We Need a Teen Drama Renaissance

The state of teen drama television today is, to put it mildly, a bit of a bummer. The CW that we once flocked to for our dose of superheroes, twentysomethings playing preppy high schoolers, and quirky hits like Riverdale is now primarily focused on sports, unscripted shows, and lower-cost “content.” In December, Freeform, formerly home to staple teen shows like the original Pretty Little Liars and The Fosters, axed both Cruel Summer and Good Trouble. Meanwhile, streaming services like Max and Netflix look like rotating doors of short-lived revivals and constant cancellations.

Of course, the teen drama isn’t totally dead. Some of the gems still around include Paramount+’s School Spirits, Netflix’s Heartstopper, Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Max’s Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, to name a few. But still, there’s no denying that things have shifted from the days of eight season-long high school shows and beloved network channels like The WB. So, where exactly does the genre go from here? If you ask me, it’s time for a teen drama renaissance.

Although the 2000s seemed like a golden age for the genre in many ways, it’s important not to look back on the era through rose-colored glasses. For one, there’s the obvious lack of diversity. Many of these shows — One Tree Hill, Dawson’s Creek, Felicity — starred predominantly white casts, with people of color and LGBTQ+ characters often shoved to the side. LGBTQ+ relationships were also few and far in between — for instance, The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz claimed that Fox wanted the queer romance between Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton’s) and Alex (Olivia Wilde) “wrapped up as fast as humanly possible,” describing it as a “battle” to secure even one kiss between them in “The Rainy Day Women” (Season 2, Episode 14). In order to move forward, we first have to acknowledge television’s past failings.

There are reasons we still look back so fondly on influential teen dramas like The O.C., Friday Night Lights, and Gossip Girl. We were emotionally invested in Joey Potter and Rory Gilmore because their respective shows — with their longer episode and season counts — let us watch them grow up. In today’s age of shorter episode counts, mass cancellations, and the rapid pace of streaming, rewarding journeys like Nathan Scott’s on One Tree Hill are certainly harder to come by.

But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for modern teen drama characters to feel fleshed out. A good recent example is Justin Foley (Brandon Flynn) in 13 Reasons Why, who went from a jerky, popular jock to one of the most complex, layered characters on the show, which only made his devastating (albeit controversial) ending hit all that much harder.

We don’t necessarily need 150 episodes to become invested in these characters — we just need stories that allow them to grow and change and develop instead of simply moving from point A to B. Episodes that consider another character’s perspective on the story (take Jeremiah’s narration in The Summer I Turned Pretty’s “Love Fool”), unexpected relationships that bring out different sides of the characters (Miles and Lola in Degrassi: Next Class), heart-wrenching plot twists like the fate of Shauna’s baby in Yellowjackets… these are the big swings that we need more of. Even if seasons are shorter overall, creators can still make sure each episode counts.

Teen dramas should also consider getting back to their roots. These days, it seems like there are very few shows about teens just being teens. As much escapism as a show like Wednesday provides, it feels like almost every teen drama nowadays has to have a “twist.” It’s not enough for a show to be set in high school; it also needs to have ghosts or magic or superpowers. In the past, countless shows like Degrassi, Beverly Hills, 90210, and the short-lived My So-Called Life simply revolved around kids going to school and dealing with teenage issues.

These series have lived on in the cultural conversation largely because they were authentic reflections of adolescence. They were also a vehicle for highlighting important topics — for instance, Manny’s (Cassie Steele) abortion in Degrassi: The Next Generation is still talked about today, and Santana’s (Naya Rivera) coming-out scene on Glee had a huge impact on many young queer viewers. Not everything needs to be Skins or South of Nowhere, but it would be nice to see more teen shows that aren’t so high-concept.

But we don’t need to reinvent the teen drama wheel for a renaissance to happen. Recent contemporary hits like My Life With the Walter Boys, Never Have I Ever, and All American demonstrate that there’s still an appetite for the kind of stories we fell in love with as teens. At its core, Ginny & Georgia isn’t too wildly different from Gilmore Girls in that both are mother-daughter stories set in small towns. But Ginny & Georgia also knows how to set itself apart and appeal to modern audiences: It centers on a biracial teen girl (Antonia Gentry) and challenges tropes with characters like popular, openly lesbian Max (Sara Waisglass). It isn’t afraid to explore difficult subjects from new angles — for instance, Marcus (Felix Mallard) may be the “bad boy next door,” but he also offers a window into what severe depression can look like in teenage boys.

Another example is the central love triangle in The Summer I Turned Pretty. There’s nothing new about a love triangle with two brothers — but how many times have we gotten to see an Asian girl at the center? How many times has one of those brothers been canonically bisexual? In short, we can take what worked about classic teen dramas and then figure out how to tell those stories in new, exciting ways.

So, where exactly is this “renaissance” supposed to happen? Unfortunately, there isn’t really a clear answer. Streaming has changed the game entirely, in ways that are both good and bad. Although shorter episode counts and long waits in between seasons have been a major downside, fans of the genre haven’t gone anywhere. As Deadline recently noted, Netflix’s viewership data from the first half of 2023 shows that the streamer’s young adult and female-centric content (Ginny & Georgia, XO, Kitty, Outer Banks, Queen Charlotte, Wednesday) has been extremely successful. Additionally, Prime Video has shown a vested interest in building a young adult audience with upcoming releases such as We Were Liars, Cruel Intentions, and Season 2 of Gen V. The days of watching Supergirl and Nancy Drew on The CW may be over, but that doesn’t mean there’s no path forward for the genre — even if the future looks a little different than anticipated.

Kelly Martinez is a TV Reporter based in Los Angeles. Her previous work can be found at BuzzFeed and People Magazine, among other outlets. She enjoys reading, spending time with her cat, and explaining the plot of Riverdale to people.