a virgin is bad, weird, unattractive, unfortunate, etc. when it is her personal choice. No wonder teens these days are pressured to do it partly for the sake of not being teased by their peers.
This. I feel like we need more twenty-something characters with storylines about losing their virginity (or not losing it_ instead of it being teens all the time.
It is really strange how shows always show adult virgins as being unattractive and unwanted. Like have these people never heard of Adriana Lima the Victoria Secret model???
One show that I do like the costume design of was Gilmore girls, they didn’t try to sexualize Rory in the seasons she was in high school, she dressed like you would expect a 16 year old to dress. Alexis Bledel was 19 in season one, and although she is a very pretty person, and didn’t show much acne and things that teenagers have, her young face made it easy to believe that she could be a 16-17 year old.
Exactly! Plus she was actually studying hard to get into a good school (even though her privileged family helped a lot). She had a regular small town life until she became a senior and went to college hanging out with all these rich kids and partying so it all made sense.
Also, how can I forget about Lane? The actress was in her late 20s-30s the whole show but she actually looked and acted like a teen.
Gilmore girl needs more love man
my thoughts exactly
I might argue Euphoria also is good on the costume department. Sure, we have Kat, Maddie and Cassie who dress a lot more mature but that's because their clothing reflects their life story about constant abuse and objectification, while others like Rue, Lexi and Jules sometimes dress like normal teens.
I started watching Euphoria yesterday and couldn´t make it through the 1st episode lol. Maybe teens are doing stuff like that in real life but I seriously don`t understand why every single teen in these shows has sex, does drugs and has shitty parents. It´s incredibly damaging
I've noticed that in the UK we tend to explore these things more through the lens of comedies or sitcoms, and I think that helps them feel more 'grounded'. They usually live in realistic houses, wear realistic clothes, and act in a more realistic or believable way. It's just a more heightened version of reality.
the PLL writers had no problem killing off all their black characters but daren't kill off Mr. Nonce 😒
Love ur videos
Fancy seeing you here
ahh Taraa we love uu
Omg hi
Taraaa love youu
My teenage years were very boring and uneventful... and I mean literally nothing even vaguely interesting happened. So in my case when I watch teen shows it's like I'm vicariously living through the characters and briefly getting to experience a "wilder" version of my own life. It's also nice knowing it's just a show so I can enjoy those things without having to deal with any negative real life consequences if that makes sense.
yes like the glorification of drugs and having a “wild” teen life, my friends and sometimes i was romanticising doing drugs, drinking etc
This is 100% my life as an 18 y/o I have never kissed anyone I have never been drunk and I don’t have like any friends and have never been to a party and I’m super stressed about school all the time
This is so me. And the thing that bothers me is that I have the mindset of once I turn 18 my life will go to shit (I turn 18 soon) and I feel bad about the fact that I didn’t to anything during my teen years and it feels like I wasted them.
Your user name is so clever lol
@@lissy.f03 I turned 18 a month and a half ago, and don’t worry, high school really isn’t no Euphoria or Riverdale bs. It’s better just to glamorize what YOU want to instead of glamorizing harmful behavior such has having unprotected sx/doing drugs. It’s completely normal to be a normal teenager lmao
I honestly don't know why teenagers are always portrayed to be sexually active when most of us spent our time worrying for college LMAO. I superr agree about why casting a 25+ year old actor for a teenage role is a bad idea. I remember I keep comparing my body to Camila Mendes and I was just 13.
(honestly, watching RIverdale at young age is such a bad idea)
I'm happy I didn't watch Riverdale like I'm still a teen myself but I found it so weird when shows especially those aimed towards teens would ALWAYS have the teens doing something sexual, it's really not needed.
I want to see more dramas about college students, working adults, even middle-aged adults, ANY demographic of people who are at least in their early to mid-twenties because there are so many struggles and transitions we could write about for the big screen, from struggling to date in your thirties or forties, losing a job, getting divorced, raising a family…you know, we don’t always have to see teens opening a condom for the first time in their lives or sneaking into a college party 🙄
The most unrealistic show is elite the Spanish Netflix show, it became a meme what “kids do in the show” (picture of a threesome scene) vs what we did in high school lmao
I love Elite for being a dumb over the top show but you are so right with this. Same with Little pretty things on Netflix. At some point you always have to remind yourself that all those people are 16 to 18 years old and then all those choices the writers made are so creepy.
