In difficult times, young adults need shows about them more than ever.
Adolescence and early adulthood are challenging no matter what’s going on in a young person’s life, and doubly so when they’re growing up in a high-stress, polarized environment.
TV gets a lot of things right about young people, though it still misses the mark sometimes.
American Shows Need To Take Some Lessons from Degrassi High (and Degrassi: Next Class)
Degrassi HIgh feels like it’s been around forever. I remember it being on PBS when I was a kid, not that I ever watched it then.
But if you want to know what writing young adults properly looks like, you’ve got to check out Degrassi: Next Class.
This show featured a ton of LGBTQ+ relationships, but the thing is, saying that only scratches the surface of why it is brilliant.
LGBTQ+ shows shouldn’t ONLY be about being a queer kid. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but there’s so much more to being young, and our LGBTQ+ identities aren’t our only identities.
This is especially true if you’re Black or Indigenous or Jewish or any other marginalized identity.
Your queerness is only one part of who you are, and LGBTQ+ representation should show the diversity in the community.
Degrassi: Next Class did that by including people from different cultures and showing how their culture influenced their queerness and vice versa.
This show, which sadly only lasted two seasons, is most properly classified as a teen soap. This means that it features romances, problems with parents, addiction issues, and other things that are of interest to young adults.
It was also designed to appeal to Generation Z, which means there’s a lot of smartboards, cell phones, social media, and other tech that today’s kids are familiar with.
But despite these gimmicks, the characters are well-rounded and realistic, which is something that we sometimes miss on shows about young adults.
Watch Degrassi Next Class Online
One of the few shows I can think of that’s anything like it is the recently ended Good Trouble.
Like Degrassi, Good Trouble featured well-rounded characters who had stuff going on in their lives. It wasn’t JUST about being LGBTQ+, but about being a young adult whose LGBTQ+ identity was part of who they were.
That’s the kind of LGBTQ+ representation we need more of!
Watch Good Trouble Online
Also, There’s More To Being A Young Adult Than Romance
Shows like Good Trouble and Degrassi High have a LOT of romantic subplots. In a way, that makes sense.
After all, young adults are new to the game of love.
Every crush, every meaningful look, every fight… all of these are super intense when it’s your first or second love.
Plus, love triangles, insecurity, jealousy, and other relationship roadblocks lead to strong drama.
That said, sometimes shows aimed at young adults focus TOO much on romance, especially those shows that straddle the line between teen drama and soap opera.
Young adult shows tend to fall into one of two camps: the teenager who has found the person they are meant to be with for their entire lives at 16, or the teenager that quickly jumps into a relationship with someone else when their heart is broken.
(These two are not mutually exclusive, of course.)
In reality, teenage love life is full of drama, but it gets tiring when shows focus too hard on the romance angle, especially when it involves too much partner-switching.
I was thinking about this when I read an interview recently with Leo Howard, who plays Tate on Days of Our Lives.
Howard was glad that, unlike many soap opera characters, Tate was level-headed enough that he would be honest with his ex-girlfriend about having moved on. However, he attributed Tate’s quick change of partners to that being the way teenagers are.
To an extent, Howard is right — some teenagers do jump from one partner to another.
Yet, it bothers me that this trope is so prevalent on shows involving teenagers.
The easiest, most common way to create drama is for somebody to get their heart broken and then jump into bed with someone else, usually their ex-partner’s worst enemy.
Even though that might be quasi-realistic, shouldn’t TV strive to do better?
Shouldn’t there be SOME shows that show teens who are real role models, whose lives don’t revolve around relationships, who do something other than jump from one relationship to another?
Young adults are into SO many things. And yes, crushes and relationship drama are part of teenage life, but what about idealism? What about after-school clubs? What about conflicts with teachers and parents?
When there is too much focus on romance, it starts to feel like the message is that that’s the only thing that matters, which is a terrible message to send, especially for shows that focus on girls.
Watch Days of Our LIves Online
Additionally, this exclusive focus on romance often leaves out asexual teenagers.
Both Heartstopper and Sex Education introduced asexual characters, making them the exception to this rule, though Heartstopper did a better job of getting it right.
Heartstopper Season 3’s Isaac storyline was brilliant because it demonstrated how left-out asexual teens can feel when their friends begin dating.
Isaac was happy for his friends when they got into relationships, but he felt like a third wheel, which often happens when you don’t have crushes or an interest in dating.
Watch Heartstopper Online
Conversely, Sex Education’s asexual storyline was mostly forgettable, which I have mixed feelings about.
On the one hand, not focusing on it allowed O to be a human being who was asexual, but on the other, it got lost in the bigger storyline of O trying to take over the sex therapy business.
That just points to the fact that we need more stories about asexual characters, period.
That way, the ones that are not explicitly about asexuality don’t bring up questions about whether they’re strong enough representation.
Watch Sex Education Online
Where Do Fantasy Shows Fit In?
Shows like Riverdale that have supernatural elements, superhero shows, and vampire shows have always been popular with young adults and still are.
There are a lot of reasons that these shows speak to young adults. They’re about people who are capable of doing extraordinary things, and often the heroes are the ones who are outcasts.
The message behind these shows is that young people can do anything, including unimaginable things, and that they can make the world a better place.
Obviously, these shows aren’t realistic, yet they include some of the best depictions of young adults on TV.
They offer young people dealing with difficult situations (remember how problematic Jughead’s father was on Riverdale Season 1?) and not only surviving, but thriving and being able to help others in even worse situations.
Watch Riverdale Online
Over to you, TV Fanatics.
If you watch a lot of young adult shows, especially if you’re the target audience, I want to hear from you.
Where do you think TV gets young people right? Where does it need to improve?
Hit the comments with your thoughts.