I couldn’t get thru one episode of it and then my sister recommended it to me saying it was good 😭😭😭
Dios, esa serie es una basura XDDDD
Elite is completely unrealistic and thats why its fun. Shows like euphoria and grand army are what is confusing since they try to be relatable but fail so miserably.
@@No1PlutoSupporter It is good it's just not supposed to be realistic especially with our world I will say season four was the worst offender but I thought season one was realistic for rich teens
Problems I see frequently:
- Social commentary is limited to low effort dialogue zingers with woke buzzwords. Writers think that they're saying something meaningful when it's really just shallow and pandering. They would rather write shallow zingers than integrate themes into the story with subtlety.
- Cringe dialogue with constant references to social media/pop culture and quirky phrases that no one would actually say. It sounds like what out of touch boomers think young people talk like.
- Characters avoid common sense decisions for the sake of tension and plot progression. So much unnecessary drama comes about because of this.
- Almost every story has a part where two friends or love interests have an argument, temporarily break up, then get back together.
I feel you described Riverdale perfectly
@@morganc5154 I haven't even watched Riverdale lol
that second one is one of the biggest annoyances i have with teen dramas lmao it seems like none of the writers have ever actually spoken to a teenager
I agree with everything but the third point could be utilised so much more effectively in teen shows because teenagers often don’t know or understand the consequences of their actions. And shows consequentially show them making the same mistakes rather than ever learning from them.
This is so perfectly why it's just so bad.
Youve articulated everything so well in this that i have nothing to add, you're so right and I absolutely agree! I understand why shows will play up the excitement of high school (it makes for better stakes and also like. Its entertainment it should be entertaining!) but it definitely left me with unrealistic expectations of what hs was like, the most exciting thing i did was probably junior year when i sprained both ankles and lost my voice in the same week. School is really boring and thats fine!
Every time I watch one of your videos I’m blown away by how informative and well done they are. Thank you for existing!
Not sure if it counts as a teen movie since it takes place in middle school, but I thought Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” was really accurate and well done, and also has a message about how girls can often be at risk to be preyed upon by older guys, including older HS boys.
The end scared me so much, I’m glad she said no though
yes!! the way the teenagers in that movie are portrayed is excellent too
i love it! it gets the awkwardness of teens like no other shows/movies anywhere.
in my opinion it’s an awful film but each to their own
I loved that movie it is so accurate!
also interesting, most of the 'realistic' dramas featuring teenage characters like young royals. my mad fat diary, skam, sex education are all european and all the problematic ones like the new gossip girl, euphoria, pretty little liars and river dale are the US ones
Omg yes you're rightttt
It has to due with the fact that Hollywood has always had a huge pedo problem. I don’t know how it works in Europe but I think US shows are so problematic because of the dumpster fire that is Hollywood.
@@vibepolice499 Yeah, most of the time, Hollywood is just more interested in making mindless entertainment and selling it as " relastic" instead of actually making content like that.
wow as a european I didn't think of that. Even though I think it's mainly a Hollywood problem!
“problematic” lmaoo
Every single one of your videos gives me so much food for thought, not something that often happens for me ads I'm constantly thinking non stop way too much about everything
Euphoria having a second season when Genera+ion got canceled is a hate crime honestly
i think sex education is one of the only good teen series out there. yes the actors are still old but the characters were actually written properly. they acted like actual teens. even tho the whole show is about sex the writers managed to not sexualize children. like all teenagers they had problems with sex which were caused by their traumas/personal issues or bad communication and this is something that is actually relatable to teens. also really grateful for inclusion of different sexualities
i love this show!! also love how they study, do sports/theater/clubs and other normal teenage stuff. i definitely think this show is underrated
plus it's very educational
@@pizzagirl71 yeah, at least they do different things on school, instead of only going to class and watching sports competitions. I remember my school years like a series of group projects, researches, deadlines and final exams.
It's the most holesome series I've seen for a while, also ace representation, wooh!
Unpopular opinion: euphoria isn’t that much different from skins, it romanticizes certain behaviors under the aesthetic aspect and once again the actors are supposed to be young but they’re not, like zendaya has been playing a teen for how long? Ten years
like drugs? I feel like euphoria does a good job showing how drugs aren’t a good thing to rely on. It’s a constant theme and nothing good comes from the characters doing drugs. HOWEVER, euphoria needs to work on its sexual aspect. although there are countless warnings about how explicit the show is, some of the nudity feels unnecessary.
Also Zendaya is really great in the role. It’s a very mature show with very mature themes (the show is not targeted to younger teens) so I would never ever want a younger cast in euphoria (even if all the sexual content was gone)
Albeit not for everyone, euphoria has done so many things right and it’s a beautiful show.
I agree to some extent. But for me the biggest difference is that in skins, the characters and the s*x are a bit awkward, so it felt more real in that aspect. (That is true for the first gen, probably less true for the later generations). In euphoria, the s*x and drugs scenes are so highly stylised that it felt almost..... aspirational? I mean, I'm a boring 30 yo woman and even I felt the urge to BE like Euphoria.
TAHNK U
@@cullinmurgas6583 i still feel like it romanticises it a little bit
@@alina-wh3he it doesn't at all, they show it that yeah you get a lot of trippy and beautiful hallucinations but it is a nightmare aftermath
I think adults playing teens is fine but like, maybe choose 18-23 yr olds and no older than that. You made a lot of fantastic points. I totally agree.
Or release a featurette explaining that the actors are much older than teenagers
This video was spot-on!!! When I was a teenager, I had an extremely uneventful high school experience that was more on the side of loneliness and mental health issues and the way the media portrayed the "typical" high school experience caused me to feel left out and abnormal, and that's one of the things I want to portray as an aspiring screenwriter and director, once I'll break into the film industry.
I personally am planning on creating a teen drama show revolving a trio of best friends that will be set in the mid to late 2010's, but I'm planning to make it much more realistic than the average teen drama (although I am a fan of euphoria, however I personally don't find it relatable on a personal level), like making sure the teenagers actually look like teenagers and dress like teenagers (however one of them might dress a bit more older than her age - not in the sense of dressing sexually, but having a bit of a 'mature' and 'put-together' taste - to show that she's a serious and very put-together character), portray problems that go beyond drugs and sex (however those will be featured but they won't be the main focus and won't be glamorized, and anything revolving around drugs is mainly because one of the main characters - who, might I add is the rebel so she's doing stuff teenagers aren't supposed to be doing - dabbles in them several times to experiment and drags some of her friends into the experience for the sake of experimentation but I will add that the characters do face consequences for this and that it isn't something I intend on glamorizing) such as mental health (I have to yet see good representation of this), toxic/abusive parents, and friendships.
What you said about representation is also really important, there's a need for better representation, not just because that'll help minority groups (I'm personally part of a minority, I'm a lesbian) but also because let's face it, writing about characters from minority groups just makes it all more interesting and gives more potential for the writing too! I know I'm intending on incorporating minority characters into this TV drama I'm planning such as LGBT characters, characters of color, characters with disabilities/disorders and Jewish characters (well they're all Jewish really, the show will be taking place in a religious Jewish high school), it's not just good for stepping closer to achieving equality and equal representation but let's face it, seeing the same privileged groups overrepresented gets boring and tiring.
Something a lot of people in the industry or who want to enter the industry forget is that we need to pay more attention to what the public and audiences want to see and what they're comfortable with seeing, and a lot of screenwriters do a poor job at taking a look at what the people around them are saying (why else are there all these glamorized sex scenes in teen drama even though people, especially teens, don't really want to see that in a teen drama?), and I wish more people who enter the film and TV industries, especially those who want to write teen dramas would wish this. You made really relevant and important points in this video, thank you for making this video and even opening my eyes to several points I haven't thought of like teenage characters not being portrayed as clear-skinned all the time. 100/10, would recommend this video for every aspiring screenwriter and director who wants to write about teenage characters to watch. Keep up the awesome work, you earned another subscription!!
speaking of raunchy, unnecessary, borderline disgusting: elite
have you watched young royals? i’ve never watched elite but i’ve read it is kind of similar but better, i love it!
Elite. I feel it should've been set in college rather than high school. Besides the snack, the use of drugs, and among other things, the one thing that took me out of it are the high school uniforms. At least in the US, most of these "students" would've been sent home and the fact it was never addressed bothered me. Students at my high school would be forced to change or sent home for not following uniform guidelines.
@@lou7707 i haven’t cause i didn’t wanna watch another elite hahaha but I’ll give it a try :))
@@mariac7328 yeah, it's really good!!
I agree. IT is so cringey